I have the medal and the t-shirt. Yeah, I did that. Wanna see the pictures? I wasn't able to make up the 9 minutes needed for a top 20 spot, but 21^st place in a field of 130 isn't too bad for me. I gave my all to training for 4+ months (not always to nutrition ... but you've got to have a life) and pushed myself as hard as I ever have in my life. This was one of the hardest things I have ever done, ranking up there with getting through the Arnold Air Society candidate process and recovering from my motorcycle accident to run my first, the Knoxville Marathon, in March 2008. My legs are swollen and I am limping around like an old man. My right knee is twice the size it should be and most movements require an effort, but when I am old, I will be able to say there is a reason why I move slow. The pain will leave quickly and will be forgotten even more quickly, which is only unfortunate, I suppose, if you think pain is something to be avoided. The main point is, whatever it was the has driven me to do this race wasn't totally satisfied by crossing the finish line. I'm not sure what, if anything, can satiate that piece of my personality, so I'll just keep doing whatever blows my hair back. I'm doin' stuff ya'll.

To continue from last time:

As the lights went down following our little celebration, people continued to lay around on the blankets under the trees or to rest in their tents. I sat with a group near the cybertent where an Ipod had been playing throughout the week, but this was the first time that we had been generous enough with our battery-life to play music for the public. I put on the mix I made for Meredith's and my 1 year anniversary, including “7 Days in Sunny June” – Jamiroquai, “Here comes the Sun” - Beatles, “Life Less Ordinary” - Carbon Leaf, and “Dig” - Incubus. This went on for a while until it got dark and we were treated to a small fireworks show by the team of locals that have been supporting our campsites. Little did I know at the time that this show held a second use as rescuing my crazy tentmate, Byron, who had gone for a jog and couldn't find his way back to camp. This is the same crazy guy that brought cigars and liquor He said that he just got bored sitting around and wasn't tired from walking most of the way.

After the fireworks, most everyone went to sleep, but the medics Rick and Andy, and the volunteer Piet invited me to play poker by headlamp and campfire light using different colored matches and corn-nuts for betting. When there were only a handful of us left awake, one of the other volunteers brought out marshmallows! I saw no urgent reason to rest up for the last 10 km, so I taught a German girl how to roast mallows and we all watched shooting stars and satellites. I also arm wrestled Dr. Matt, which was a fun change for his usually austere personality on the course.

The buses left at 9am and drove us into the old part of Kashgar, where we ran 9.5km through alleys and cobblestone streets to the main mosque in downtown. The pink flags marking the course looked funny against all of the sand colored everything. I wonder what the locals thought of us as we ran through their communities. Police men were stationed to bock traffic at major intersections, but one guy actually pointed me in the wrong direction! It only took a couple of seconds to figure that one out. Turning the last corner and seeing the large crowd waiting for me with drums, cameras and pizza was a great feeling, and upon crossing the finish line I was given a medal be the mayor of Kashgar. I couldn't believe it was over. What followed was 4 coke zeros and 9 pieces of cheese pizza, lots of pictures and `congratulations to everyone that crossed the finish line over the next two hours. The last girl to cross the finish line was the Japanese girl named May that had taken just over 24hrs for the 80km day without sleep, so some of us ran out at walked in with here for the last 2km or so.

Later that night, we held an award banquet in the public square near our hotel overlooked by a 30 foot high statue of Mao and about 300 locals watching us eat from outside the barricades. The food was okay, but the beer was unlimited, and my table made a special effort be the obnoxious one, haha. I was happy to have met most of the people that won awards. Later, we watched a slide show of pictures and videos from the event which are available to purchase online. As the Gobi March was my last big hurrah in China, it was fitting that I was able to practice my Mandarin with WeiChao in my tent throughout the week. My “final exam” was just as fitting later that night when I organized a Karaoke party room for about 20 people as the only person that spoke Mandarin. Really fun! And I saw Rob James sing “California Girls.”

I feel so fortunate to have met so many amazing people this week. I have places to stay all over the world! It doesn't matter that at home these people are Investment bankers, CEOs, Hotel owners, or lawyers because I saw them on Stage 3 when they hadn't eaten anything in 48hrs and on Day 6 when we knew the same victory. “Being tired isn't the same as being rich, but most times it's close enough.” - Chuck Palahniuk

Now I'm on a train leaving Kashgar, looking at the desert out the window, and I think that I know this area more than most of the people on this train. I know what that ground feels like under foot and hand. Like what those first nomads found and why they didn't bother staying in certain places.

Thanks again for everyone for giving to the charity. I think that the money will go to a good cause, and next time around, I'll make more of an effort to get the word out. There is still time to donate if you want at www.justgiving.com/dannyclimber

Thanks to everyone that sent me email and blog posts! They made a big difference and was something to look forward to every night!

Thanks to my tentmates and anyone that I met randomly on the route that kept me going. I'm sorry that I don't even know all your names! I'm going through the biographies again and will try to stay in touch with as many people as I can.

See ya next time!

"There were good parts, hard parts, fun times, sad times, and I'm happy to be done now."  - What I said to race founder, Mary, upon crossing the 80km finish line in 12hrs 13min.  The first half was pretty slow and easy, long river beds and some hill climbs.  I tried to take many pictures because I knew that it was the last big day and the scenery was amazing.  On the right were snow capped mountains and blue skys where China borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and on the left were other mountains obsured by clouds and a giant sandstorm that constantly threatened to blow in our path, but luckily didn't.    In the riverbeds, more than in past stages, I was keenly aware of all the different kinds of rocks and actually grabbed a few to take to my geology professor, haha.  Almost all of my food has been eaten, so I didn't mind adding a little bit of weight.
 
My experience with running from Guilin to Yangshuo, 67km, gave me insight to the pure length of time required to finish this kind of event.  Though that only took 7hrs and I was expecting yesterday to take over 14, I knew that the end goes slow for everyone and the person that could sustain in the end will win out.  With this in mind, I didn't push to keep up with the people that I have been racing with on previous days, and I walked and jogged in around the mid 30th place.  This is where people begin to walk the whole way, but with trekking poles and at a pace that keeps me jogging.  It was great to get to talk with new people that I hadn't met yet, and that kept the route interesting.  I can't walk for very long however because I get bored and feel like I'm not getting anywhere.  The biggest respect in the camp goes to those people that walk the whole time and end up in last place because of the mental toughness that it requires to just keep going.  After the 50km mark, there was a checkpoint where people could rest overnight if needed with hot water for a meal, but one girl didn't stop from the 9am start until 6am the following morning.  One person in my tent had to start the long day with less than 4hrs of sleep from not getting in from stage 4 until after 1am. 
 
I did well all until the 50km mark.  At one point for about 1km we even ran on pavement, which felt like pillows!  It was so nice that I was able to jog up a fairly steep and long hill.  With most of these walkers, I would pass during the stage, and then they would catch up as I fixed myself at the checkpoints.  The first checkpoint, I had to lance a blister on the ball of my foot, add asprin cream to my knee and take some pills.  It's not clear now, but overall I took about 2000mg of tylenol and 1200 of IBprofen, haha.  One of the walkers that I was stayng with told me that he was out of food, so I offered an extra Clif bar, which he accepted in exchange for a knee brace.  Calories are becoming a scarce resource because everyone ditched them in the first two days.  I did a good job of rationing though, so will come out of the event with 3 or 4 extra bars and now meals. 
 
After the overnight checkpoint, I caught up with my tentmate Ludvig, who injured himself and my medince was wearing off, so we entered another long riverbed/oceanbed together.  Overall downhill but with with fist sized rocks and ups and downs.  This was the lowest point for me of the whole event.  I was tired, sad, trudging along trying to keep up with Ludvig walking.  My feet could feel every rock pushing into the blistered balls of my feet, my knee hurt, I was getting sunburned, and my vision was starting to blur.  The time was about 9hrs30min and we eventually reached the 6th checkpoint.  I stopped for about 10 min to recoup, and Ludvig went on without me.  My second wind came after all of the walkers passed me and I just got really angry that everything hurt and I wanted it to be done.  I decided that I did't care about the pain anymore and I started to run as fast as I could until I had to stop from heartrate speed rather than pain, and that is how I finished the race.  As I ran faster, the pain in my feet reached a consistence that eventually numbed.  This was different than walking and trying to avoid the rocks, pretty surreal.  In the last 16km I passed 8 people and sprinted across the finish line, drum beating, a great feeling.
 
The camp is situated in a grassy field with thick shade tree that I would never think could grow in the desert.  Music was playing, hot water was ready, and volunteers were milling around, but I had no energy but to open up my sleeping pad and fall asleep until 1 in the morning when I woke up and ate something and sat around the fire. 
 
Today was very relaxing watching people come in, sleeping and eating.  The 20th race celebration ended up being beer and the biggest cake I have ever seen!  Great party and I took lots of pictures with the people that I have met.  Everyone in talking about what race or activiy we are going to participate in next, haha.  The general feeling is that no one wants to experience this pain again, but in a year or so we'll forget about that and only remember the good times and sign up for another.  I'm happy to be able to tell others about Rainier in September.  I've made friends from all over the world. 
 
Right now, I'm in 21st place, but I'm not sure if I can beat the 20th guy by 9 minutes tomorrow to get in the top 20.  I'm going to try, but really just want to enjoy the time in the old city of Kashgar that is said to be renovatedint he nesxt few years.
 
Josh!  You would do really well here!  Tell me when you sign up and I'll ask for leave too! 
 
I'm using the beer ice on my knee which is about 2 times the normal size, but that doesn't matter.  Probably won't take the medal off for a couple of weeks! :)

7hr 2min marathon, and I am really happy to have come in 17/18th place with a guy that I've been chasing since stage 2.  The race organizers said that today would have a comparable difficulty and ending as yesterday, which had everyone nervous, but I found today's course much more enjoyable.  We started by going up to the highest natural stone arch in the world.  I looked at it with my eyes for about 15 seconds and trough my camera for about 10 seconds before going back down the ravene.  It was beautiful though and I feel incredibly fortunate to have seen it.  Looking forward to the pictures.  It was so windy up on the tops of the mountains at times I almost lost my balance!  It's windy here in the camp now too.  As hot as everyone says the desert is...I haven't felt too hot once.  Dryness and the wind keep me from sweating hardly at all.
 
I won't go through every stage but to say that the first helf was mountainous, then downhill riverbed, then get feet wet at 30km then run through 10km of uneven thorn fields, hopping fences and streams.  I got a second wind after the third stage and was able to pass 6 people in the last section, discovered the arm pump power-walk.  This stage proves whet Ive been saying about doing well on te hard bits.  The mountains slowed down a lot of people and my competition is still pretty tight, within an hour for 7 or 8 places.  Anything can happen on the long stage.  Also had reapplied the bengay/anti-inflamitory cream to my knee enough for it to work.  My strategy for tomorrow is to take a lot of pain pills and keep up the arm pump. 
 
It is too cold to keep writing, I'm going to my sleeping bag.

Half way done!  Today was a shorter race, only 38km, but there was a lot of tough terrain and the sore bits are starting to compile.  Came in just under 6hrs, which is still within my arbitrary goal established before I arrived.  32 place today, I think, but the results haven't been posted yet, so I'm not sure.  Is anything going on in the outside world this week?  The dinner tables are always full of chatter about the day's happenings, how the blisters are feeling, where you got lost on the course.  The latest scandel/rumor involves the top guys going off course today and losing about 30min.  They said that the flags had actually been moved to point in a direction up a rock face.  It was really wild.  No one really knows what happened, but the organizers are pretty upset about it.  The rogue chinese runner was the only person that was ahead of the ones that got lost, so some people have their suspicions.  He is an amazing runner, so it is a shame he isn't official.  The word is that he actually declined sponsorship because he just wants to be under his own name.  I went to the media tent to hang out for a while and maybe get some gossip, but the things the competitors talk about isn't necessarily what the staff cares about, haha.  I also talked to them about getting some decent quotes of me for the news bits, haha.
 
Weather today was amazing overcast with a few sprinkles in the morning, I didn't need to drink half of the water that I have the previous days.  The campsite is cold and windy!  So I'm happy to have the down jacket and thicker sleeping bag.  Not too hungry.  Weichao gave me a bag of rice for dinner tonight with some pickled vegetables, haha.  I think it is great how well he can do without any of the fancy equipment that the rest of us are using.  It is like the mountain climbers from the 1950s.  Just being hard.  The outside of my right knee is hurting pretty good, and he made me eat some chinese medicine that tasted terrible, haha.  First was a very bitter powder and then a syrupy alcohal medicine...then I coughed and he gave me some pills, haha. 
 
The first stage was though a village and some cultivated whet fields, running along the edges and up and down some terraces.  There were quite a lot of trees that I had to dodge and go under, kept up a fairly good pace.  The second stage was straight up water and mud.  Stepping through water over my knees, slipped once covering my legs and butt in mud,  almost lost a shoe in the mud, foot came out but was still inside the velcroed gaiter which was weird.  Decided to stop at the second check point and change my socks and shoved a towel in my shoes to get out some of the water.  The tough thing was that I wanted the sun to dry everything out, but none was to be found!  After the second  checkpoint, my knee was really sore, so I had to pretty much walk from that point on.  The course took us along another dried riverbed with cliff walls on each side that slowly narrowed until we climbed out and along a ridge to the third checkpoint.  At this point I had no choice but to walk.  Medical staff at the check did give me IB pills and asparin cream for me knee, for which I'm eternally greatful.  There is a doctor here that flys F-16s in the National Guard!  What allowed me to run for about 10min during the last stage was my music...don't typecaste me...System of a Down - Toxicity, Sugar.  The last 8km was along a gravelish road all uphill.  Really It was all uphill after the second checkpoint, relentless.  This was supposed to be the easy day, plus the good weather, but still gruelling.  One older man passed me walking with trekking poles like I was standing still.
 
Tomorrow is supposed to be all up hill, but I'm excited about seeing the Heaven's gate stone arch! 
 
Marissa!  Tell me about your most recent covert exploits! :)
 
Meredith, omg I want a massage!  My back is so sore.
 
Tom and Christy, someone in my tent heard who he thinks was one of the organizers, talking to who he thinks was a local village person about the cost of pizza!  Kindof hearsay, but exciting!  Most expensive free pizza ever.
 
Jennifer, you are a sweetheart.
 
Love,
Danny

Day two complete, went much slower than yesterday, but I feel much better now than after running yesterday.  29th place today in 5hr48min, and I am around 22nd overall.  Now it is neat to look at who is nearby you overall and see how they did on each day.  The spreads between competitors will continue to widen today and tomorrow, but the 80km day 5 will be a chance to make up a lot of time if anyone is still able to move. :)
 
I learned a new rule last night that we are only given 7.5 liters per day, so when I was a little upset when I finished it all at 8pm and didn't have any for the night.  We are allowed unlimited hot water though so I filled a bottle and cooled it off in a stream.
 
Some people are still coming in now, almost 12 hrs after the start of the race!  I think that would be just as hard because mid-day the temperature reached around 44 degrees!  I got in before it got that hot, thankfully.  I have started to get a few blisters on the outsides of my heels and on the balls of my foot.  The balls from calouses, and the heals from running on slanted dunes formations.
 
The course was really cool again today, with more "up close" things to look at than yesterday, but there were a lot of flat areas.  I'm sure that if you are looking at the hourly updates than you know more about the course than I can remember.  The first 8km was through village and country side, some uphills, and all but the top guys were still pretty close together.  The second 11km went through some really cool banded sandtone formations with undercut wind erosion forming tabletops.  This was up and down hill, so fairly difficult, but that is where I can keep up with the fast guys.  I like the spot where I don't need to feel bad about walking! :)  The 3rd stage was along a plain covered with fist sized rocks.  I started getting pretty down and it was around 2hr30min, but then I put on the headphones and one of the first songs to play was "Highway to Hell."  I sang out loud for most of the time after that and got a lot of energy back and passed 5 people during that stage!  The happiness was short lived however because during the 4th stage I missed the arrows on two occations and ran off course for a total of about 6 min...rookie mistake.  Media people gave me a handheld video camera to play with, which also contributed to my distraction, so look at the video section to see if I'm on, haha.  Some of the stuff might be pretty weird though because I was getting a little loopy toward the end.  Maybe they will edit out my singing. 
 
The final 5km was running through a canyon with sand that would give out under foot, which was really great for going down hill but very hard on the uphill. 
 
Like my usual stategy, most of the course is spent with people passing me.  Maybe tomorrow I'l' start in the back and pass others just for a difference. 
 
Ben...bangers and mash...gayfish. 
 
The desert shirt donated by www.myjourney-asia.com is working great.  So comfortable in the evening and to sleep in.

The first day is over, and I am in the top 20!  Maybe I went too fast because I'm pretty tired now, but I didn't get too hot, and I drank plenty of water and electrolytes.  Have to see how I feel tomorrow, but I think that my time will be slower.  Today I came in 5hrs 20min, which was very slow for 42km in my road training, but the ground had loose rocks throughout all but a few packed dirt roads.  There were several stream crossings that made my feet wet, and I have a few hotspots on the balls of my feet, but I will tape them up well tonight so they will hopefully not develop.  There were not any mountain or long hill climbs that I'm used to from the Great wall marathon, but the scrambles up loose rock takes your energy.  I feel that I am pretty strong on the off-road stuff.  About 100m from the finish, a bunch of small girls in dresses started running with me and I held their hands through the finish line. :)  I hope someone got a picture of that.
 
The night in the hotel was nice on the 12th, and we took a 3hr bus ride out to our first camp where about 200 local Kyrgyk (sp?) people gave us a very warm welcome complete with cultural costumes, dances, drums, and singing.  I have a lot of pictures that will be uploaded after I get back to the real world.  In the morning before the race started they played "Brown Eyed Girl," "Brown Sugar" and other rock music to get us pumped up! A photographer took our starting line picture from the top of a camel for a better vanatge point! 
 
There are 8 other guys in my tent:  (1) Weichao, my friend from yesterday, he came in 3rd place today (2) Ludvig, the only Swedish competitor, he lives in Beijing and we had been sending a few emails back and forth. He came in about 18 min after I did (3) Eric is a former professional American football player, from the US played in Europe, came in first place today (4) John came in eighth place (5) Andrew has climbed Mt Rainier and is a close competitor of mine (6-8) These guys came from HK and decided to have fun by walking the whole event, one of them even brought cigars and a bottle of Scotch whiskey!  It is a very competitive tent, so that is making me feel like I  want to place well, but I can only do as good as I can. 
 
Today after the run, in our new village, we are actually staying in a building with a water tap ... that they are letting us use to clean stuff!  I also sat down in one of the tents and got surrounded by the local kids that wanted my empty water bottle for recycling money.  I tried to talk with them in Mandarin, but they mostly use a form of Arabic.  They did teach me a clapping game and everyone thought it was funny that I was surrounded by about 20 of them!  The official photographer did get some pics of this.
 
My first big mistake was tossing my first pair of sandals for the hotel slippers that just have a rubber sole.  On the first night while walking to the bathroom I kicked a rock and got a thron stuck right throught he sole into my heal!  Not a big deal though compared to some people that wiped out on the course, one guy cutting up his knees and another slicing his hand open!  No one has dropped out yet, but I'm sure it will come, hopefully not me! 
 
I've already used half of my Ipod life within only 2 hours, so maybe I'll be able to find someone with an electric charger.
 
The volunteers are very helpful and encouraging at the water checkpoints and the camp.  I have also met the race organizers who are very friendly.  They said there might be something special on the last night because this is the 20th race that has been sponsored by this company since 2003. 
 
My fingers are just now getting used to the small keyboard on this rugged 7 inch laptop.  It seems to work well.
 
Meredith, I wish that you could come over to help me like you did then, but I don't think that you would want to as it is and will continue to be even less hygenic, haha.  Have you called Sen Woodson yet?  I think you should :)
 
Mona, I will def come to visit you sometime.  Will you be in DC in July?  I might even bring Meredith ...
 
Ben, you are a lazy bugger.  Really, you would love this.
 
Mom and Dad, the medical people are reminding us to drink water about every hour, and today I drank about 8 liters so far with electrolytes added.  The scenery is beautiful, and I'll show you the pictures when I get back!
 
Tom and Cristy, you guys are awesome!  Thanks so much for the message.  You could do this also.
 
Thanks to everyone who has sent me mail, please keep it coming!  I love you all, just in different ways.  You can send email or post comments to the wall and I get it the same way.
 
Don't forget www.justgiving.com/dannyclimber
 
This was too long, but I had to right about yesterday too. :)

June 13^th

 

 

I've arrived in Kashgar, stayed one night in the very nice hotel that they arranged for us.  We have been given a “Passport” that will be marked at each of the checkpoints along the race, and has been used to make sure we have gone through all the health, emergency, mandatory equipment stations.

 

In the Urumuqi airport, I met someone that is staying in my same tent, named Wei Chao.  He is a 24 year old Chinese farmer from Yunnan that is currently ranked as the number one trail runner in China.  Two months ago he raced in the Northface 100km, finishing in under 8 hours!  But he doesn't speak any English, so I have been helping him translate and buy all the mandatory equipment that he didn't know that he needed.  So many things, like a space blanket, he has never even seen before, so he thought that was pretty funny.  We ended up being room-mates and int is great practice for my Chinese!

 

There are people from 20 countries here, those that have climbed Everest and ran across the hardest places in the world!  The average age is 35.8, so I'm among the youngest here, there are only a handful under 26.  Everyone is acting pretty tough now saying that it's not going to be so hard as long as you pace yourself.  “This is the easiest of the 4Deserts races...blah...I've climbed Everest...blah.”  I'm under no delusions.  I will be in pain.  Actually haven't had a chance to talk to anyone about mountaineering too much, but everyone is incredibly friendly.

 

My room is right next to the area where all the mandatory gear was checked, so I just stood by my door checking out everyone's gear, and plenty of people just stared up conversation.  Met a father/son team from New Mexico that have climbed Fuji, Kilimanjaro, Rainier, etc.  The son finished 9^th place in the Sahara race last year.  A woman I met yesterday, Norma, is on her sixth race of what she calls, “The 7 Hardest Ultra-marathons on 7 Continents.”  I also met an American living in Shanghai who just spent last month walking around the Gobi in Mongolia and is bringing a bottle of Scotch whiskey along for the race.

 

I feel like a little kid about to go on a vacation.  When normal vacations don't do it for you...sign up for an ultra-marathon, haha. 

 

Donate to the environmental charity!  http://www.justgiving.com/dannyclimber

Hey All,

First, I'll mention the charity.  The website will stay open all through the race, so keep telling your friends, put it on Twitter and Facebook status! http://www.justgiving.com/dannyclimber

I am really excited and nervous that the race starts in only 3 days! I feel like my training has prepared me as much as I can be prepared and in the famous words of my Yangshuo running mentor “It's all in the head now. No worries!” Easier said than done. I'm sitting in the Chongqing airport on the way to Urumuqi, and this has been a long time coming since I decided to sign up last November. Unfortunately, my Beijing mate that was going accompany be and would have been the youngest competitor ended up being ineligible, the first casualty. Wish you were here with me Thomas L.

This article is about my equipment and thoughts about how things are supposed to work, though I know the only truly prepared ones will be those few who have come before and are crazy enough to come back for more! My basic philosophy is that things will be miserable regardless of what I pack. Furthermore, the two things I've loathed most in training, those things that sapped all will to live, were the heat and the weight of my pack. Since I can't control the weather, I'd better keep things light! It should be noted that things could be much more miserable being cold and hungry, however, so hopefully it won't come to that.

Mandatory Gear

There are other pieces of mandatory stuff that is required for safety and whatnot, but is small and not really worth mentioning.

---- Backpack: Raidlight 30L: I love this backpack! It took some work getting it from Singapore on time, but well worth it. < 0.5kg! http://bit.ly/yug2G (it didn't actually get in my hands until yesterday...oops)

---- Sleeping bag: Vaude Base Camp Ultralight rated to 2 degrees C. I little heavier than I would like but still quite compact and a nice piece. Don't want to get cold

---- Jacket: Vaude, very neat down jacket that compresses into a back about the size of your hand. When you take it out of the bag it just expands.

---- Cap: Outdoor Research Vented with neck guard and draw string for closing around your face.

---- Headlamp: Princeton Tec EOS, the nicest one in the store around 100g 50hrs of light >50m of lighting. A complaint is that the height angling swivel is too loose. During very jostled running down hills, for example, the thing will move around. Very sturdy and powerful light though. If I had more time and access to kit, I'd go with something else. Very sturdy and powerful light though.

---- Whistle: built into a snap on my backpack, real cool.

---- Sunglasses: Another mistake, if I had time I'd have gotten the ones with side covers.

---- Shoes: Asics GEL-Cumulus 10, running not trail shoes. Modified with a strip of velcro sturdily sewn onto the lower rim just above the rubber sole for affixing the gaiters. They were so comfortable when I put them on that I couldn't even put my foot into a trail shoe. I just hope they don't fall apart. During an hour training jog in the rain, these shoes with the Injinji socks held up great and I didn't feel anything.

---- Gaiters: 4Deserts website special. I was advised against these gaiters because if the velcro rips off of the shoes, they are completely worthless. To combat this, I hired the shoe-smith to make two machine seawn strips on the upper edge through the cloth part of the shoe and one strip of thick by-hand stitching through the rubber along the lower edge. 30 rmb for about 3 hours of work. Technically “optional,” but I really don't want to deal with sand or rocks in my shoes. I've been lucky about not getting blisters during training, so want to maintain this trend.

---- Blister Kit: 4Deserts special, but hoping not to need

Clothes

I'm going to be stinky! Same running kit every day, but cool looking with my USA Flag and 4Deserts patches on my sleeves.

---- Running shirt: 2008 Beijing Marathon jersey, based on my training, ended up being the lightest and quickest drying of all my running shirts. It is a short-sleeved t-shirt, but I am used to it, and have developed a pretty good base layer tan on my arms, along with having the SPF70 should be okay. My farmer's tan is going to be amazing!

---- Running shorts: Nike short running shorts, likewise, just what I'm used to.

---- Socks: 2 pair of Injinji toe socks, large. Great during my 4 day try-out. Thick enough padding while still staying in place, and they keep the toes from rubbing together. Based on the course briefing, if one pair gets wet, I can safety pin the other to the outside of my backpack to dry.

---- Rest shirt: One of the favorite pieces of my kit! An authentic desert shirt from Egypt, thin, cheese-cloth-like, long-sleeve, very light weight! If I can't handle the sun or it gets cool I can also wear this to run. Donated by Brett and the kind people at http://www.myjourney-asia.com

---- Rest shorts: nothing special, don't have much basis for choosing shorts over pants. I think the sleeping bag will be warm enough.

Food

The minimum food allowed is 2000 calories per day, and I will stick to that rule pretty closely. In my 4 days of hardcore training 2 weeks ago, I wasn't eating much more than that, and I felt like my body became more efficient (in other words, I just didn't go to the bathroom as much). There is about 10-15 pounds of fat on me that I can burn for energy, so I'm not too worried. If the scientists are right in that running for 5 hrs can burn up over 4000-5000 calories, I might end up losing weight!

Here is a daily intake (plus about 1 liter of water per hour racing I guess 6 hours racing per day)

----Breakfast: 2 packets of Quaker instant oatmeal [140 cal each]

----During the run: 2 Clif Bars [240 cal each], 3 GU gel squeezes [100 cal each], 1 pack Accelerade [100], 2 Nuun tabs, extra salt pills if needed

----After the run: 1 pack Endurox protein/carb recovery drink [200 cal], 1 Clif Bar [240 cal ]

----Dinner: 1 Mountain House freeze dried meal [550]

total = 2150 cal

More to come about “Optional Gear”, training, expectations, hopes and dreams, political affiliations, etc.

Don't forget to send me emails during the race through this website! Click on the “Email a competitor” button. I will need the encouragement and can reply through this blog, though I can't receive them until the event starts.

Big ups to all those who have already sponsored me and donated to the Earthwatch Institute! The website will stay open all through the race, so keep telling your friends, put it on Twitter and Facebook status! http://www.justgiving.com/dannyclimber

Here is the link to my training journal.

http://dannyclimber.com/blog/training-log/

The rest of the blog is a series of articles about my time while studying abroad in China the past 8 months.