I really want to thank all the people that wrote messages to me via the website Indeed,  in the wilderness of the Gobi Desert and after a few days of races it has been a great encouragement.The race is almost over and we have just one rest day after having completing the gruelling long day (77km).
 
To be honest the first 160km went pretty well for me as I was hanging around the top 20-25th place overall which was right in my target. Everyday the landscape where so amazing that it felt like running in a postcard.
Yesterday, was the long day and  I had the chance to be part of the lucky 25 top racers that would start the race 2 hours and 30 minutes after the rest of the racers. We were at the start line and weighted in one of the local village house. Which gave me the opportunity to talk and hang with Dean Karnazes, Juan Encina, Ryan and Stone who where the leader of the pack so far.
At 11 A.M. we started the race and the heat was just incredible the first two stages were supposingly some of the most difficult of the race and then the rest would be flat or rather flat.
You can imagine that it was impossible to follow the pace set by Dean, Ryan, Juan and Stone (from hong kong) at the beginning so I stayed with the Spanish team as they seemed to have about the same pace at me. I was ahead of them on checkpoint 1 and the passed me on checkpoint 2. I thought i would never see them again.  Due to a bit of a hip joint soreness i stopped running and started a very fast pace walk. It was a great experience to see the back of the pack and overtaking the last which i think was team Microsoft at that point. (they just came in as I am writting my blog in 24 hours).
I got to speak to a lot of people and when i reached checkpoint 3 (about 27km in the race) i saw my spanish friends leaving the tent. I just grabbed my water bottles (1.5l) and continued my journey to the next checkpoint. Starting from there the landscape changed dramatically and we were sent on a long downhill water bed with small sharp rocks which gave our feet a pretty rough time. Not only the surface was tough but a very dry and hot wind started to blow and brought the temperature certainly over 40 degrees. When i reached checkpoint 4 I continued on as my pace was just right on and i didn't want to lose the momentum. Checkpoint 5 was filled with people suffering from mild heat stroke ( i pass you the details) and some where just giving up and not continuing on. I continued on my path and caught up with the Spaniard and was leading with still a steady pace. I continued to hydrate and take Electrolyte pills every 3 km to make sure that the heat would not affect me. My legs started to get tight I managed to reach checkpoint 6 (68 km) after around 10 hours and 30 minutes on the road and with the night falling on the desert i headed to the last and final checkpoint of the day wich I reached in about 12 hours and 47 minutes.
 
Overall it was a good day but to be honest i had a better expectation on the route as the last 30 km was spent on a very very long dirt track with no end...
 
So today i will spend most of the day taking care of my feet and prepare for the last day of the race on Satuday morning and try to run the last 14km.
 
See you soon in Hong Kong !!!
 
Sandro
 

Today was supposingly a tough day and sitting here at the  4th base camp i think it was not as bad as yesterday.

I had a great start was in 8th position after reaching Heaven's gate and kept pushing it until checkpoint 3 when the spanish team overtook me... they were looking much stronger than me and i could just not keep up with them. I finished in 6:21 and 20st position. Still 3:10 ahead of the Spanish team overall.

Tomorrow is the long day 77 km in one go. lets see if I can keep my 20st overall position.

I have to write only a short blog today as the internet tent is closing early !

 

Feets are ok, legs are tense but spirit is up !

Another "fun" day in the Gobi. Starting by a rather long village road where I managed to run first for 600 meters before Dean Karnazes caught me :-) it was just to see how the legs were feeling. Today in fact the plan was to run with Fred from Germany. We reached the 1st checkpoint in position 17 and 18 respectively and managed to keep eye on eachother until reaching checkpoint 2. I then was trying to keep the Spanish team at a distance because they are only a few minutes away from me. After a quick refil at checkpoint 3 we had to climb this long winding road starting from 2000 to 2500 meter. Not to mention that I decided to pace myself. I was surprised when I saw Kai Wai from Hong Kong who had a bit of a foot injury he is normaly racing in the top ten. After asking him if he was alright I went ahead and started a fast pace walk as the road was a steady up hill and the surface made of rocks made it difficult to run. Not to mention that by then the temperature was around 40 degrees and we were just cooking out there... Fred went ahead and the spanish team was far behind not insight and i kept my pace Kai Wai passed me and I felt that he regained some strength. The last 5 km where not ending and i took Kai Wai over again. My time was not really fast 5:32 but it was worth to keep some strength for the hardest day tomorrow. I was ranked 20th for this stage and 24th overall. The Spanish team Aranda Aventura is very close behind as I only have a 12 minutes lead on them.