Well it is all over. Saturday was the last leg into a town on the outside of Kashgar. 15km over gravel roads and of course a couple of kms on riverbeds before finishing at a local school. The start was staggered between 9 and 11am so that everyone would finish close to each other at the end. I started at 10am and managed to run the whole of the last stage, finishing at 11:35am. A painful final 15kms on the feet but a fantastic welcome at the school by cheering kids and relief to have completed the race. As promised there was cold beer and food piled on which was fantastic. At stages during the race and at the end, the frisbees which have been purchased for charity have been handed out to the local kids. I think it is the first time most have seen a frisbee and it has been wonderful to see them all smiling and having fun after a couple of practice throws. Thank you to everyone who purchased frisbees helping raise funds for charity. Thanks also for all the comments that have been left on the blog. I look forward to going through those and reviewing the photographs and video clips with my legs up and a cold beer in hand. Mike

The big day is over. A brutal day up and down valleys, across dry river beds in incredible heat. The day started early with everyone being woken at 5am to board busses for a 2 hour drive to the start point. This was to avoid some swollen rivers that could not be crossed safely.
 
8:30am we started and initially climbed up over hills for about 9km before descending down along a valley and river bed for 10kms. The river beds are no fun at all. Loose stones everywhere, difficult to walk on and keep going in a direct route. You end up winding down through the small gulleys looking for any small piece of sand to put your feet rather than on the rocks. From there the stage headed back up over rolling hills to the base of some snow capped mountains before passing through a couple of small villages and then descending to the 40km check point. After that it was a long hard walk across more river beds for about 20kms and then passing on to gravel roads.
 
Your feet start burning up very quickly and the pain from blisters just intensifies. With the heat, your feet swell up and that just adds to the pressure. My feet held out fairly well during the day and I only picked up one new blister. At the end of Day 4, I had 3 blisters developing under toenails.  The trick the medics use is to pierce through your toenail with a needle to let the fluid drain and then bandage the toes. A painful experience.
 
During the day you end up walking with different people who are at a similar speed to youself . I walked all day yesterday with a friend from Hong Kong, pushing each other along at different stages. We arrived at Checkpoint 6 (about 60km) at 8:30pm, exactly 12 hours after starting and sat down for the first time, resting for about 20minutes. We had been moving through the checkpoints quite quickly in the day just stopping long enough to refill our water bottles, grab another energy bar out of the backpack and head out.
 
At 10pm the sun set and at about 11pm we arrived at checkpoint 7, the start of the last 9km stretch to camp. At this point you need to put on headlights and follow a trail of glowsticks that have been setout to mark the course route. We had managed to get out of the river beds before it became dark so luckily the final stretch in the dark was along a gravel road into a village. It went on forever and you are continuously hoping that the camp will be round the next corner. My legs and feet were throbbing.
 
We made it into camp finally at 1:20am, a little short of 17 hours after starting in the morning. A long, long day.  
27 hours after the start, some of the final competitors are still coming into camp. They would have rested at some of the checkpoints during the day and evening so an even longer day for some.
 
Everyone is now just very relieved the Long March is over. Today Friday is a rest day before the final push tomorrow into Kashgar. This stage is only 14kms so we should finish up by late morning sometime and I'm told there will be spread of food and cold beers waiting. After living out of a backpack for 6 days eating freeze dried food and energy bars, everyone is talking about  their first proper meal and what it will be.  
 
I will post a final update after the finish on Saturday. Thanks to everyone who has left comments on the blog. We don't actually get to see them until we are back in civilisation and can get proper internet access.
 
14km more to go and then it is all done. I am looking forward to that moment.

A long day today. Started from camp 3 and headed up to an area called Heaven's Gate about 6km away. The area very mountainous and the first section consisting of narrow valleys with cliffs on either side. Some areas only wide enough for one person to pass at a time while clambering up ladders. Luckily we could leave our backpacks for about 3 km so it felt a lot easier on the feet.

 

At the top of Heaven's Gate is Shipton's Arch which is the tallest free standing natural arch in the world. We climbed up right under it and then started the long descend for the rest of the day. The arch itself quite spectacular and somewhere you would want to spend a bit more time to enjoy if not for having to hike a further 35kms down the valley. The day was long stretches up and down through wide valleys, dry river beds over loose stones and sand. Tough on the feet and not much option to run.

 

Today was slightly shorter than the ususal 40km but still a long day. First 2 stages (about 20kms) went through village areas with lots of trees and farmland. Nice and cool compared to yesterday but that quickly changed with the start of stage 3, 10km up a dry river bed and valley. There was a climb out of the valley and down into the next before we found the stage 3 end point at about the 30km mark. Stage 4 a long 8.5km ascent up another river bed and valley to camp, Always a very welcome sight.
 
Stages 3 and 4 difficult walking on loose stone and river sand pretty much all of the way. Heat also incredible again like the last 2 days and somewhere in the mid 40 degrees celcius range if not closing in on 50. There is no real shade anywhere once you get into the open valleys and plains. You need to drink a lot of water and the trick is to try work out how much you need for each stage so that you are not carrying unncessary weight
 
I felt okay today and managed to finish in 6hours and 50 minutes, coming in quite a bit earlier than the last few days. Into stage 2 I started to run a bit which helped reduce the pain in the legs. My IT bands along the outside of my thighs have been bothering me incredibly the last few days but with the change in stance with running, it certainly helped. Blisters holding out okay and only one getting a littlle worse today.