It's been more than 24hrs since Gobi March 2019 ended. Feels surreal that it's over, after more than half a year of physical and mental preparation. Yes I survived, I completed, and what I cherish most is the friendships gained and the inspiration I got from all the heroes around me the past week, whether they came in first, last or DNF, they are all heroes.

Special thanks to the race organisers, volunteers and locals who made the event possible for us. You are the force behind the heroes. THANK YOU!

Special shout out to my family and friends who sent me messages and kept me in their prayers, they meant alot to me! When I was at my lowest, the thought of you guys supporting me from wherever you are gave me the strength to press on. Forever grateful to you all. 

Time to rest those tired legs and body and not thinking of running, walking or backpack for some time.

If you're reading this and contemplating to do the race, go do it! Prepare well and enjoy the pain, you will not regret!

Sign off!

Alex Tan, bib 82 

Official race start: Dec 2018 when I signed up and paid 1500 USD

Official race end: 3 Aug 2019

What a ride. Thank you all the organisers, crew, fellow racers, tent mates, locals.... It's been awesome! 

Soaking in a hot tub in the hotel now. Feeling like it's all been a dream, haha! 

THE END IS NEAR!

Stage 5 came and went in a flash. It was the most painful (blisters) and it was so hot (HK friends ask me to say yit dou bao ah!)

Yet it was also the most fun stage, because we had so much fun in the last 8km pretending to be Tang Seng, Monkey, Piggy and Sandy on our journey to collect the scriptures (guess who was i?)

Tonight we had an international (well almost) buffet with sharing of food from Singapore, HK, Japan. It was good! But the real buffet tmr night at the hotel will be much better! And theres gonna be a campfire and local performace tonight.

Cant believe its almost over, just 1 more night, wake up, walk 9km, FINISH! It has been brutal, but amazing at the same time. So many stories to share. I shall enjoy every moment.

Apart from 77km, the day was hot even for a Singaporean! I walked throughout with zhaojie and Team Esquel from HK. We finished this morn at 3am, 19hrs!! After that I realised I hv 2 big blisters, one on each foot. Hope it gets  better today,  a Mexican runner helped me poke a needle n thread to drain the fluid.

Happy moments during the long march, getting cold COKE (yes its not a typo) at chkpt 3. Walking under the stars with zhaojie and Team Esquel with Spotify playing in the background.

On a sad note, Qiwei had to leave the camp today. he got injured at stage 3, n had to pull out at stage 4. Proud of what you have achieved from a non running background buddy, every DNF is a valuable race experience. At least you’re the only Singaporean to get into top 30! Have a good rest and enjoy your travels.

Thanks to all the love n encouragement back home, I hope nobody saw me tearing as I was reading your comments. I will soldier on! Onward to stage 5!

END OF STAGE 3!!

Today was a pretty hard day, we started with a scramble up a rocky hill, then easy for another 15km, followed by THE SAND DUNES!! 10km of sand dunes! That took me almost 3hrs to crawl up the sandy slopes and scramble down the downhills. Overall it was a good day, finished 40km in 8.5hrs. had time to wash clothes at the campsite! J

2^nd highlight of the day. When we were scrambling up the hill, a racer from UK was pretty apprehensive about the climb, because he is afraid of heights. So zhaojie and I guided him and helped him finish the scary segment. Then we started chatting, turns out he’s from London, we talked football, and turns out he’s a SPURS fan! When I told him we are ARSENAL fans, he was “oh no, I was saved by 2 ARSENAL fans!” WAHAHA!! J

NO. 1 HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY

The 10km sand dunes segment was tough and low morale. SPOTIFY to the rescue! Suddenly I had many friends with me, eg Ekin Cheng, Aaron Kwok, Sammi, Beyond…. HAPPINESS!! J

TMR is the big one….THE 77KM LONG MARCH!

Today is a good day, amazing weather and scenery! Who says deserts are hot, Singapore is much hotter!! Today race distance was 36km, the shortest day. Tmr is 45km, I think. Live each day as it comes. Its super windy here, an ipad-like tablet just got blown off the table! Guess what, we made friends with team esquel from hk, they were having pizza on day0 dinner!

Ok gotta go chill out with the singaporean contingent and new friends! Hope to see your replies!