We did it!  99km in 25 hours 40 mins.  When we started at 8am  yesterday, we werent sure if we can finish this distance.  We have never trained beyond 42km in our entire lives. In fact Chao Choon tore his hamstring and Cat's achilles tendon injuries came back 2 weeks before the race when we tried walking all night and have to give up at 40km.  So we were worried whether our bodies can take 99km, let alone walking for 24 hours without sleeping.  We were also worried about the weather, especially after what happened on the Flaming Mountain the day before.  One competitor was sent to hospital in Urumqi ICU for heat stroke. The temperature reached 50 degree Celcius.
 
The 99km route took us from Flaming Mountain down to a meandering stream/river bed, getting our feet wet and muddy with the multiple stream crossings.  The streams were very fast, like those in the past few days. We were glad that we brought along our walking poles, without which we may have lost our footings and got a couple of unplanned bathes. 
 
We then walk through vineyards and across the Turpan Town.  Numerous kids and many towns folks were out in force along the street - kids in groups of 3 and 5, or family groups sitting in their day bed outside their house - to cheer us on, say hello, gives high-fives and even to offer us drinks or hami melon.  Very warm and friendly people, totally spontaneous.  Gave all of us a great morale boost, after 4 grinding days of walking and running.   We stopped countless times to take pictures with or of kids and families, showing them the pictures on the camera screen, and see their faces lit up.  One of the old men even wanted us to "give" him a photo from the camera - he cannot understand why he can see the picture but cannot have it. Its not every day the town have foreigners passing through. For many of them, this may be the first time that they meet "lao wai" in close quarters, and a few Chinese looking people dressing in funny desert get up.   But it does remind us how we lose the simple pleasures and friendliness in the name of economic progress.
 
The route through the town was 10km, we then spend the next 40km walking through mud and salt flats. This is the second lowest point on Earth - 100m below sea level.  It was a lake (much bigger in size than Singapore), but the water was apparently drained out into the ground when a mineral miner drilled wrongly into the salt stratum below.  The villagers by the lake lost their livelihood, moved out, and the place is now being dug up into ponds to mine the salt underneath - very harsh and ugly landscape, crater pools and mud piles every where. Of course, this is one of the hottest place on Earth as the temperature rises x degree (sorry, Jon should know...) for every 100m below sea level.  We were lucky that the sky was overcast until we were in our last 10km.  It became very unbearable once the sun is up - and the sun doesn’t set until after 10pm......A few competitors went down with heat exhaustion soon after the sun came out.
 
It was about 10pm when we get to the last checkpoint before we head out of the flats - that’s 65km in and 14 hours of non-stop walking.  To keep the momentum going, we had not stopped at checkpoints other than half an hour to dress the blister wounds, and periodic picture-taking, stretch breaks and water refills.  We were tired at this point but still in high spirits - we only have 34km to go - 3 rounds around the MacRitchie Reservoir, our usual training distance. 
 
We now walk in the dark, and was another 10km before we get to the rest station.  This is where there will be hot water for us to "cook" our freeze dry meals.  Until then, for 16 hours, we have subsisted on energy gels, bars, apple rings, cheese, salt tablets and electrolyte drinks.  The rest station is also where there are tents put up and we are given the option to sleep and continue the next morning. Of course the race timing continues while we sleep.  By the time we get to the rest station just before 2am, Cat had been suffering with blisters for 14 hours. It had became excruciatingly painful, and it is through sheer will power that she pushed herself to the 75km mark. It was becoming impossible for her to continue.  4 toe nails are blistered (can get discount on pedicure for a while as these will drop off) and have to be drained, there are also blisters on the balls of both feet and heels.  Chao Choon, on the other hand, had no blisters because he used them all up during his NS days.  But Chao Choon's hamstring is protesting and he is also hobbling.  Then we found the magic pills from the race doctor at the rest station.  4 little pills later, Cat is walking with only tingling pain on her feet.  We decided to soldier on.  We also decided that sleeping is not the best strategy as it would mean that we will walk more in the sun the next day.
 
The last 23 km included a hot and tough 5km on soft sand dunes. Never ending sand dunes. Up and down.  Feet sinking into the soft sand.  Sand getting through the ill-fitted gaiters into the shoes.  And we were dead tired from the 24 hour walk, and very sleepy too.  But the finishing line push us along.  Many of us later complained about the sand dunes. It was too tough to be put at the end of a 99km day. We only had a little bit of sun as we finished by 9.30 am, and were number 70+ out of a remaining field of about 140. The last competitor came in past 6pm - that means most of the rest who didn’t quit had to struggle through the dunes and 50+ degree heat.  
 
We also complained about the camp site, which for today, is set on the dunes.  We hid under the tent all afternoon to stay away from the sun.  We had to place wet tower on our body and head, and to drink water and take salt tablets to keep ourselves cool through the afternoon sun.  And we couldn’t catch up on our much needed sleep.....
 
Both of us are very proud of our achievement on the Long Day - not only had we walked continuously for 99km over 24hours, we have also done it in a sensibly and conservatively.  We started the day wanting to know if our bodies can do it - and we got a resounding "yes" answer.
 
Just one more night now in a crowded tent of 9 people, one more freeze-dried dinner (still one more breakfast tomorrow),  and one more time to pack our backpacks!   Race flags off at 9am tomorrow morning and should finish around 11am.  Last competitor should finish by 12pm and them we have a 3 to 4hr bus ride back to the hotel in Urumqi.  We are looking forward to getting back to the Hotel for a bath and hairwash, good food and a proper toilet!!
 
It was fantastic to receive messages from Jonathan, Jessica Nicole and you all
 
Signing off from the Gobi desert from the last time... See you all soon.
 

Day 4 - 36k in the oven....this is the hottest day yet.  We are now truely in the desert climate now - as we ended the day at Flaming Mountains.  We are now sorry we complained about the cold the first 2 days....

 

Its 5.30pm, and it is still blazing hot even though we are sitting in the shade, tying this and watching other competitors roll in. Sweat is literally dripping off Chao Choon's body. Almost every male is topless - much to Cat's delight - there are quite a few bodies to die for......

 

The race doctors have been kept busy today - after 3 days of dealing with nothing more than blisters and scrapes.  They had to hike up the mountain (in the blazing heat) to help some competitors who were struggling in the heat - with IV drip.  We are all allowed 2 IV drips before we may be withdrawn from the race (we dont intend to use any of our IV drip quota, mum, so not to worry).  David - how about volunteering as race doctor?

 

As we type the second last competitor just came in. And 5 volunteers got summoned to go back out in heat to carry the last competitor back on a stretcher, with a camel......

 

Today's race started very early, at 6am, to avoid some of the heat. The 2 of us finished at almost 2pm, and were really exhuasted after spending the last 4 hours of the race today pushing ourselves through 14km of sand dunes - never-ending sand dunes and wind blasted sand mountains as far as the eyes can see. Its a mix of soft and hardened sand, and therefore created some very interesing formation, and make fantastic photos.  The soft sand also feels like powered snow as we slide-skid-ski-ran down some of the dunes. Great fun!  We also enjoyed running down the sandy mountain trail for the last few kms towards the campsite - more to get out of the searing heat than to improve our position in the race (btw, a Singaporean female is currently leading the female contingent by 40mins - who would have thought of that!).  But of course we were all covered with red dust at the end of the day.  Luckily we each took an extra bottle of water, and avoided dehydration.

 

After subjecting ourselves as guinea pigs for 4 nights, we are now an expert on freeze dry food now....But nothing beats Myojo - specially chosen for its high salt content and energy value per gram of weight. Instant miso soup was also a good choice - salty and soupy - esp when the weather was cold!  Last night we had beef stew - with lots of water, to make it like a soup. It's got beef cubes, real peas, diced potatoes and carrots - all to satisfy CC's craving for vegies :-) Tonight we're having Lasagne again - the rehydrated cheese is soul food, for energy and taste. CC swears its good enough to serve at home.  And on the move, CC swears by apple rings and pamesan cheese - the cheese makes the mouth comes alive with taste, yummy! Yesterday was the first time we actually felt hungry - and had bak-kwa and miso for night snacks.  This is a good sign - means that our body is alive and not shut down.  Unfortunately, we had to throw out some excess freeze dry food, which was a shame - but the alternative was to carry it across the desert in our packs!.  Still getting only 2 to 3 hours sleep a night so we desperately need our cups of coffee in the morning to get started.  Chao Choon has confirmed that he HATES instant coffee, even in the wilderness.  Too bad, couldn't fit the Nespresso machine in the pack.

 

Physically, we are ok but our feet are feeling the wear and tear of the last 4 days.  Looks like Catherine's going to lose a couple of toe-nails tomorrow.  CC dont have that worry as he doesnt have any to start with :-)

 

Tomorrow is the Big Day - 99km in the oven.  We have two days to finish it, we think - well, we start 6am Thursday, and need to be back sometime on Friday night (ned to be back in time for the last 20km on Saturday, the last day).  Luckily, only sand dunes in last 5-6 km of the 99km.  Rest of the course is relatively flat - across field and salt flats.  We dont know how long we are going to take - and whether we will catch a couple of hours of shut eye or not.  If we chug along at just under 4kmph including rest stops (which is the effective speed we hope to achieve), it will take us over 24hours without sleeping.....The good news is that the moon is almost full - that will make fumbling about at night easier, and maybe we dont have to rely so much on our headlamps.  There are 10 check-points tomorrow, about 10-12km apart.  We'll just take each one as they come along.  This is really a big step into the realm of  the unknown for our bodies.  Cat says that she has never even stay awake for that length of time, lack alone walking through the desert.   

 

Thanks everyone for your well wishes and comments.  We will be still racing tomorrow night and wont be blogging of course. The next time we come on line will be onFriday night - if we are not asleep then.  Otherwise, we will be back on the mobile phones and emails from Saturday evening.

 

Jessica - never mind about the competition results. You did your best, you had fun, and we enjoyed watching your taped performance.  Hopefully we can be at your school performance so that we can watch it live. Tell the boys we are still waiting to hear from them!!! Jon or A Marietta can call Uncle Simon to make a haircut appointment.  Mum, hope you had a good flight to Singapore.  Steve, take care n see u back in Singapore.

 

Off to dinner now...

 

Hiya from the Turpan Basin.  We're sitting in a tiny village where the locals have given up some of their rooms for us to stay.  So no tents tonight!   Which reminds me, last night it rained!!!  Luckily the tent didn't leak.  We started the day with 10km criss-crossing a stream 6 or 7 times.  The water was absolutely freezing cold and very fast moving.  It almost ripped my leg off every time I tried to take a step.  Water came up to my knees.  Of course water-logged shoes after that for a while. Second  and third stages were fairly flat along sandy tracks with a few km of sand dunes thrown in just to remind us that we are in Gobi.  Weather was great today - cool and overcast, threatening to rain.  We finally got to do some running which was nice, ran most of stages 2 and 3. We really enjoyed ourselves today, but of course we are really tired.  Still not sleeping much at night.  Our feet and injuries are still holding up.  1 more day till the BIG ONE.  the scenery today was very different from the first two. From Alphine and mountains, we started with river bed, and then moved onto sand and more sand - majestic wind eroded sand structure, rolling sand dunes.  Took lots of photos, but not sure if they will do the scenery justice.  This scenery is definitely off the beaten track, completely natural and very little signs of human intervention (save the power and telephone lines, and the dust track). I guess you can see some photos posted on the website by now.  Highlight of the day is the stream at our village which has clean, cool flowing water.  We got to wash our filthy socks n clothes - and of course ourselves!  First wash in 3 days! 
 
We just heard that we have to get up at 3am tomorrow, get our breakfast (ie add hot water to freeze-dried food and coffee powder) and get on a bus at 3.45am for a 2hr drive to flag off point, which will be at 6am  They're trying to get an early start before sun starts scorching.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a hot one.
 
Thanks to everyone for your email and blogs - really appreciate your encouragement. 
 
Jessica - thanks for the email. It is so nice to hear from you, and good luck on the xiang sen results.   The other kids are still on radio silence mode.....
 
Signing out till tomorrow's update!

Hi all,  Day 2 conquered!!  Thanks for all you emails and blogs  Really appreciate all your encouragement  We were so glad to receive some mail today.  Yes Steve, didn't get anything yesterday but a few came through today. But no news from 4 kids at home...must be having a good time without parental control  Hope to receive something from you all tomorrow!  Today was pretty good - much more pleasant than yesterday's mountains!  Some smaller hills n more gorgeous scenery.  Temperature is getting warmer - we're now camping near to the Flaming Mountain and we can feel the heat radiating from the mountains all around us.  Expect to see the Monkey God any minute.  It's breathtakingly beautiful here, nothing like what we expected of a desert. No sand yet but we are told we'll be running in deep sand for 22km on the last day.  Something to look forward to - maybe not!  So far have been run/walking on trails, rocky river beds n a short but very cooling river crossing (only ankle deep!)  We have not been able to sleep much every night cos it's been soooo cold!  Have been tolerating the freeze-dried food but the 'toilets' are totally disgusting.  Best to try to do it out on the trails before we get back to camp!  We have met lots of nice, interesting n some crazy people - some amazingly fit ultra-athletes.  So far our feet are holding out as well as can be expected although Cat pulled a tendon behind her right knee.  Chao Choon's hamstring is holding up - probably helped by the frequent stretch breaks along the way - actually I think they're just an excuse for him to have a break!  Going for some dehydrated chicken and rice dinner and Chao Choon's special treat from Singapore - bak kwa!  Hope to hear from you again tomorrow. 

Well, we have survived Day 1!  Day was supposed to be easy 32k, except for the fine print - we gain 610m in elevation today. But the part missing from the fine print is that we will gain and lose 100 -200 m elevation every 500m or 1k, and we had to do this for the last 15k. To add to that, the slopes were 60 degree - great for slides at water theme parks, but terrible for the quads to do on foot.  In short, we suffered the last 15k.
 
The saving grace was the scenery. It was breathtaking. Not desert but highland - again something we didn’t bargain for.  We thought we signed up for Gobi DESERT race.....Of course, highland comes with low temperature. Its bad for the evening - below 10 degree, especially like now, with the wind effect.  But it was great during the day - we were run-walking in 20 degree temperature....
 
Tomorrow is more of the same - another 30k of this....Another easy day....
 
gonna sign off now, freezing our butts off typing this in a tent with no sides ....  

With 1 week to go, thought I better get this blog up and running.  Well training has diminished over the last few weeks due to the school holidays and travelling to Hong Kong and Shanghai. Unfortunately, I feel like my training peaked about 3 weeks ago!  I can't do much about that now so am focusing on getting food and gear together.  Biggest challenge is trying to get everything to fit into our backpacks!