Stage 5 down - pain is weaknss leaving the body: soooooo i had a pretty interesting last 24 hours. woke up in the middle of the night with a fever...not a very good sign no matter where you are in the world but espeiclly not in the middle of the desert in china with vvery little resources to make me well AND knowing i had to run 75k a few hours later. so first the fever then a couple of hours later i woke up to a crazy thunder storm; shoes getting soaked, tent shaking, and for the first time water was beginning to leak into the tent and the group was freaking, obviously. anticipating a old night i already layed down my waterproof/insulating bivvy blanket so i was totally fine where i was...after a few minutes of the guys trying to figure out what the hell they would do i yelled "pull out your bivvy blanket...this is what its for!" saved the day haha. oh ya...and it was about 10 degrees out so wet and cold are never a good match. i woke up a few hours later without a fever but damn were my feet sore. i looked down at a blister on my left big toe (unrelated to my ingrown nail) and quickly realized it was infected. shit. now the fever mad sense...shit. not good. my mood quickly sunk and i knew it was going to be an extremely long 75k IF i was healthy enough to finish without needing to chop off my toe near the end haha. i got some antibiotics and put my shoes on and prepared myself for a painful 12 hour day.whe we started the race i tried to focus on all the times during training when i pushed through pain and just dealt with it...ive been in pain all week...hell right now my body is throbbing but my toe yesterday morning was a whole new type of pain. the type that if my head wasnt in a good place my race would surely end early.the first 20k of the course was pretty flat so i wanted to gain some timee and run that. foot was actually feeling quite well so that was uplifting. checkpoint 2 to 4 was mental; it was a climb from 1200metres up to 2800 metres. it got super cold shortly after CP2 and then it started to rain...not fun. mountain weather is unpredictable so i didnt put on my waterproof jcket or bivvy until it got really bad...pretty silly mistake since at thaat point i was soaked, the wind and rain were blowing harder and it was colder haha. at CP3 i was sick of being wet and cold and wantd to power up the hill...i must of overtaken 15 people before hitting the peak at CP4. 5k before CP4 ws a 45 degree angle and thick grass...if that wsnt enough i could see snow on the ground haha...wait, theres more. the last half hour up this mountain (now 9000ft) it was blowing with 60k head-winds, raining and hailing...it was insane. i figured this was just the way it was so i dug deep, took a deep breath, yelld a bit and sprinted up this damn hill haha.i got to the top and the first thing they said was "how are you?" hahaha HOW DO YOU THINK?!?!?!. anyways, i fueled up, grabbed some water and realized my fingers were numb. i looked down at my hands and noticed my finger-tips were white....whoops. hypothermia was a clear reality aat this point. i looked at the staart of the next leg, which was 10k down hill, and knew that hypothermia and death was a serious reality and i would need to run if i wanted to literally make it to the next checkpoint alive.my lgs were basically numb but i still had the ability to move my feet which was all i needed...i wrapped my bivvy tighter around me, this time with my hands hugging my core (ive been watching way too much man vs wild th last few weeks and i know the most important thing was to keep my core temperature up). i ran as haard as i could...i knew the lower i got the worse the wind and rain would be. finally the weather eased a bit. the course is always marked with pink flags and at one point on the downhill the course cut down a valley and stopped going down the muddy road, which was amazing since the road was an extra 2k weaving down and it looked like 3 people did not see the course change and took that route BOOM! time to save time and move up a few spots! the run down the valley was steep and rocky so i had to be smart and safe about it...1 person pssed, then two and finally three...i was laughing pretty hard...its ashame they didnt pay more attention to the course. i got to the next checkpoint (40k) feeling very strong and ready to push on instead of stopping for my planed meal. the guy behind me arrived a few minutes after and started accusing me of cheating haha whateverrrrr he quickly realized HE made the mistake, not me. anyways....curve ball, the helper at that checkpoint told us the weather got worse at the top and at CP7 and they were stopping the race early. oh? wow. so i sprinted to the next checkpoint knowing there was warmth and a pbus waiting for me. a lot of peopl were upset but forutunately nobody was innjurred...defintely a good call on their part although many of the cometitiorsc at CP6 were frustraated...little did theyknow that CP7 was even tougher than CP4 and the weather was worse. meh. anyways, about 30 of us were left at CP6 for about 4 hours waiting for a bus haha...not fun when we were all wet, cold and had to deal with blisters in an environment where we could take out our gear and get shit sorted out.bus came, it was supposed to be about a 50 minute drive but our driver drove 50 minutes in the wrong direction hahaha gahhhh...my feet were agonizingly painful and i could feel a new one on my baby right toe. it was wrappd around the entire toe and under my nail...goodbye toenail aha. anyways, i need to go but basically our orginal camp site was cancelled because it was freezing and flooded so we ended up at a wicked little researt with fancy yurts and running water BOOYAH! our tent was even lucky enough to get a yurt with a fire!!!! tomorrow we're running the final 14k stage...just the way it worked out. im currently in 35th place which im very happy with BUT my goal is to really push it haard tomorrow nd make it below 30th...why not right? haha. we're right by a lake, its beautiful with all the mountains around it. i think its called Syriam Lake? its the deeping and highest lake in china (we're at 2000 metres). thanks to everyone for the support, seriously i wouldnt be able to be this happy without you! we'll all be in Bole hotel toorrow night then ill be in Urumqi the following night then back to Korea so ill email/skype some of you in a few days. woo! what an experience...quite an incredible feeling. so humbled. -jamie

Hey everyone, Keaton here- Jamie is STILL kicking ass & taking names. I apologize for the late update. But please... Read! ------------ The Calm Before the Storm - stage 4 complete! today today today...where to even start. It rained AGAIN last night and our camp was very close to a bunch of mountains so it was cold rain and super windy. Right as it started i was just stepping into tent and a big gust of wind picked up the tent shell like a damn parachute haha. my tent mates didnt appear find it as funny but i couldn't stop laughing; I had to grab the canvas with all my strength and tie it down with my other hand...so funny. The majority of the night it stayed dry...i know that because i probably only got 3 hours last night haha. this time i slept with my salty gear inside of my sleeping bag with me to keep it dry and toasty mmmmmmm definitely made the difference in the morning. been waking up at about 610am... its been dark and freezing but not totally miserable. I wouldn't say I'm a morning person but I'm definitely the one trying to get my zombie tent talking and smiling in the morning - cant say I've been too successful haha. Right as i put on my toasty gear it started raining...ughhhhh. far from pleasant. I knew it was going to be a tough morning so I pulled out all the messages people wrote me during my going away party...guys...you f**kin rock. so uplifting and I couldn't figure out if I was crying from laughter or happiness. iIeven shared one specific one with my tent: "don't die, asshole" haha. love you guys...didn't even have enough to read through all of them, there are so many!!! The pressure and cold has really bothered my knee. today i wanted to start smart and slow to give my blood a chance to get pumping before i fly across the gorgeous landscape - Ronny, i seem to be alright after the first 2 - 5k. really depends on the terrain...definitely tough on the rocks and downhills but I'm being smart about it and preserving it haha. took my first painkillers today..they actually help haha. knee feels 100% right now though (took pills over 8 hours ago) so the warmth seems to be my friend! anyway...back tracking a bit. so i walked the first couple KM and once I felt warmed up i sprinted up to the front to catch up to my running mates. i was about to stop running then spotted my new friend from Wales that jokes about getting lost so i sprinted past him and some of my tent mates screaming hahaha. anyways, they caught up to me at the checkpoint and i was quickly reminded that tomorrow is a 75km day so i better pace myself. we had a group of 5 that stuck together - 2 from Wales, a brit a Canadian and I. I really cant type much longer..people are waiting :(. anyway we stuck together and kept each other motivated. walk 2 flags, run 5; run the downhills, walk the ups; NEVER STOP MOVING...need to piss? do it, then catch up to the group...it was awesome and we have named out 'team' The Fleshlights....don't ask haha.w've decided to stick together for tomorrows long stage. anyways, today was great...came in with great time, currently in 46th place overall...would probably be around 22nd if i chose not to aid that girl on the hill...no regrets though, that was still my favorite day so far and im confident ill make some time back tomorrow...my goal is to rank below 30 - totally realistic. my feet have seen better days! haha. still not as bad as many of the others here but the pain is starting to come on...the last 15k today I totally zoned it out though and even blew past our team haha i just wanted to finish so damn bad and take my wet shoes off. everything else seems alright...pretty much throbbing in pain from head to toe but its become such a normal pain at this point its hard to notice. All the Koreans here are frigging awesome!!! we're heading back to Seoul together and grabbing food and celebrating. omg food. FOOD! FEED ME!!!!! i miss soup so much hahaha. Anyways, i seriously need to get off...below are some responses to a few messages i got. many of them were cut off but apparently they're fixing it all tonight. I just realized there was a separate tab for private msgs compared to blog msgs so it took me forever to read everything haha. thank you all so so much. Love hearing from you, please dont stop!! So helpful! 30 minute penalty was taken off Ronny - knee will make it. starting to feel like 12 years of slamming on my bmx wasn't the greatest for my knee cartilage haha but ill make it and run out of the airport! Mom - day 3 really wasnt that bad....i was actually really excited to muscle up the massive climb (its what I've been training for) but my new friend was very dehydrated Thank you!!! -Jamie ----------------------- As Jamie has said, please still send him messages and check his blog. Here are those addresses again! Please donate. www.endprostatecancer.ca Be a voice of inspiration for Jamie, and send him some love. http://www.4deserts.com/gobimarch/email

STAGE 3! BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT Hey! Keaton here- Due to a back log of emails (I assume the weather has affected their internet) today you get two posts for the price of one! ------------- Breathe in, Breathe Out

Stage 2- Hey everybody, Keaton here. I'd like to thank you for showing so much support so far! Jamie is still out there and kicking ass. He needs & WANTS to hear from you. Even if it's just a complaint about how mundane life is back home in comparison to the Gobi. PLEASE! Send an email to him. http://www.4deserts.com/gobimarch/email -------------------------- FROM JAMIE Slow and Steady Wins the Race - stage 2 complete Although today wasn't as long as yesterday the course was very very tiring...it was mostly rocky flats and you could see miles and miles into the distance but the more you ran the further the finish line appeared haha. I didn't sleep too well so i was a little sore today. I took it pretty easy the first 30k then kicked it into gear the last stage. finished in 5 hours and 40 minutes (i think)...so should be around 35th place. Im a little annoyed...i ran really well yesterday and was supposed to be 20th place but i saw the results today and I'm in 47th place because of a penalty time of 30 minutes. Im going to someone about it but think its because i did not bring 'mandatory' gloves....which is silly because i have a printed list of the mandatory and optional items and the gloves were optional and they never informed us about an updated list sooooooooo ummmmmmm....we'll see! Anyways...although today felt like it would never end it did...and to sum it up it was a great day. I've met many people and have gotten closer with the people that are running around my pace. There is a sense of competitiveness but its all with a smile on, its great...the overall vibe i get from people is that everyone just wants everyone to get through this thing and get through it healthy...you'd never experience this with a regular marathon. Ive met a guy thats done a couple races and we were discussing previous years and stuff...he's very funny and a great athlete. i think he was about 15 minutes behind me yesterday and kept telling me after "mate, i was getting so lost so all i had to do was look for the guy wearing black to find my way..thanks haha". so now we make jokes about how lost h gets and how i MUST run in-front of him haha. unfortunately today he was about 20 minutes ahead of me and i couldn't catch up to him....but the funny part is that i spoke to him at camp and he was telling me how lost he was getting haha. Its fairly easy to get lost if you're not paying attention. the course isn't exactly a flat road so you always need to be away of where the next marker is haha. anyways, I'm pretty sure him and i will run the 80k stage together (if my body is working right). he has a great attitude and swears even more than i do so it should make for a great run haha. Yesterday and today there has been police and government officials about every km just standing at guard...why? because we're that close to the border of Kazakstan (probably wrong spelling....sorry) and they're there to make sure we stay in China and don't run 50 metres to the right haha wild. The company hosting this race has had to get special permission for all of us to be here.....no foreigner could ever ever be here; quite an epic way to see a country, eh? There are also quite a few locals that stand by the side of the trail....and by a few i mean about 6 for the entire day haha. little kids and people that have most likely never seen foreigners and suddently their seeing these crazy people in tights, sweating buckets, from over 11 countries. They're all so friendly and waving and cheering us on haha its awesome. I've had a lot of time to think about this blog and i know i have more to write but cant seem to remember everything. we're in an amazing location for our camp...its slightly colder here, not sure if its because of the terrain or because we

Hey guys, Keaton here. Jamie is at the first camp here is his letter to everyone- "Flying into Bole was jaw dropping...there were snowy mountains that looked close enough to touch. I met a few competitors in Beijing, two from singapore and one from Barcelona. Awesome people....it was a long layover so it was nice to meet a few humans that spoke english haha. When we got through Urumqi airport and through the single lane security line there were tons of competitors at the gate...suddenly it felt incredibly real. Not like the first day of school feeling but like the first day of camp after going to camp for years and years...7months of training and finally i was completely surrounded by people that have shared a similar journey and were about to begin the toughest 7 days of their lives. It was an awesome feeling. I remember wandering off and going through my back and trying ti get wifi...i read an email my mom sent me (that she's been taking about sending for about a month now hah)..it was a beautiful message mom, thank you! It made me a little emotional and it was truly exactly what i needed to read. People are waiting so I need to hurry...I've met tons of people, incredible people, that I can already tell will become good friends. Were at camp 1 and its stunning...everyone is really anxious to start tomorrow morning at 8am. (I want to start running so bad!!). After talking to many people I'm feeling even more confident about my preperation...i think i may run better than anticipated. Boo yah! Anyways, i can think of a million things to write but I must go. Thanks to everyone for he support...if you send a message to me I

It

When I began training for Gobi I quickly realized running is a mind game. It's said that its 80% mental and 20% physical...couldn't agree more! Everyone learns differently and everyone remembers experiences differently...for me, music is a huge trigger for things I've experienced (good and bad) so for the last 6 months I've been hunting down all the songs that really jack me up and remind me of great times and people. For example I just recently started listening to Metallica again and was instantly reminded of one of the highlights of my life when Fade To Black came on. A few years ago I was managing Toronto's only indoor Bmx park and it was near the end of the night and a few of us were sitting around a table shooting the shit when the topic of backflips came up...at that point I couldn't do them and generally people would learn it huge pits full of foam (to reduce the risk of injury). Well...no time for that haha, the bmxpark I managed didn't have a foam-pit. So, we were talking about backflips and how cool they are and how badly I wanted to learn. Then one of my friends said: "just do it..." now, backflips aren't exactly a trick you just "do" and learn on hard surfaces...there's a hell of a lot of room for error and serious injury (or death). But! I sat and pondered the idea and challenge...I tried flips into a foam pit a few years prior and could recall the basic technique involved. So, I padded up and got in the zone! (Sorry mom!) it took me a while to get out of my head and to stop over thinking it...I just had to pull the trigger, roll in and hold on tight. I probably sat on top of the ramp for 30 minutes before I heard the guitar solo from Fade To Black start blaring. I'm not sure what it was but even replaying that moment and writing about it gets my heart going haha. Anyways, once that came on I went for it. It took 2 days, I broke 2 bikes and 1 phone but I learnt how to backlfip and It's songs like that that will give me the juice I need when I'm struggling in the desert. Woo! What songs do that for you?

Today was the most challenging training day yet. I

I'm a very picky type of sleeper. I NEED the perfect amount of support for my neck and I've been using a memory-foam body pillow to support my hips and shoulders (lots of BMX injuries...). Now here I am about to run 250k across the desert and sleep on the ground. If I wasn't carrying my gear i'd bring my entire bed with me but obviously that isn't an option. It's an entirely new game when you perform based on your recovery (sleep) so I really need to get used to sleeping on my back in my little sleeping bag and with a very small pillow otherwise I wont be performing at my peak during the race. About a month leading up to Gobi I plan on sleeping on my floor with my pad and bag...should prepare me I think.

"Through entering this race (and the running world) I've already met some amazing people and have become friends with a couple of them. Brian Flemming is currently running 250k across the Atacama Desert...right now and about 145 others are on stage 3. Atacama is known as one of the driest and hottest deserts in the world. 7 competitors dropped out before completing the 2nd stage...i'm sure its a good mix of dehydration, hyponatremia, injuries and allowing their minds to wonder into bad places. I can't imagine the devastation of training for months and months and having to end the race before even finishing the 2nd stage... Friends and family, this is exactly why I am training as hard as I am. I refuse to allow anything to get in my way of completing my race across the Gobi." - www.facebook.com/racetoraise

In a rush to go for a run...just copied this from my Facebook page! www.facebook.com/racetoraise Training Update: With about 4 months until race-day in China I really need to step up my training. Now that my patella tendinitis is basically non-existent I'm able to (should be) training 7 days a week in the AM and PM. I brought this up to my friend last night and she said, "But Jamie, you

Over a year and a half ago I went to my first Anthony Robbins seminar in Chicago...it was mind-blowing and one of the days were focussed on health and nutrition. This was when I made the decision to become pescatarian and tried my best to live an alkaline lifestyle. It resulted in me living with more energy, sleeping better and overall feeling healthier. Since then I haven't been sick for more than a day tops. Unfortunately I've managed to catch a sinus/head cold and i'm onto day 2...I'm hoping by shocking and cleansing my system with greens, lemon and some other little tricks i'll be able to fight it off and be good to go for the MEC 10k Winter Run on Sunday. There has been some studies that show this week (of all weeks) is the most depressing...why do you think that is? Frigid weather? Maybe its the week with the least amount of sun? Perhaps a lot of people have just realized they have failed at their new years resolutions? Either way...a fascinating thing about maintaining a balanced alkaline/acid system is that our PSYCHOLOGY has a greater affect than NUTRITION!! Take a moment and think about some people you know...Who appears to be the healthiest? I would bet that the healthiest people you know are also the happiest; they have close to zero stress in their life (or deal with it properly) and they are optimistic. Now look at the people you know that are pessimistic and experience anxiety and stress...I bet they also complain about being sick often. Now, obviously i'm generalizing a bit here but it's amazing how psychology affects your physiology. So, why i'm now 'sick'. Psychology first: since my fundraising event last friday I've felt a large amount of pressure...a lot of doubting myself, doubting my knee, doubting my overall capabilities associated with running Gobi. Asking myself questions like "why am I doing this?" and "who am I to be doing this?". Not only has that been detrimental to my training but the stress and negative emotions have created a lot of acid in my body (which in turn allows bacteria and dis-ease to grow). Nutrition: I've been very busy this week and haven't focussed on #1...my health. My fridge is close to empty, i'm almost out of veggies and I don't even have any green powder...the only green vegetable in my fridge is the last few stalks of celery which are closer to yellow than green because they've been there so long haha. I dislike eating out but because of my schedule i've been forced to. And here I am; sick. Let's see if I can kick this thing in the ass before my my run on Sunday! Jamie www.endprostatecancer.ca

Hi everyone...I probably wont be using this blog too much so please join me my social media accounts (checkout 'blog roll') -I've been recovering from a patella injury the last few weeks...progress has been remarkable to be honest. I've been swimming about a km a day and doing lots of physio and it has paid off! -Since October 1st i've lost a little over 25lbs. I'm now down to 158 and about 10.7% body fat (i'm 5'10") this has mostly been from shifting my eating habits and and training. Pretty amazing to experience results like this. -I've been working on a few fundraising events...should go really well! Woo! Thanks for reading...please join me online, I post a few times a day there! -Jamie B. www.endprostatecancer.ca