Well we're here. In one piece and enjoying our first day of rest. To call yesterday a "long march" is to call World War II a tiff. It was a long slog over very rough terrain and although Piers and I are happy to have made it in working order it was a day in which we slipped in both times and places and for the first time feels like the desert took the round. Still the tally stands at 4-1 thus far and with only one "short" trot of 15kms left to go tomorrow we'll win on points no matter what happens.

Despite the fact we were greeted with the incredibly beautiful and lucky omen of the brightest "double rainbow, all the wayyy"at camp 4 in the evening and the fact we started the day with bodies and minds all in good shape, little did we realise that the script for the final movie in the much anticipated final chapter of the "feet" triology would be written in the first 2 stages of the longest day of the race by matt, who will now be co-directing and prodcuing the last movie to be called quite aptly "my fkn feet". Yep, all day our legs were 100%, we kept up our water and salts so no complaints from the kidneys, stomachs or heads and so disappointingly we were only held back by the monumental blisters that took hold on matt's feet somewhere between section 1 and 2 across 10kms of unrelenting rocky ground (or about 15kms into a 75km trudge). From then on, when we were up with about the top 20 again, it became a case of matt putting in a monumental effort to grit the remaining 60kms out through determination, the odd grunt and expletive at his unco-operative feet. It was an amazing effort to keep going at the pace he did by tucking in behind my rather fetching calf compression tights (no they arent long socks but the even sexier compression bandages that go just round my calves, and yes i will be wearing them on both bondi beach and the streets of HK along with my equally as fetching mullet cap - a man playing sport has not looked as good as this in one since ivan lendll annoyed the hell of me on the courts) for the rest of the day. Luckily there was some absolutely stunning sections walking towards the snow capped and thunder cloud attacked Cunmun mountain range, with thunder ringing out ahead of us whilst behind and sometimes in front, dust tornadoes danced their way across the rocky and dusty plains we'd spent the last 4 hours crossing. We came across various herds of camels in long dry riverbeds, mud huts and nomads (some of whom created havoc early in the day by moving some of the pink course markers or took them as souvenir) and even one stunning stretch right near the Kyrgystan border of a grassy oasis on which we stopped to play a ball of imaginary cricket (Aus had the poms all out for zero of 1 ball, pockock caught and bowled blieschke to a hard hit straight drive).

The going got really tough after the 50km mark where we stopped for a very quick 10 minutes and hot noodle at the overnight camp where you could choose to rest and sleep or keep on. and keep on we did for stopping meant certain that your feet as opposed to just feeling like they had been placed kindly in a bed of hot coals would cease to work altogether. From there, in incredibly windy conditions and a very quick spirt of rain (yep in the desert, weird huh) before the baking heat was back it was what a long 28km flat and rocky stretch to camp. Luckily i managed to feel good pretty much all day as having two of us with sore feet like matt would have made keeping spirits high enough to get to the finish. The very dusty and hot last 8kms past some rather beautfiful dunes to the final camp took a lot longer than the 60 mins or so my garmin said they did and it was a much relieved duo that crossed into the stunning camp 11 and a half hours after setting out. It was definately one of the toughest days i've had but rewarding sitting now in place foreigners ordinarily arent able to visit, amongst an oasis that would more at home in africa than asia, over looking a small stream and an endless snow capped mountain range with not a cloud in the sky. the fact my feet (including my still much loved right foot - oh and i'll have no disparaging comments about Kate!) are the size of a small mammal does not matter as everything else is in good working order and we'v only 15kms to go.

There were some rather amazing efforts yesterday, with some competitiors out on the course for almost 24 hours, which over that terrain in those conditions after 160kms already is a rather astounding feat.

We'.ve a game a of cricket on this afternoon (this time an actual ball) of england vs aussies (subject to people being able to move i suspect it will be something like a game of test match the board game, full of imovable fielders) and its been a great day relaxing in this rather spectacular setting.

Thank you again all for the emails and comments and rest assured i've read and enjoyed everyone and wish id been able to respond. It has been great to unplug from the world for a week, but am very much looking forward to speaking to you all when we're back in kashgar tomorrow, cold beer in hand and fully washed. My hair will be interesting, im starting to resemble predator with my new dreadlocks, maybe i'll keep them and take up playing the tin drum....

One day to go. two freeze ldried meals to go. fifteen kms and one last enjoyable afternoon in this unique and not often visited place.

till tomorrow.....and hopefully with matt and i finishing in the top 25 in one piece.

blinks

First of all today I would like to say something to someone very close to me, someone that I cant live without and over the past few days have grown in wonderment and affection for. I don’t know if any of you have seen the movie “my left foot” but post this race I’ll be making the block buster sequel “my right foot”. This magnificent example of a hairy man foot may not be beautiful to anyone else but me, but after today it’s almost booting, no pun intended) Kate Winslet out of my top 5. Yes, this little piece of flesh has managed to remain blister free thus far, which in a camp that is slowly starting to resemble a hectic day for any ER department this is no small thing. So aside from a few on my left foot, my legs and feet are feeling great which (touch wood, fingers crossed yadda yadda) bodes well for the long march tomorrow.

Yep, we’ve finished another stage, the toughest thus far but somehow we managed to trudge ourselves to the finish in 14th place. Now I should clear up here and now. Matt does not kick me in the shins metres from the finish line, nor does he do a cheeky hero sprint with arms in the air shouting “I am the champion” 10 metres from the finish. In fact, other than stage 1 in which matt crossed a few minutes ahead of me, we have crossed the line at exactly the same time each day, invariably close to manly excretions of bravery (more commonly called tears) and full of team spirit . For some reason the time only stops when they scan your timing card and sometimes this sometimes takes them a little time. We finished the same time today and will continue to do so (barring injury etc) for the whole race, it’s a pitty we didn’t enter as a team but its been great to run / walk with piers there, how people do this solo I don’t know.

Id also like to confirm a few true facts about the desert in case you were wondering:

1)      Its hot.

2)      Its big. Very rather enormously big.

3)      There is bugger all animal life other than the odd camel (have so far failed to lasoo one yet), goats (yes they have kept a close watch on the NZ competitors), goat herders and small lizards that make me hold back a rather girly shriek of “snake” every time Iarly ne step near one.

4)      There are bugger all plants. Other than desert shurbs, the prettiest of which have yellow flowers that help to conceal rather large prickles that have increased my contributions to the swear jar on more than a few occasions.

5)      Its windy.

6)      And its incredibly beautiful.

Today’s stage confirmed no.6. We set out this morning from camp 3 after a rather broken sleep that started on a rather shaky start when the local men (yep men only) decided to hold their version of a mountain to chinese desert disco to the music from what I only know as a snake charmers flute and a drum. The spectacle of 10 grown men throwing everything into their best twirling dance (spirit fingers included) routines provided entertainment for a good 5 minutes until the music started to become a little repetitive and about as much fun as Christmas carols in a department store 2 months prior to Christmas. Needless to say 160 people trying to sleep prior to 42 kms of rather difficult trails led to a few concerted polite shouts. After the noise came the cold. I could make that no.7. The desert is very cold at night and given I only chose to bring the most light weight of running jackets (which in a rather school boy error at internet shopping – I now am the proud wearer and owner of an electric blue, skin tight, orange trimmed jacket I could easily wear to any rave and has resulted in more than few comments from our tent) made me wake up from cold even through a stilnox induced haze.

We had been warned today was the hardest stage and it probably was given the hills but I think one of the benefits of having lived in HK means you are used to climbing hills and  I found today much easier than yesterday. We lost about 5 people over night I think with the sun and distance starting to take toll so there were a few worried faces this morning at the start line. It was a pretty amazing start with a run to the base of Shipton’s Arch, the worlds highest natural arch that we climbed ladders etc to get to and were (thankfully) allowed to leave our packs at the bottom. After CP 1 and seeing the spectacular framed view of mountain ranges through the Arch, we set out on probably the hardest but most stunning part of the race. We had many steep (and I mean steep, where hands could easily to be used to scabble you up) climbs and even steeper descents on loose gravel that had several I competitors afraid of heights petrified and in tears. I actually loved it, having decided the best way to get down was by basically closing my eyes and running down hill on the gentler slopes which seemed to work. I did see Matt have on his “im slightly petrified but not going to show it face” several times but for someone not comfortable with heights he made it down incredibly quickly. We made up a lot of time over the hills which ended with a spectacular run  along a ridge line with panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and plains. We met along the way a few goat herders who I have to say must be some of the fittest (and most isolated) workers in the world. We seemed to pick up a lot of time over the hills and emerged onto a long 7 or 8 km run along a very rocky river bed to CP 3 3km found ourselves in 14th place with just over  13kms to go. It was then we had our first river crossings, and after spending some time trying to twinkle toe and pick a path across without getting our feet wet, we both looked at each other, said “bugger it” and proceeded to just trudge through the water almost knee deep over the next 6 river crossings. From there, after taking the decision not change socks and shoes as we had been advised, it was an 12km flatter stretch through villages and over fields in an increasingly hot day to the finish, where luckily the river crossing ahead was too dangerous to cross and they had cut the stage 2-3kms short. It was here that matt and I had our first (in a purely platonic way) “lovers tiff” as I realised it was the end and turning to wait for matt and thought I’d tell him to keep going quicker as we were being gained on close to the finish. Matt, who thought it was merely a water stop, looked up and replied “I couldn’t give a…”. A little bemused as to why he didn’t want to try and keep his place 100m from the finish, my diplomatic response of “ooookkayyyyy” was quickly understood as he crossed the line.

All in all we had a great stage, the legs and feet feel great and we somehow finished in the top 15. There is still the 76m stage tomorrow to tackle, but injury aside, for the first time the finish line seems a reality rather than a possibility.

Congrats to the Armstrong’s on the birth of Sophie, fantastic news, hope both mum and baby are both healthy and well and dad has recovered from any head wetting….

Thank you all again for the emails and comments, please keep them coming. The camp is slowly but surely becoming a place for the tired and injured rather than the bubbly place it was on day 1 (our tent exempted who are all doing extremely well and have all managed to keep banter levels to a quality level given the circumstances) so it really is a great little shot in the arm to read them each day.

Okay, so in this whole paranoia everyone gives you about how light your pack has to be (seriosly its the biggest topic and pretty much first question anyone asks pre this race) not one person told me not to bother bringing salt tablets, for as i write this i'm sitting in a top and shorts so covered in white stuff id cause pause even for Pablo Escabar to question my extra corricular activities. Lets just say it was hot today and ive lost so much salt my 1set of running clothes, yep we stay in the one set all week - its that weight thing niiiiiiice isnt it!, they are now so stiff they could be used as ironing board or even potentially as part of the new retaining wall on a new freeway they were building in the middle of nowwhere today.

Apparently it got to 42 degrees yesterday after we finished so generally its been lucky we've been putting in good enough times to beat the heat, but today the tables were turned, its currently overcast and easily 10 - 15 degrees cooler than when we finished, again in a similar position to the past few days at 19th and 20th. A great result for us given today's terrain and the fact we climbed over 1,200 feet in elevation (the good runners here said 100m of elevation is equivalent to 1km of effort on the flat) so even thought today's stage was 35km, 5km shorter than yesterday, we too out 7mins longer and both found it much tougher at different stages.

I had a pretty ordinary nights sleep given we go to bed when its light still and relatviely warm, and therefore shed some clothing (an interesting little feat for all given we're in a mixed tent we've now resorted to shouts of "avert eyes", but given its now been 3 days of sweat and no shower, its not a difficult request to have abided) to then wake at 2am freezing and frantically throwing things out of my pack in search of my beanie. Combine that with the fact we refrained from using our sleeping mats due to the sharp stubble from the freshly reaped wheat field we were camping on, and it made for my worst nights sleep since i was told father christmas wasnt real.

After the usual, what has almost become a ritual now, packing, breakfast, washing (with a wet tissue - about as effective as taking a toothbrush to scrub away a concrete wall) and saying hello to the camel on the way to the bathroom, we started stage 3. We were told before we started it was a gradual incline for 35kms and should be "easier" than yesterday. That's both about as accurate and useful as when Captain Cook told the first fleet "sydney's only a little further than Birmingham". It all started pleasantly enough with both matt and i feeling good. Although i spoke to soon about my feet, i did have 2 small blisters and had to have two toe nails drilled but comparatively i was still low on the foot problem scale. We ran through some beautiful poplar tree lined streets, all slightly uphill, through mud brick villages again lined with the delightful locals, who made the trip to the frist check point of about 8km's thoroughly enjoyable with their responses to our hello's (and yep ive finallly learnt to say it in arabic! thanks to piers) and smiles passing the time quickly. The only incident was matt rolling his ankle quite badly for the second time and he did an amazing job to carry on without slowing down, especially over the next section that was a rock filled 12kms of undulating ground over loose rocks the size of a fist and larger. It was hard enough on good legs, how he did it on sore ankle i dont know but we managed to power on and after finally getting ahead of an exceddingly annoying competitor who decided to run within about 5cms of us (dangerously so down scree filled slopes) we made it to the next section, a dry river through a canyon that was stunning but hot. This part started on a humerous note, the first being a japanese competitor or we turned to see running towards us, as he drew nearer his response of "the f*ck up stones!!!) to the question "are you okay" left us both in farily good spirits....i was made to expend energy and laugh even more when the same man pointed to the very annoying runner i mentioned and aked "how they run on this" and matt's response was "i dont know, but they are f#cking annoying" to a bemused smile. We emerged from the river into a very tough section of undualting rises and decents on scree filled slopes, it took a lot of concetration and stylish "skiing" down loose rock falls with our poles but we made up a lot of ground and positions over the hills to get us to check point three, whereupon i tried to seemingly kill matt by giving him some beef jerky that almost led to his asphyxiation as he tried to chew, run and breathe all at the same time. something most of us know is not evolutionary possible but i chose not to point that out....

I felt great to check point three then the heat started to its toll and the last 10kms up a continual incline on a dirt road i found my toughest for the race and just tried to keep pace with matt and stop thinking of a cup noodle and peppermint tea that awaited. Somehow we managed to trudge on and using our now very regular and what seems to be quite fast paced"march" made up a few more places in 5hrs 27mins. it was a great team stage, with both of us dragging each other along to keep up the pace when things got tough, makes me very thankful we're not doing this alone and slightly wistful we didnt enter as a team as we would be first placed in that category..

But here we are, relatively injury free apart from some blisters and toe nail issues in a stunning camp set amougst craggy hills in the mountains. We;ve got the two toughest days ahead but at least that's three of the long 5 days gone. Thank you again everyone for the emails and comments, they are a massive bost and ive loved reading them. I apologise if these havent been my wittiest pieces but i seem to have a bit of sense humour failure till i fully recover.i promise ill try to make them funnier!

till tomorrow..

As they say, things are always easier second time around, and although was a longer (40kms) and more difficult stage than yesterday, we managed to finish good time and exactly the same place as yesterday. Seems the legs (thus far) have resigned themselves to a long journey and quit their unhelpful complaining today, letting us get to the end in a time if 5hrs 20 or so.

After a great nights sleep on a carpeted platform (hank fully for the second night there was no awkward man touch with everyone able to stay strictly in the confines of their sleeping pads) in a village house and an early rise in the dark to go and see buttercup and daisy (probably not common names for cows in northern china but that'll do), I had a much smoother morning of getting things ready as opposed to leaving it till 5 minutes before the start on the first day....unlike me to leave things to the last minute...Even the rehydrated custard with mixed berries was palatable today, how quickly you become accomosted to our surroundings. One of the lucky few to still be blister free, I didnt want to feel left out of the foot care going on around me (blisters seem to more important here than the last tim tam in the packet to a fat kid) nd consulted Hutch, the eldest competitor of the race at 70! to see if I should take some pre-emptive action on a callus on my foot. Hutch's kind yet bewildered stare told me all i needed to know, that unlike his kind words of "hmmm it should be alright, just watch it" what he clearly wanted to say was "what, that thing? chew a harden the f*ck up pill and let me eat my breakfast. Needelss to say i took that as a sign to just get ready, which i did swiftly and even made it to the morning briefing (something i missed the day before).

Today's stage was aptly named "Mars in the Gobi" or someting like that and it really did seem that way. In what turned out to be a much more interesting and difficult stage than yesterday, we set out from the village and after about 6 or so k's through irrigated farm land turned down into what looked a little like a cross between the grand canyon and mars. Red rising busts if rock jutted out of the canyon and we made our way through this pretty amazing section into the wind at the bottom of the canyon before emerging about 6kms further along to the toughest part of the race thus far, an undulating plain of steep descents and ascents into creek beds, the descents made almost as difficult as the ascents due to the face this whole section was run over very loose rocks that slid out from beneath you with each step. The next 5 or so k'ms were thankfully far gentler, along a wide dry river bed where the feet soaked up the reprieve from running over rocks, this was short lived before the sun started to get hot as we made a slow ascent over more undulating rocky ground and spikey desert shurb to stage 3. We then turned onto a very newly bitusmised road (as is the way in China, contstruciton springs up incredibly quickly in the remotest places so they didnt have time to change the course) that went up hill for about 3 kms. i pitty the people that will be walking up that at 4pm this afternoon in the heat of the day....The ascent was well worth it though for at the top, because although we had been bordered in the distance by mountain ranges, the view from the crest of the hill was one of the most amazing i've seen with dry desert mountains as far as the eye could see to a backdrop of massive snowy mountains spread out as far as the eye could see. It was then a much appreciated descent along a road (where i started to struggle for the first time and was helped along by matt who helfully proclaimed "im feel great how about you mate?" every 5 minutes, i've taken it as payback for accidenteally hitting him with my poles 3 times or so) and some dirt track to the finish.

All round i felt great for most of the stage and our strategy of keeping to a consistent pace with a quick walk (we walked probably 70% of the stage) over difficult terrain and uphill and running only when we werent straight to the wind worked out well and we ended up picking up a lot places over the last 10k. It bodes well (fingers crossed, touch wood and all that) for the rest of the race but even though we've got 72kms done) for tomorrow and beyond so long as the legs keep quiet and the blisters stay away. The walking was very welcome for me, i've never considered myself much of a running man.

Happily, my garmin tells me i've burnt over 2,800 calories each of the past 2 days so am now off to enjoy a cup noodle (amazing how much i've looked forward to such a simple thing each day) and try to put some calories in the belly. Tonight we're back in tents near a little village,which surrounded by desert mountains. As nice as it was to sleep in a building last night, being back in camp is actually a welcome change, its a much more communal atmosphere and the people here are great making passing the afternoons and evenings much more enjoyable. Although watching the villagers last night was quite amusing, one 3 year old child in particular provided entertainment for many, it was like he ran the village and had a particularly destructive streak. Dressed in his "G & D" top (marks for trying there, almost....) i saw him casually knock over chairs, throw chairs in the stream, throw flags in the stream and apparently he was looking through peoples bags all the while ignoring shouts from competitors and locals alike. The villagers on the whole here have been incredibly friendly, they stare sternly at you from the road side until you say hi then they break out in a massive grin and wave. I've cleverly been trying to be quite cultural and been saying hi in chinese, only to be told most of them speak an arabic dialect like urdu....

Thank you all for the emails and comments, I cant respond to any of them unfortunately but please know they were a great boost to receive them. Hope you're all well and apologies for the length of these, its acting a little like a diary for myself.

In the words of crowded house “..dont dream it’s over..”! We’ve finally finished our first stage and left 33km’s of the desert behind, blister and injury free. I’m currently sitting in a small village called Kashi Bushka trying not to have the drum beat drilled in to my mind that has been beaten out by the extremely enthusiastic and welcoming local children for the past  hours since our arrival.

The first stage was, for the desert relatively straight forward and most happily for us all cut 10km’s short due to  a flooded river cutting off access to the first part of the stage. How you get a flood in a desert I’m not sure but tonight I will be praying to whatever local god may be the custom for it. You can imagine the joy that quickly spread around camp when we were told the news 30 mins before the start of the stage, and the then groaned voices as one person piped up with the question “..will we have the chance to make up the missed km’s?”. Needless to say this person, who was no doubt endlessly bullied at school, was lucky not to have been taken to by 160 sets of walking poles…

We started at 8am this morning, which is just after first light (its not getting dark will around 11pm) and it was pleasantly cool with a slight breeze. This breeze strengthened into what would to me be called a very strong gale that we ran straight into for the majority of the stage which was run first out through an amazing valley bordered one side by eroded sandy mountains and on the other by a broad mostly dry river bed. We then turned out onto a large flat plain covered in rocks and desert shrubs with the horizon littered with the dry desert mountains of other worldly oranges and reds and further in the distance the snow capped mountains of kungun (5,998m high).  There was no ipod needed with such an immense scene to run towards. After crossing various streams (happily with recalling some long jump skills from school days there was no need to get our feet wet) we continued along a rough dirt track, straight into the wind to the village. I felt good for most of the stage but as always seems the case, the last 5kms were by far the hardest with the sun heating up and the wind taking its toll. The small children from the village helped for the last 500m, challenging me to sprints (which I lost to a 4 year old) and high fives to the finish spot on 4 hours in 22nd, 1 behind Matt who ran a great stage and helped me along when the wind started to take its toll.

Its been all round an entertaining adventure thus far, all started with a 4 hour car ride to Guanzhou in what can most easily be described as an Asian version of the A Team Van, Mr Chow our driver may not have had a Mohawk like Mr T but he certainly drove like him. From there, and after wet managed to smuggle through security knives and other illegal paraphanalia due only to our ability to only stare blankly at the Chinese customs officers whose patience ran out when he still didn’t receive an answer to what I am sure in Chinese was “is this a knife”, we flew to Urumqi and then on to Kashin over the next 9 hours on the delightfully undelightful China southern airlines. If you want to a) be served a cucumber wrapped in glad wrap as your in flight snack, b) see 40 people who have never flown before fight over what seat they should be in (for me this was excellently all performed over matt’s head who was sat amongst them c) watch said 40 people all dutily perform the in flight exercises suggested by the in flight video as though they were Bay 13 fans watching merv hughes warm up then this airline is for you. We were happy to arrive alive and even happier for our bag to arrive in one piece.

We stayed the night in Kashgar, a city that is a very interesting mix of chinese and Arabic people that feels more like it should belong in the middle east than china. As soon as we landed it was clear we were not in our bubbles of Hong Kong and china any longer. There was the obligatory giant statue of Chariman Mao but then also large and ancient mosques and mud houses that were more morocco than china, and all was covered in a layer of desert dust. Our hotel was sadly not the Mandarin Oriental I had been picturing but a slightly less salubrious  we star hotel, where we spent the night trying to sleep on beds that made concrete seem luxurious and trying to ignore the warbling from the KTV (chinese karaoke night club) from the floor below.

After a briefing and meeting many of the varied, incredibly friendly and interesting competitors and organisers (there are 42 countries represented this year in the Gobi March) we hopped on the bus to the first stage and went through some of the terrain we ran through today - Large eroded mountains that look more like what you expect from Afghanistan than China, how they convinced a coach company to get 5 buses there I’ll never know. After a fantastic and varied opening ceremony / welcoming from the extremely friendly and smiley local people – including a piano accordion, much mimining by the local Shakira in a sequined outfit and a game of polo played on horse back by two local teams with a dead goat for a ball, we spent the night trying to eat freeze dried food, get last minute tips from past competitors and work out tent etiquette for a ten man tent filled with both males and females (all of whom are rookies and we spent quite a bit of our time being the blind leading the blind and confusing each other with various whispered tips).

Tonight is a luxury, we’re staying in the houses of the local people and even have a tap. The bathroom is a little interesting though, a raised concrete stall in a cow shed but still…

Feeling great and looking forward to getting stage 2 behind us, its longer and tougher than today and everyone has tried to explain that the breeze we thought a gale, was merely a light fluttering. Going to be interesting…..