Rest day
I found the rest day very very tough. I went to bed about 3am after the long day, having got in, had some spag bol, cleaned up, lain down and watched the fantastic nighttime sky and seen my friend Joe come in. So, getting up at 6 was a bit annoying but that's what we had been doing all week and what my body wanted to do. As it turned out,my body knew what it was doing.

Whilst the sun was behind the hills and the camp was in shadow, things were good. We all relaxed after the long march, compared notes, ate food, looked after body and kit and blogged. When the sun hit our camp, things began to get a bit tough. The tents became very difficult to be in. There was little breeze and a lot of trapped heat. Many people migrated to the finish tent, the medical tent and the cybertent. It was impossible to cool down. The sun was hot, the wind was hot, the water was hot.




There was a lot of discussion about the benefits of evaporative cooling and much demand for the mist squirting bottles. These supplied what felt like a little breath of heaven. Buffs once again proved their worth as the were variously used as hats, towels, cupholders and eyeshades. Finally, the shadows began to lengthen again, the heat began to drop and it became possible to do things again. The majority of what I achieved that day was done between 6-8am and 7-9pm. The amount of rest that anyone gained was debatable and I was supremely thankful that I had finished the long day in the dark and not close to midday, as some competitors did.

Would you like some sand with that?
As everyone was in bed and getting ready for the final push, the desert served up a final dish of weather, high wind and sand. After an introductory lightning flash, the wind and the sand arrived. Individuals, groggy from the sleeping medication taken shortly before, struggled to close tent flaps and windows in zero visibility conditions. Upon waking, we discovered that it was possible to be dirtier than we had been. A think layer of sand covered everything, kit, tents and people. Whilst this was all funny on the last day, with the prospect of a shower looming, it would have been far less amusing on one of the previous days.

Stage 6
The run in to the finish was very nice. It was good to be running again instead of plodding though the heat. I had enough food and water and the temperature was nice. Crossing the finishing line was amazing and the culmination of so much hard work and planning.

Dinner and home
One interminable bus ride back to the Yin Du Hotel later and it was shower time and then off for an emergency club sandwich before dinner. Sandy and Colin got the sportsman's trophy and richly deserved it was too.
After some sad farewells, it was time to catch our flights home. This time our luggage made it all the way with us and I was very glad for that.

Thank you
As I wrap up, a few thank you's are in order.
For kit loan, thanks to Simon, Viv, DK, Jill and Swanny.
For advice, DK, Jo, Denvy, Simon, Jill, Swanny, Doug, Ginny
For support, my family and friends
For a great race, my tentmates and all the fellow competitors I met out there.

It's been emotional.......

What can I say about the long day? It was long. It was hot. It is done with.
 
Section 1 covered terrain very similar to that of the last section of Stage 4. I had about 3kg of dust and 30,000 mini thorns in my smurf shoe gaiters. Section 2 was interesting insofar as it was through the salt flats. Joe, my buddy for the day mentioned that the whole vista reminded him of Dante's inferno. The scenery was seming devoid of life and full of spill piles. Section 3 was unremarkable except that it represents the low elevation on the course at 160m below sea level (The second lowest after the Dead Sea, I am told). Section 4 was a brutal, seemingly neverending, road. It was at this point that some of the front runners started to get into trouble. According to backpack based themometer, it was over 50 degrees on that leg. The section to the water point was absolutely horrible and subjectively much longer than the 6.8km that it was supposed to be.
 
The water point is where Joe and I parted company. We had a strategy to go out slow and steady and then pick it up as it got cool later (hollw laugh at this point). Joe was overheating at the water point and needed to stop for 20 minutes. I couldn't do that as if I stopped walking it felt like my feet were goingto explode in my shoes. So Joe and I parted company at that point. 200m towards checkpoint 5, a blister on the heel of my left foot let go, resulting in an immediate hot spot. I managd to deal with that well but this did mean I checked my other foot at checkpoint 5. It turned out I had two quite large blisters on my right heel, which I managed to tape successfully also.
 
After checkpoint 5, at about 8:30pm, it was finally cool enough to run and the road was nice tarmac. Needless to say, this ran out quite shortly after and as it got dark, we entered into a series of switchbacks in the hills. I was a bit tense running through the village after heckpoint 5 as the local kids have apparently taken some of the course markers in recent years. This time, the route was well marked and in the hills there were no kids. I caught up with another competitor, Melissa, and together we shut the last two sections together. We came across a desert mouse which was transfixed in the light from our headlamps. It was tiny with the biggest ears and longest tail.
 
Although it was very hot, I felt it was better than Stage 4, Section 3 which represents my lowpoint of the race to date. Every day I learn lessons about the heat, the way I respond to it and how hard I can push myself before I get into trouble.
 
I came in 32nd on the long day (I am told). This suprises me given the very slow and measured pace Joe and I took over the early stages. It points to a lot of competitors blowing up and many of the rest taking substantial breaks at the checkpoints. "The Plodders", as I have named us kept going slow and steady. Indeed, we played Tortoise and Hare with a Dutch gentleman who woud run past us at 5,000kmh and then sleep for a while at each checkpoint. I actually came in before him in true Tortoise stye.
 
It is worth metioning that DK crushed the long day, coming in #16. Perhaps he will be able to end his RTP career, given that it is a highpoint for him. A fantastic result for him. Joe, despite his stop came in at 47 so a good job all round for the gang in tent crow.
 
Trying to keep it all together for the last stage (electrolytes, food, bisters) and really looking forward to that shower....
 
Many thanks for all the comments. I will sort it all out when I am back home (there is a queue to use the laptop).
 
Later.......

Today was 37km in the dunes. The stage was split into 4 stages, the first being “righteous dunes”. And they were. And I had a really great time in the dunes. In some strange and spiritual way, it’s like chasing waves on a surfski. You have to pick your line carefully and if you pick the wrong line, you lose time. The lighter people (including me) were having a better time of it as we didn’t sink through the sand so much. I was using my poles to goo effect. Did I mention how much I love my poles? They are great.

Stage 2 took us through mini dunes and that was OK. Stage 3 I hit between 12-2pm. It has been my toughest momet so far. I know I am new to this but it was so very, very hot and I was worried that I didn’t have enough water to make it through to Checkpoint 3. I met Natalia from Polan on the way and shared some of my spare with her. However in the end it was OK as the checkpoint sent out sweepers with extra water. I was so very glad to see them!

At Checkpoint 3, they made us buddy up as a safety precaution so I got to run to camp with Natalia and Jimmy.
In summary a brutal day. As I write this, quite a lot of the field are still out there. I hope they all make it in soon as it`s the long day tomorrow, 80km.

It’s been a bit of a trying day all round as we had a bus transfer this morning which involved getting up at 3am and then having a 3 hour bus ride.

All in all, a grea result for me as (I think) I came 25^th today. If the weather tomorrow is anything like today it will be all about survival. So no heroics tomorrow and I am just hoping to get the job done.

Thanks for all the comments. Still taking lots of photos (thanks Vuv)

After my last post, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Everyone managed to dry their kit out and bask in the sun for a while. The day ended really well as a result. It didn"t rain during the night, which was just as well because w were having a little river going through our tent at 3pm.
 
Today was a 44km stage with the first 10k along a river bed with "numerous river crossings". Wet shoes and socks contribute massively to the formation of blisters so the competitors don"t traditionally like water crossings. DK showed Joe and me a trick for getting sunstantial amounts of water out of our shoes after getting them wet which paid for his rent for some months.
 
After a judicious change of socks, we were off for the rest of the stage with minimal foot issues. The rest of the stage proved to be hot, sunny and downhill. Joe and I made very good time for stages 2-5 as we lost some 800m of elevation. It did get hot and monotonous for the final part of the stage but that"s good practice for the long day.
 
My left knee is still a bit dodgy so we will see how we do tomorrow on dune day. At  least I have my poles (which I am totally loving).
 
Thank you to everyone who has left a message of support, means a great deal to me.
 
Until tomorrow....

Day 2 was supposed to be just over 40km. However the start was delayed from 8am to midday due to fog/cloud obscuring the course. As a result we only went just over 20km. The conditions were very similar to running in Wales. There was some lovely scenery but it rained intermittently. So, now everyone has damp kit. The weather forcast for tomorrow’s 44km stage is currently more of the same. So I guess it will be putting on damp kit again tomorrow morning.I am told that this is the most rain the area has had for 30 years and these temperatures and rain wasn’t really what I was expecting for the first few stages. At time of writing it’s still quite overcast and raining intermittently.

Feet are OK, knees are a bit suspect, and tomorrow is another day. The cyberteam hasn’t been able to download messages from yesterday so I am flying blind from any of yesterdays’s comments. So that’s why I have not replied if anyone did sent a comment yesterday.

Best wishes to everyone out there.

There has been much excitement before  the race even started. Due to the Typhoon in HK on Wed and Thurs, our airline was all backed up and our fllght to Beijing delayed. Luckily, our connecting flight was also delayed so we made it to Urumqi. Unfortunately our luggage didn"t. After much effort on our part, considering none of DK, Joe or I speak Chinese, and a trip to Urumqi airport anhour before the bus left for our first camp, we were reunited with our remaining stuff.
 
At weigh in, my pack was a svelte 9kg due to the kit that was missing at the time.
 
The first camp was very pictureskew with a little stream babbling at the back. Awesome sunset also.
 
Day 1 was tough but it"s over. There were quite a lot of steep descents as we did the overall climb to the next camp. This hasn"t done my  knees any favors but my poles are doing me proud. Everything seems to be going well so far. I am hoping there aren"t too many steep descents tomorrow.
 
Love to everyone and see you tomorrow.....

Well, not quite but i am having a hard time working my pack down to 9.5kg. What with all the rookie gear, the food I will be throwing away and my Grand Hyatt monogrammed bathrobe for walking around camp in the evenings, it's all looking a bit iffy.......

A warm 32 Celsius in sunny HK.

Having read up on what everyone else is doing, it becomes obvious that I should stop weighing things and wandering around the supermarket looking for superfoods. I need to get my playlists in order to conterbalance the 70's excess of my crystal wielding friend. Healthy doses of Crystal Method, AC/DC (the greatest rock and roll band in the world, ever) and lots and lots of 80's funk should just about do it. Gotta love those fat bass riffs.

Everyone I speak to who is training for Gobi and who lives in HK appears to have done at least one MacLehose. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacLehose_Trail). The course is 100km. I haven't so am feeling a bit left out. In order to tick the box, a bunch of us went out to put a long one on the boards yesterday. We did the HK trail (50k) + another 10k. It was a good day out. It was mostly sunny, humid and very hot in the afternoon, all in all a great opportunity to test kit, hydration, electrolytes and food. The good news is I have identified the source of some of the chafing on my back. The bad news is that stairs are still giving me trouble, so back to the gym I go. It has been nice to meet some of the HK based competitors on the trails and look forward to running with all my new friends in a few weeks.

Fresh back from an awesome experience in Lijiang, the sober reality of running fully loaded in hotter conditions hit me hard across the face yesterday. Hong Kong is heating up now but that's a good thing as far as training goes. Things to work on in the last few weeks before Gobi: Put on some muscle Sort out kit Overcome the writer's block I currently seem to have. As an aside, it's nice to be meeting so many HK based Gobi competitors out on the trails. Gambare, as they say in Japan.