Bizarrely you get into a routine pretty quickly out here with everyone asleep by 9pm and despite the cold (yes COLD! In the desert) sno one surfaced until 7am. The general idea is to then force down a freeze dried porridge with strawberry’s, strap yourself up and then get to the start line. I’ve found myself another power walker and today finished in just over 7hrs. Not what was intended at the start of this event but without running a step in anger I have been told by veterans than 7hrs is a decent time.

Today’s course was the most scenic so far but also the most challenging, We motored through the first 20km in just under 3hrs and whilst the mountains have been to our right for the last day or so they became a brutal reality as we turned into one of the valleys. I guess the faces of the support team at checkpoint 2 were a mixture of a knowing smile and sympathy but you could more than see why. We turned the corner to enter one of the most stunning parks I have ever been to, we walked directly up the river which has all but dried up with harsh mountainside on both sides. We descended further into the valley and came across a couple of rope bridges, which I can imagine would be good fun if you could see the sheer face we had to climb up. Our good progress came to pretty much a standstill moving at 1km/hr at best. I have borrowed a set of poles which made the climb a bit easier but even so it took 45 mins to get to the top, unfortunately my words cannot describe the view at the top and hopefully some of the photos can do this place justice.

The next 5km would be a dream if you were able to run but unfortunately due to the knee it was a poor mans version of hopscotch. Me and my partner spent the next 30 minutes or so F’ing and blinding, I’m not sure the parents would be particularly proud but it got us through.

Final stage was only 6.5km so we power walked our way to the finish line and a drummer who is still managing to stay enthusiastic. The team out hear never fail to be supportive and in my head we’re over the halfway mark. Another 40km tomorrow, 75km on Friday and the 14km on Saturday doesn’t count, I’ll crawl that bit if I have to.

I’m currently a patchwork of various bandages but I came here to finish this so les see how it goes.

Aside from having a serious dislike of tents the sleeping really isn’t too bad. There is the obvious moving around you get from 170 people in one camp but apart from the odd person deciding 2am is the time to go to the toilet I woke up feeling okay. Its absolutely amazing the backgrounds of people, there are 40 different nationalities being represented here and ages ranging from 20 to 60-ish?! (maybe older). I continue to be impressed by the stamina of some people running most of the day and then staying up until 12 only to get up again at 4am despite the event not starting until 8am. You just see headlights bobbing around and eventually you just have to get out of bed. (If anyone is ever thinking of doing this do not get freeze dried breakfast, find something light and something you actually like the taste of)

So, onto the running/walking, unfortunately after a promising day 1 my race is pretty much run. Turns out I was 22^nd day one but unless something miraculous happens that’ll be the highest I’m going to finish. my body has not even begun to recover from Brighton and I’m now carrying a plethora of injuries. The sprained ankle hasn’t recovered, my right knee has now gone due to persistent impact and as a result of changing the way I move my left shin is now aching. I have genuinely tried to run in patches but unfortunately this is not possible. Don’t worry I’m not planning on quitting the event, I will finish this thing but at this stage it appears that is all it will be. The 39km stage was supposed to be one of the easier ones but I came in 71^st and in about 7 hrs. gutted doesn’t cover it but once I’d finished moaning to myself and pretty much anyone that would listen I’ve started to lift my head and notice what an amazing place this is. When you look beyond the Chinese authorities that are watching us very closely we are in a stunning part of the world. We spent the bulk of today alongside a mountain range which I can only imagine we will be walking through at some point at the course gets towards 2,800metres.

Another 40km tomorrow and who knows maybe the walking will allow a few of the ailments a little bit of time to recover although there are worse ways to spend a week walking through a part of the world very few people have been to.

Lets see what tomorrow brings