Zeinab and I were beyond excited to have completed the Long March, and feeling strong after a night of sleep on the floor of a dry gymnasium (no rocks in our backs!)

The team ate breakfast together, and then Hasina gave us a hug for good luck. Her ankle was still swollen and bruised. She took a second trip to the medical tent during the day, and they told her to get an x-ray when she returned home to Afghanistan. She met Luba, a volunteer from Russia, and got to practice her Russian for the day with her.

The course was incredibly beautiful today- following a stream up a mountain into a forest.

Yesterday was the

Day two was mostly dirt tracks and rolling hills with wide plains in between. The landscape is absolutely stunning, the first half of the day passed relatively quickly. But, as blister pain started kicking in on the 49km day, the team slowed down. They kept moving, but barely making cutoffs. We had to make it to camp by 8 PM, and by 7:30 PM with no camp in sight we started getting nervous. We started jogging and constantly checking the clock. Finally, with 4 minutes to spare we could see the red finish line banner. It was, quite literally, a race to the finish that ended with Hasina and Zeinab collapsing in tears.

Day three started off well, with a massive mountain climbing section that we all loved- felt like home in Afghanistan to be scrabbling amongst rocks again. A quick downhill jaunt afterwards and we were through checkpoint 1. We played a game of jogging between pink flags to keep ourselves distracted from the mounting pain in our feet, and before we knew it we had reached checkpoint two. Next stop, the sand dunes! Hasina was having some trouble with her right leg, so we fashioned a walking stick that made her resemble Gandalf from Lord of the Rings with her white hat on. The sand dunes were massive fun, because we

The day started at 5:30 after a not so good night of sleep for everyone but Hasina. Hasina can sleep anywhere- bumpy bus, cramped airplane seat, corner of the airport you name it. After packing up, we ate a breakfast of bread and apples. Last real food that made the trip with us to camp from the city.

Nerves were high as everyone lined up to run, and there were some doubts about how we would run with 9kg bags, but as the pack started moving all fears disappeared. Checkpoint one came and went quickly as adrenaline kept us moving. A quick water refill and we were off.

Spirits ran high until a few kilometers before Checkpoint 3. Hill after hill we kept looking, but we couldn

Counting down single digit days until Hasina, Zeinab, and I leave for the Gobi March 250km ultra is making me nostalgic for those early days of running with these two.

Days when we didn