Quite a ride,
 
So I have not been great at keeping up with blogging the last couple days, and I have excuses that you'll get to here about, and you can judge whether they're good or not.  So the last I wrote was after stage 2 when everyone was feeling pretty good about life in general after an easy day, but Stage 3 was very long. 
 
It started with, I'm still in debate, what might have been the most fun part of the week -- the river crossing stage.  I went with the socks and crocs technique and left my shoes in my backpack.  This section basically consisted of 2 hours of rock hopping and wadding through rivers.  I'm not sure if I talked about this in my last post, but walking through cold rivers with blisters is about the best feeling in the world for a person's feet.  It wasn't hot, breezy, people were in very high spirits, and it was a great morning. 
 
The rest of the day dragged hard.  We walked for hours weaving through dusty foothills, and the checkpoints, that are about every 10k, never seemed to come.  We.d have a time figured out that we thought we'd arrive, and continue walking for another 30 minutes.  I think part of it was that by the heat of the day we were walking slowly and the footing wasn't great.  About half way through the day my feet started hurting increadably badly-- I found the source of this pain later.  Gibb's knee was acting up, and he was having trouble with the heat, so he pushed on a head or me, so he could finish earlier and get out of the heat.  I couldn't walk any faster than a casual walk.  I played tag with other people who were walking at about the same pace for the rest of the day.  I was hurting and tired, but I made it to the last checkpoint, which was a short 6 km to our camp that night.  We were told that it was a quick, easy walk and we should be there within an hour and a half.  This was not entirly true.  I don't know how long it took me, but it was all up and down very hard dirt track (which was adding to the foot pain).  It was extreemly hot (over 110) and there was a hot wind that was literally knocking me off track.  I made it to camp around 7pm, and as far as I was concerned I was done.  I finished and I couldn't walk, my body ached, and I couldn't put pressure on my feet without my legs tensing up.  Gibbs was feeling the same way. 
 
The night/morning of day 3 was about rock bottom.  The next day was the dunes stage, and both of us were finished.  Not only was it going to be the most difficult of the race so far, we had to be on busses at 4:00 to be bussed 4 hours to the starting line.  On the bus in the morning, Gibbs said he didn't think he could start, and I was resigned to fighting through the dunes and quiting at the first check point.  But both of us got moving the felt better.  The dunes were amazing; we could run up and down them pain free.  Unfortunatly my shoes got filled with sand, but that's pretty low on my list of complaints.  Also in the dunes I got to see my first camel rescue mission; someone had collapsed, and the doctor and a local were going to get them on camels.  This was not the last of these that I saw, but it was pretty entertaining -- the person was fine.  The rest of the day was brutally hot, in the 120s, but I stayed hydrated (on about 3 liters of water every two hours).  It was brutal, but I think because I'd had such a horrible day before, I was handling the difficult stage better.  As I walked through the course, I was passing and walking with people who I hadn't seen all week on the course.  This was the stage where people began dropping.  At the second point there were about 10 people over heating.  I'll let you draw your own conclusions for what that means, but it wasn't pretty.  We walked through these wastelands of hard clay where the heat just radiated from it.  Luckily there was a small breeze that seemed to come up as soon as the heat got unbearable.  I felt really good as I finished stage 4 then as soon as I did, one of the docotors came up to help me with my bag (not unusual) and when he took the bag off, my body decided that it was sitting down as well.  It wasn't fainting, it was just a foced rest period.  The docs put me in the medical tent which was overrun with people in MUCH worse shape then I was and after about an hour of constantly drinking, I was allowed to leave. 
 
Gibbs had done well too, and we both felt like we had a chance of finishing.  Camp was very funny that night, people were all focused and trying not to talk about the long day that was coming our way. 
 
 
And now to the long march.  We got up and I felt pretty good which was not usual for the mornings.  I ate a big breakfast, and we got started.  I ended up walking by myself for the first couple checkpoints yesterday, which was pretty nice.  Gibbs' body was letting him walk faster while I just couldn't.  At check point three things got interesting.  We had just walked through the salt flats that were part of the second lowest point in the world (everything was dead and black, not exactly perfect scenory).  When I reached the checkpoint, I took my shoes off to let my feet sit, and when I tried to put them back on they didn't fit.  At this point, I switched to crocs and socks again (good choice on my part) and pushed on.  The next checkpoint was a long road-- like a 10km road.  It didn't turn, there were not hills, there was not change.  It was the most frustrating section of the course because we could see where we were going the whole time and never got any closer.  At that checkpoint, the docs said I was looking pale.  They debated giving me an IV, but I was able to keep fluid down, and cooled myself off.  They watched me for about 3 hours and said I was ok to continue.  After this I was walking in the dark.  I joined up with an Austrailian woman, an English woman, and a Columbian guy, and I'm really glad I did because I wouldn't have made it through the last sections without help.  We walked until 2am when we reached a checkpoint.  We met Gibbs there, selpt for an hour and pushed on.  The rest of the night and morning is a blur.  We were zombies plodding along, and we made it to camp at about 8:30, about 24 hours after we started. When Gibbs and I crossed, we went to the tent, layed with our feet elevated and laughed for about 5 minutes straight.  It was pretty magical.
 
Right now everyone is cursing themselves for doing this to themselves.  We all look like we need walkers -- except the guy who is winning, he looks fine-- people can barly stand.  But we are all very excited to be in a bed tomorrow. 
 
Tired and happy,
 
ben

So we woke up this morning to about the only thing we weren't expecting, rain and fog.  As we got ready to leave at 8am, we got anouncments postponing the times to 8:30, 9, 10, then finally noon.  It was pretty cold, as in wearing my wool hat and rainsuit which I hadn't wanted to bring but was glad I had.  We all sat in tents and layed in our sleeping bags for about 4 hours catching up on sleep and trying to stay warm.  It was good tentmate bonding time.  We chated, then slept.  The reason they kept delaying the start of the race was that we were going into the mountains, and we wouldn't have been able to see the trail markers because of the fog.  We finally got going very late, and our day was cut in half.  So instead of a 40 km day, it was a 23 km day.  I don't think anyone complained, but there is a high chance that they will add the extra milage later. 
 
The rain continued throughout the day.  Luckily my sleeping bag didn't get wet because who would think that you would need to weatherproof a bag in the Gobi Desert.  It wasn't hard but just consistant enough to stay damp.  The course was easy and mostly on dirt roads, nothing to crazy.  Except we did have a nice river crossing, which I was very happy to have crocs, and the cold water made the blisters feel better than they had in about 24 hours. 
 
Camp tonight is absolutly great.  People are very relaxed after the easy day (even though tomorrow it's going to get brutal).  We are also camped on top of a great ridge looking over the river that we crossed and in the middle of the mountains.  Pictures have been taken, and they are pretty great.  The sun came out about an hour age, and everyone is drying all of their wet clothes and enjoying being warm. 
 
It's pretty amazing about how the land has changed in just these couple days.  We started in a camp with trees and such, then walked through rocky, dusty trails and into the mountains.  Today we wandered through villages of no more than 30 people.  They were actually able to farm; I don't know what but they were growing something.  When we were walking on the road, we were passed by horses and a few motorcycles, but we havn't totally outrun people yet. 
 
We are still at about 5,000 feet of altitude, and tomorrow we are going down.  It will be long and hot, and there will be no more rain, probably only sunshine and heat.  It will be a long day; we will be going about 27 miles and that is subject to addition.  We will also be going down to about sealevel. 
 
Foot update, my blisters are still very much a factor, but they didn't get any worse.  I'm making friends at the medical tent as I have spent an hour with them the last couple days getting my feet taped and retaped.  They were pretty painful today but are not getting any worse.  I can walk with them, and right now, they are just adding to the expirience.  Didn't want this to be to easy. 
 
My mindset for tomorrow is that if I can finish tomorrow, I'm in deep enough that it's going to be running on fumes the rest of the way.  We are trying very hard not to think about the coming days becuase I'm sure I cannot fathum what is in store.  But right now, I haven't wanted to quit yet, and I'm still having fun. 
 
Till tomorrow,
 
ben

First 48 hours :

So after a night in the nicest hotel in history, a bus ride, a night at a campsite that did not look like the desert at all, then a very long walk, I’m writing from camp 2.  We’re in a valley, whose altitude is higher than any point in the Midwest, surrounded by mountains on all sides.  It’s very dry, but there is still grass growing and ruins of what used to be houses.  I’m pretty tired, not too sore, and have managed to get pretty nice blisters which are my main concern.  But here’s the last couple days. 

Urumqi is a cool city, very diverse and has great middle eastern food.  It’s about half Islamic and half Chinese and no one speaks English.  Gibbs and I had a few adventures that aren’t overly important.  But we got put up in a really nice hotel and it doesn’t get dark here until 10:30.  

After taking a bus to camp 1, we hung out and met everyone. There are people from everywhere, but there are a large percentage of Koreans and New Zealanders.  It’s a very wide range of people.  People dropped out of the race today because they realized they weren’t going to win, so extremely hard core.  Then there are those, like me, who would be thrilled to finish.  But we sleep in tents with 9 other people, not too bad but a little hot, and I’m sure they’ll get hotter as we move down.  But the people I’m meeting are great, very   positive, and will be good for a laugh as the week wears on.  

So today.  We woke up early and were racing by 8.  The first half of the day flew by, and everyone was quite confident and in very good spirits.  The second half of the day was all up and down hills that were like sharp steeper versions of the badlands.  Sort of.  That was when blisters hit.  Good news, my feet blister symmetrically on the heels, balls of my feet and baby toes, and they have now been covered very thoroughly.  The whole day was about 21 miles, which took about 10 hours, and tomorrow is longer by 4 miles. 

But so far so good.  I’ll write more tomorrow because it’s actually getting cold, and I didn’t bring a jacket.  So cheers from the Gobi.  It’s really beautiful here.  I hope to stop and enjoy it more tomorrow when my feet are in, hopefully less pain.