Once again, I want to say thank to all those who have left me blog responses and emails during the race. These give me the motivation to carry on when I'm feeling down.
 
The cybertent was not open last night, so I was unable to send or read any messages when I finished up. Not like it would have made a difference as I was in no condition to do anything after the Long March yesterday. The night before the Long March was probably the worst I've had since being in camp. My body (specifically my leg muscles and joints) were so stiff that it was impossible for me to get comfortable. In addition, my stomach was not doing so hot. The inevitable happened to me that morning. I woke up in the morning with some terrible diarrhea and stomach cramps. The diarrhea has been spreading around camp to both the volunteers and the participants. A really nice English couple in our tent had to pull out of the race in the morning as the woman woke up with horrible diarrhea and vomiting. I woke up and had two loose bowel movements before getting on the bus that took us 2 hrs away to a more remote part of the desert. I wanted to take another bathroom break once they dropped us off at the start line, but I ran out of time as my time was spent taping up my feet.
 
Unfortunately my description of the race will not include any of the beautiful scenery we ran through, which included rolling fields, farmlands and mountain passes as I was unable to appreciate any of this yesterday. The strategy for the race was to keep a good pace for the first half of the race and let it all go in the second half. The first half of the race was pretty miserable for me. I was constantly fighting stomach cramping and the urge of crapping myself. I popped some immodium at the beginning of the race, which helped reduce the abdominal pain. However, every time I had to pass gas, I had to stop running as I thought I was going to crap myself. I had to stop halfway into the 3 segment of the stage and take a bathroom break to relieve the stomach pain. At the halfway mark, I had to pop another immodium as the abdominal pain started to return. Coming into checkpoint 4 (the halfway mark), we were shortly followed by Steve. The big guy is getting stronger and stronger during the race and is a man on a serious mission. We asked him if he wanted us to wait for him but he told us to go on. Shawn and I had to make up some time to make up for the 1 hr penalty, and Steve was accompanied by a English guy who was just ahead of us. We quickly refilled with water and took off for the second half of the race. Shawn and I took off for this portion of the race at a good pace and ended up running the vast majority of it. I don't remember much of the second half of the race except sharp abdomen pain and aching feet. The majority of the second half of the race was through some river beds with large sharp rocks. These rocks are absolutely miserable on the feet. I have a large new blister on my heel which caused additional pain. I had to stop prior to check point seven to relieve myself again and popped another immodium to lessen the abdominal pain. Shawn and I knew once we got to checkpoint 7 we'd be home free and the last 6.5 kms would be a straight sprint to the finish.
 
The last 6.5 kms felt like an eternity. The pain in my stomach and legs was absolutely unbearable. We slowed down once to walk for a brief moment and then continued with a sprint to the finish line. About 2 kms before the finish line I asked Shawn if we could walk for a second to give our legs a rest. He responded by saying, "No way, we're sprinting to the finish line. We have nothing to save it for." I was so angered by his response, I used this negative energy to get me to the finish line. The last 200 meters I felt a blister explode in my right heel, and proceeded to pick up the pace as I wasn't going to let Shawn beat me to the finish line. Shawn was an animal in Stage 5. I wouldn't have finished remotely as well as I did if it hadn't been for him pushing me. We crossed the finish line together at 9 hrs 50 mins, which put us in a tie for 7th place on the day. Once I crossed the finish line, I dropped my bag and collapsed on the ground. You can probably catch this video on the website as the film crew seemed to get a kick out of filming me at my worst (as I wrote that last sentence the last participant just crossed the finish line 27 hrs and 43 mins after the start of the race yesterday). The pain I felt at that moment is up there with my most painful memories (these include: sleepless nights before wrestling weigh-ins where my stomach was eating itself, day 4 of the hike to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro where altitude sickness got the best of me, and collapsing at the finish line of the Chicago marathon after qualifying for the Boston marathon). I laid on the floor near the finish line in cold chills and agonizing stomach pain. 17 mins after crossing the finish line, Steve came passing through with a time of 10 hrs 7 mins. A fantastic finish which put him in 10th place for the stage. He immediately dropped to the ground under a tree (with his bag still on) and fell into an immediate sleep. He was awaken 15 mins later by the volunteer staff and urged to take his bag off. He said he was already dreaming by that point.
 
Once the 3 of us were able to muster up enough energy, we made it to our tents and crawled up in balls in our sleeping bags. We were all completely nauseous and our appetite was non-existent. The idea of eating another freeze dried meal made me ill. I laid in my sleeping bag for 2 hrs with cold shivers and horrible abdominal pain. I then got up, had another loose bowel, and went to the medical tent as I knew something was not right. I felt like I was burning up, my stomach was rotten, and it was painful to swallow. The doctor examined me and concluded that I had bacterial tonsillitis and caught the diarrhea that was going around camp. I was also running a fever. He advised me that I could take some antibiotics to treat the diarrhea or the tonsillitis, but I couldn't take both. We agreed to treat the diarrhea first and then treat the tonsillitis if the diarrhea subsided. I took the diarrhea antibiotic and 2 panadols to the reduce the fever caused by the tonsillitis, and headed back to my tent to get some rest. My fever finally broke in the middle of the night and my appetite slowly returned. At that point, I woke up, ate a freeze dried meal, greeted some runners who continued to cross the finish line through the middle of the night, and returned to my tent. I woke up this morning and felt significantly better. My diarrhea seems to have subsided, however, my throat still feels like it has large walnuts in it. I hope to get some drugs tonight to treat the tonsillitis. 
 
There are some seriously broken people at camp today and I really think I got off easy. Blistered feet and scarred backs (from carrying backpacks) seem to be the most common injuries. My spirits are high today and I look forward to a sprint to the finish line tomorrow. In lieu of the 1 hr penalty, I have to make up 3 mins on the guy in front of me to finish in 7th place.     
 
Hope everyone is well and I look forward to personally sharing this experience with all of you.
 
Cheers,
Pat

I will start each one of these blog sessions by saying thank you so much for the emails and blog comments. I cannot explain how much inspiration these messages provide.
 
Well, well, where to start....  Nothing much to report last night except plenty of sheep and goats circling the tent followed by a camel that wouldn't shut up. I'm not sure if any of you have ever heard a camel holler (or whatever a camel does), but my imagination says it sounds a lot like a dying moose. As you can tell, I have a lot of time to ponder here in the desert.
 
I woke up this morning at 7am, after getting a better night's sleep than last night. I folded my sleeping mat in half, so it actually provided some cushion on the hard, rocky floor of camp. I did my usual routine of draining the blisters on my feet and taping them up for the days run. My feet have actually been holding up quite well relative to others. Many of the people in my tent of 9 have had to drill their toe nails due to blisters that form underneath. I'm actually told this is a lot less painful than it sounds. Following my foot treatment I get my bag together for the day and then smash some granola with blueberries. My hunger here is endless, and I was super psyched when one person in the tent next to me gave me a pepperoni stick that he didn't want. I thought about that pepperoni stick every step of Stage 4.
 
If I could summarize Stage 4 in one word, it would be PAINFUL!!! Physiologically speaking, I actually felt really good today, with no real aches and pains. Today's stage was extremely difficult with a total climb of 1,175 meters and a total descent of 1,568 meters. The course consisted of 7 mountain climbs and descents, including a climb to Heaven's gate, which provided one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. To be fair, all of today's course included fantastic views of wide open plains and snow capped mountains. Unfortunately I wasn't able to fully appreciate the views as much as I would have liked. The lack of oxygen at high altitude created a lot of fatigue. Every time we stopped at the top of a climb I took the opportunity to suck in as much air as possible. In addition, the ridges we ran on after reaching the top of each climb were so narrow that you had to watch your step all the time. The passes were basically goat or sheep trails with extremely steep slopes at each side. One loose foot could result in a very long fall. The wind was another issue on top of these ridges. When you are up at that altitude, there are no mountain ridges to protect you from the wind, and you find yourself blown all over the place. To some extent, this was kind of blessing as it disguised the ridiculously strong sun.
 
I was really looking forward to today's stage as I knew it included a lot of climbing. Shawn and I were confident that our training in the blue mountains would prepare us for this type of running. I knew this would provide a good opportunity to make up some time after our hour penalty. We took to the mountains at a solid pace and sprinted the downhills. The climb and descents were followed by a descent through a long valley that seemed endless. I would describe this terrain as sand with a lot of rocks in it. It is extremely painful on the feet as your feet tend to slide all over the place. I picked up a few nice blisters on my feet from this terrain, and even had to stop once to sort out my pinky toe. Shawn and I finished together with a solid performance of 6 hrs, or 7th and 8th place. After Stage 3 yesterday, I'm officially in 12th place. Unofficially (i.e. without the 1hr time penalty for not running as a team), I'm in 8th place. Today was the day when the field started to become a bit sparse as injuries, fatigue, and general 'I'm over this' began to set in. Shortly after checkpoint 3 I started to develop a pain in my pinky toe and stopped to retape it. At  that time, we saw someone coming up behind us in the distance. Shawn and I assumed it was an American named Jon who typically finishes right after us. For a moment, we thought it may have been Steve, but we quickly looked at each other and said "Nah, no way." I put my pack on and tried to create some more distance b/w us and the person behind us we thought was Jon. 5 minutes after crossing the finish line, Steve came rushing through finishing in 6 hrs 5 mins, which put him in 9th place!!! An absolute great finish for the big guy. We sat around munching some snacks after the race and at least 5 people came up to him to congratulate him on powering past them during the race. Apparently he absolutely smashed the downhills. A great day for Team Kuma!!!
 
Tonight's camp is in a beautiful spot in a green valley with large mountains in the background. The obligatory cows and camels surround the campsite as well. I'm absolutely sick of seeing cow, camel, sheep and goat feces.
 
Tomorrow we are going to be loaded on to a bus to a more remote spot in the Gobi for the Long March or Stage 5, which will include an 80km run. I'm really looking forward to getting this stage over and done with. Once tomorrow is over, we have a day of rest (assuming I finish early enough) followed by a 10 km run into the city of Kashgar. Bring it on!!!! After that, I'm eating pizza for a week straight. That is unless my flatmate Connie wants to prepare a large lasagna dinner (Conns - I've been dreaming about that every nigh!!).
 
Hope everyone is doing well.
 
Sincerely,
Pat

A special thanks to all those people who have responded to my blogs and sent me direct emails. I can't explain how uplifting it is to read your messages. Not to mention, it gives me something to look forward to and fills the 8 hour void between arriving at camp and bedtime.
 
I wish I had some exciting news from camp last night, but things were pretty uneventful. Last night we camped in a hay field, which was actually pretty soft relative to tonight's camp. It's actually quite boring arriving in camp earlier than the rest of the participants. I generally collapse on the floor of my tent and devour my protein bar, my special snack (which includes either cheese crackers or chips ahoy). I follow that up with a package of ramen noodles. Post this comes the long wait to dinner time. I have two soups that provide minimal calories until the main meal. I find that I can't get enough food and hang around the older woman in camp wearing puppy dog eyes and my spork handy.
 
Last night's sleep was not a particularly good one. I maybe slept for 5 or 6 hours. The soreness of my legs and back keeps me from finding a comfortable spot to sleep in. In addition, someone was emitting a smell that made me want to vomit all night long!!! I woke up this morning with some bags under my eyes, ate my granola with blueberries, packed my bags and was ready to go. Today's race was one of the more difficult stages in the Gobi March, with a climb of 900 meters. The weather today was absolutely fantastic.  Windy, overcast and a few drops of rain. Segments 1 and 2 were relatively easy and included a long run through a village, some farmlands (we actually got chased down a trail by some sheep), and a few ravines.  The ravines were probably the most challenging of all the terrains.  Due to the fact that the sun wasn't there to dry up all the moisture, there was a lot of water on the course. The ravines were generally sandy,  and muddy. Sometimes this was difficult to avoid. First you jump in the mud and water and then you would run through some sand.  The mix of sand, water and mud attaches to your gaiters and then creates cement boots. Very challenging. The second two segments included more of the ascent. 3 kms into the race, we came through a dry canyon and we couldn't find a marking flag. Finally we spotted one up on a cliff.  We climbed halfway up the cliff and spotted another flag on top of it. We got to the next flag and could spot another flag for miles.  At this point there were about 9 or 10 of us looking for the flags, covering a circumference of at least 1 or 2kms. After wasting 30 mins of searching for the flag and cursing racingtheplanet, we spotted a flag at the bottom of the canyon. It would appear as though someone sabotaged this segment by moving the flags. We are not entirely sure what happened and there are all sort of allegations. I was extremely pissed off after this, and used this energy to push me through the last two stages. The feeling was similar to that of when I used to wrestle and someone would hit me in the nose. My eyes used to well up and I'd try to choke the guy out. I can remember a wrestling match in high school were a guy purposely drove his hand right into my nose causing my nose to explode in blood. I shoved some gauze up my nose and was ready to kill. I wrestled him to ground and gave him a cross face that might have broken his nose if it got in the way. I then rolled him onto his back and suffocated him with his own arm. The referee called a pin and I rose from the mat to get my hand raised. It was at that point that I noticed he was out cold on the mat.  I walked off the mat and my coach glared at me and asked "What the hell did you do?" I snapped back at him as I walked out of the gymnasium, "He hit me in the nose!" A long diatribe I know, but this memory was the motivation I used to push me through segment 4. After checkpoint 3 I took off from the group and cruised to an 8th finish in 5 hrs 11 mins. Shawn finished 8 mins behind me with a 9th place finish. I'm a bit disappointed as the 1 hr penalty we incurred on day 1 put me into 17th place after stage 2. If it wasn't for that, Shawn and I would have been tied for 9th place.
 
Tonight's camp is at 2,500 meters, and tomorrow we climb up to 3,800 meters to hells gate.  Should be fun!!!
 
Okay, off to fight the hunger pains and do some stretching. Hope everyone is well....
 
Sincerely,
Pat

Hello everybody, a special thanks to those encouraging messages I received - thank you so much!!! So, I will provide a short update from the time I wrote my last blog to the present. Last night was really enjoyable.  The village people were so nice and they entertained us with some song and dance. I think you can actually view the video on the racingtheplanet website, and you might catch me cutting a rug with a couple youngsters. 
 
A couple of participants were suffering last night.  In particular, one German woman tossed all over the entrance to our sleeping hall.They hooked her up to a couple IV's and she raced today.  However, I haven't seen here come through the finish line yet today which means she might have pulled out. Most people complain of a lack of appetite, cramping, and headaches. There is also some diarrhea spreading around the camp (knock on wood, I've manage to avoid it so far). I've actually been handling the conditions really well so far. I have had a voracious appetite since I've arrived, and have actually been finding that the 9 liters of water we've been allotted each day hasn't been enough for me. Most people have been having a really hard time getting down the 1.5 liters in between checkpoints. I find this is actually not enough liquid and I run out prior to getting to the checkpoint.
 
The participants of this race include some really interesting people. Two people stick out in my mind as being absolutely incredible (or insane depending on who you are). One Canadian woman is doing 7 ultramarathons on 7 continents in 6 months. The Gobi March her sixth of these races.  She is a single mother of two children and probably in her early to mid forties. I also met an English girl (in her mid to late twenties) who has done 4 of these extreme races in the last 12 months, including the marathon des sables and the yukon trail race (for those of you unfamiliar with this race, it is very similar to the Iditarod (sp??) and participants take a dog sled 300 miles in 7 days).
 
The big story around the camp is about this Chinese guy who couldn't afford to pay the entrance fee to this race. I'm told he is a 23 farmer from rural China.  He is an unofficial participant.  He has a mate who takes a motorcycle to each checkpoint to give him water, and carries a backpack just like everyone else. He won stage 1 by finishing 30 mins ahead of the first official competitor.  Today he finished 2 mins ahead of the first official competitor. Fantastic!!!
 
I slept absolutely amazing last night on the cement floor of the hall we stayed in. However, I woke up this morning with some serious stiffness in my knees. My left knee looked like it had an egg growing out of the side of it. I think sleeping on my side on the hard cement must have triggered something in that area. When the race started, I was limited to a one-legged hobble as my knee was killing me.  I was really suffering try to keep up with Shawn during the first segment of the race. At first, I thought it may have been my IT band as it really hurt to bend my leg, and walking was painless. I quickly popped some nurofen and hoped that if I ran stiff legged, the pain would eventually let up until my legs went numb from the mileage. As every long distance runner knows, there is a point where your legs go numb and you can't distinguish between the different pains you feel in your body. I prayed that this point would occur sooner rather than later.  As it turns out, the pain in my knee started to disappear shortly after the first checkpoint, and I was ready to go.  I felt great today once the pain subsided.  The plan today was to go as hard as we could early on before the sun started to get really strong. Our plan succeeded!! We booked it through segments 2 and 3, at which point the sun started to get really strong. Despite the factor 30 I was wearing, I could still smell my skin burning. Segment 4 was the most challenging of the 4. We followed a long winding road uphill until we veered off the road and up to the top of a large mountain of sand. The descent took us through an incredibly dry canyon, where we climbed up and down dunes to today's campsite. Once we saw the campsite, it was a sprint to the finish between Shawn and I.  He wasn't going to let me win and I wasn't going to let him. We ended up finishing with the same time coming in at 8th and 9th place at 4 hrs and 52 mins, 20 mins faster than our time yesterday. One of the volunteer staff told us that today's track was the most challenging terrain of all the stages. We were incredibly happy with this time and I feel a million times better than I did after yesterday's race. Confidence is extremely high at the moment. The third member of Team Kuma, Steve Kodish, had a great day finished only 20 or 30 mins after we did. A fantastic day for team Kuma.
 
Today was a particularly tough day for most competitors. Apparently a couple of people have already pulled out during the race. I imagine there will be some additional sick people at the campsite as the sun was really strong today. However, spirits are high among those people who are not suffering.
 
Alright, off to stretch and prepare my feast of roast chicken with mashed potatoes!! Hope everyone is doing well.....
 
Sincerely,
Pat

Before I begin this posting, please forgive my spelling mistakes. The keyboards they have provided us are made for people with miniature fingers (that sentence just took me 5 mins to write). Well, I finally arrived in Beijing after a day and a half of traveling. I'm still suffering from some jetlag, but not as bad as yesterday.  Yesterday afternoon we departed Kashgar (after a crazy day of equipment checks, medical checks, and a lecture on blister prevention) for our first night's campsite. They loaded all 120 something of us on buses and drove us 3 hours to some remote region in the Gobi desert. The group of competitors are an extremely interesting breed of people, with over 20 countries represented. The patches of our country of citizenship that we are required to wear are completely misleading as I've only met 2 people (Canadians) who actually reside in the country they are representing. Most competitors I've met are expats located some where in Asia or the UK; however, that is a gross misrepresentation as I have only met a small portion of the competitors. 
 
Upon arrival into our first campsite, the people of this region (forgive me as I couldn't repeat the name of the prefecture - I can't even pronounce it) provided us with a welcome speech, followed by entertainment, which included some singers and dancers and a horse race. The support for this race is amazing, there must have been over 100 locals at the event. This was followed by a large meal which included spaghetti and meatballs. Afterwards, we were left to mingle and get ready for day one of the race. Sleeping last night was a large obstacle for me and many others. The reasons are as follows: 1) this land is so incredibly rocky that unless you carried a hammock in your backpack, it is extremely difficult to get comfortable, and 2) due to the fact that the government requires all of China to be on Beijing time, it doesn't get dark in the Gobi desert until after 11 pm (we are a 5.5 hour flight from Beijing). Thankfully, I managed to get c. 6 hours of sleep last night (with the help of some Advil PM).
 
We woke up this morning at 7am, with a feeling of excitement in the air. It seemed everyone was so excited to get day 1 of this 7 day running / torture festival underway. I started my morning by slamming some spaghetti and meatballs and washing it down with some hot cocoa. The race began at 9am (not sure why they pushed the time out from 8am, not a great move in my mind as it cooler earlier on), and we came out of the gates full of piss and vinegar. The first 10 kms where actually quite enjoyable as we ran through valleys and creeks with snow covered mountain peaks in the background. The enjoyment ended halfway through the second 10 kms as the heat picked up and we were no longer protected by the shade of the mountains. Prior to the start of the race, we had discussed entering the race as individuals as Steve's training has been limited due to the uncertainty around his situation in Tokyo (as I wrote that last sentence, a flock of goats just ran through the middle of the Kyrgyz village we are staying in - the 3 small children peering over my should are not phased, they are more fascinated by the concept of me typing on a computer - AMAZING....). In the end, we decided to start as a team and see what happens. It became apparent after the second checkpoint that Steve was unable to keep up with the pace that Shawn and I maintained. In running, unlike most sports, it is a big disadvantage to be 6 foot 2 inches, and weigh over 200 pounds. As such, we decided to split up the team, and Shawn and I ran ahead. We will receive a 1 hr penalty as a result of this. We are not bothered as none of us expected to win this race and this way, we can all run at our respective speeds.
 
What can I say about the second half of the race? Hmmmm... I will describe it as running in a sauna for 3 hours, but replace the smooth surface of a treadmill with sharp rocks jutting out of the ground. Despite the harsh conditions, we managed to finish the 41.1 kms (25.7 miles) in 5 hrs and 13 mins, which put Shawn and I somewhere around 12th and 13th place (excluding the 1 hr penalty). Steve finished strong with about 40 mins or so behind us. Not a bad showing for Team Kuma.
 
Now we play the game of trying to get our bodies to recover for another session in the sun tomorrow. I was absolutely ravenous when I finished and immediately slammed a bag of crisps, a protein bar and a packet of ramen noodles. I think tonight's course will include some dehydrated lamb fettuccine, and some miso and chicken noodle soup.  Now I'm off to relieve my bowels of whatever is causing this horrible gas, stretch and soak my feet in a drainage river next to the main road in the village we are staying in. I'm looking forward to tonight's sleep in a hall of a small building the village. I'll take a cement floor over the rock bed I slept on last night.
 
Hope everyone is well!! Brian and Cana, thank you for the messages!!!
 
Sincerely,
Pat