After spending a long hot day recovering from stage 5, all that was left was a short 2 km walk around the pyramids into the finish line. It was expected that everyone that had completed the long day would somehow finish this short last stage. I was recovering ok and was not worried for myself, mostly looking forward to seeing the pyramids up close and finally getting through the beautiful finish line where we had been promised some food and drinks! I did however worry quite a bit about Alex, he was not doing so well. He had woken me in the middle of the night, prior the 2 km stage, and asked if I could get a doctor. He had a high fever and his right cafe was heavily swollen and inflamed, he had tried to get to the bathroom area and almost collapsed, I wasn’t sure how the hell 2km would work if he couldn’t make it 100 meters. Come morning he was doing a little better but his body had more or less shut down from extreme over exertion. Gritting together though he used his poles as crutches and hopped slowly around the pyramids for the length of the course. The pyramids were nice to see and I walked around a bit and took some pictures while waiting on Alex during the stage. We were the last ones in and were met by huge applauses which was quite nice and I could see relief in Alex eyes. The beer was gone by then but there was still a lot of coke and pizza left! I had a few slices and drank a couple cans of coke which tasted very good after have been drinking water every 5 minutes for last week!

It has been a fantastic week and I am extremely happy to have made it through! I want to thank everyone so much for the support and for helping the fight to end the horrible bear bile farming industry. Animal maters mean a lot to me and I am thankful for all who have helped and donated to this cause! Like I usually say, just because a species can’t do mathematics or create art, does not mean they don’t feel joy, sadness, fear, pain or horror. Be thoughtful to the ones we share our planet with and show them some respect and love by letting them be! Observe from the distance and take joy in the wonders of nature! On a final note, don’t forget to live yourself, push yourself to try and experience new things and enjoy the wonders of life!

Thanks again,

Eddie    

The problem with going faster the day prior is that one is more stiff and sore the following day . As I woke I was feeling pretty beat up from the 4 prior days. We started 6:30 am, the same as stages 2-4 and headed out of camp into some great surroundings! During the morning briefing they informed us that they has set stricter cutoff times for this stage with cut off times at every second checkpoint (total of 9 checkpoints). So my original tactics sort of went out the window and I adopted a "just go and see " tactic. Alex and I set off at a hard pace as planned but I kept it to a very fast walk. Checkpoint one, two and three went well and we walked through some amazing scenery, it was really nice! After checkpoint 3 it started getting hot and I slowed down. I noticed Alex wanted to keep up the faster pace so I sent him off ahead after check point 4. I took a little break at 4 and than headed up a big sand dune which stared leg 5 from checkpoint 4. I took it really slow and was doing everything I could to keep cool. I mad it to 5 where I took another break trying to cool off. From 5 to 6 I was feeling very tiered and I had planned to try to speed up a bit now since it was getting cooler again. The sun set and I was enjoying the night sky but was very tiered and hurting. As I got into checkpoint 6 I found Alex there, he seemed to be suffering. This is 60 km into the stage. They had hot water at this checkpoint so we made and had a quick dinner. Alex seemed to be thinking about staying there for a couple of hours more and try to get some rest since we where doing good on time. I told him I was pushing on through but that he should do what he thinks will get him to the finish line. He opted to join me out however and we both staggered out of checkpoint 6 feeling very low and in a lot of pain, but non of us wanting to quit now that we had gotten so far, but 35 km is till 35 km. We went really slow for about 15 min and then we sort of decided that it was not hurting so much more going fast compared to slow. Alex wasn’t using his I-pod so I got to borrow it for a little bit, we set a hard pace and pushed on fast, it was actually really nice, I got new energy from the music and marched hard out into the night. At checkpoint 7 we where still feeling pumped and blasted right through it, now Alex was using the I-pod and we kept hammering! However arriving at checkpoint 8 our hard pace was taking its toll. We both sort of collapsed and lay there with our feet elevated in major pain all over, I told Alex I got morphine at the hospital for less pain when I had surgery  We lay there for about 15-20 min than decided we had to get up, that it was just going to get worse. We only had 18 km left but at that state and at 11:30 pm, 18 km is a LONG way. We staggered out and marched on for another very very silent and painful 4 hours with the only bright side of seeing a lot of falling stars from the beautiful night sky now and than. At 3:29 am we hoppled through the finish (a total of 21 hours) and collapsed in our tent! We made it! Awesome! It was a day of lots of highs and lows, and great sceneries. Right now I am still in some pain and still very tiered, but I will crawl the last 2 or so km, making up stage 6, tomorrow if I have to!   Looking forward to the pizza and beer at the finish!
 
Its been an epic adventure and very beautiful! Thank you all for following along these days and for all you comments! I actually didn’t think I would make it all the way after completing stage 1 and definitely not after completing stage 3, but I made it through! Definitely worth it! See you all at home where I will right my final blog on the very very short stage 6 on Monday but I expect to complete it without any major problems and finish the hole event!
 
All the best!
Eddie 

First off, thank you all so much for your emails and blog comments! It means a lot out here!
 
Stage 4: Lying in my sleeping bag last night my legs where in more pain than they ever have been and my head was spinning with a slight head ace. I thought, how the hell am I going to be able to stand up tomorrow let alone start the stage. Roland was spending his last night with us and I was sure I would join him together with some other competitors on the jeep back come morning (I think 30 something people have dropped out up including stage 3, will see what happens after today, still many people out there). When I woke today I was, to my surprise, feeling a lot better. I knew however that I would not survive another day like stage 3, so I had to change my tactics. I decided I need to spend less time in the sun so opted for a make or break tactic and call off the race for myself at checkpoint 1 if it didn’t work. Alex was easy to convince so right from the start we set off as fast as we could to try to gain as many km as possible during the cooler morning hours. The sand on this stage was more compact which helped and we jogged all the harder flat parts and all down hills and speed walked the rest. By 10 am we had completed well over half the course, we continued to speed walk till check point 3 where we took a little break at midday and than walked more slowly the last 8km to the finish line in the heat. The tactics worked great and I feel very good. Haven felt anything in my heal and now I have the rest of the day to rest and recover till the extreme stage 5 tomorrow, of course I am very sore everywhere though (I don’t think there is anyone here that isn't) and have some heat rashes on my feet, but nothing dangerous. Alex is suffering a bit from some bad blisters since his gators broke the first day and is getting in some sand in his shoes and he has some lower back pain but nothing major and is on a hole also feeling good to go! I assume Roland made it back to Cairo and is now having a cold beer which he has been talking about from the end of stage 1!
 
As for the course today it was quite nice, there was some very open and vast stretches that went on for ever which were a bit psychologically hard but still very nice with some sand dunes at the start and nice rock structures. It was not so windy today at the start which was a bit worrying but by the time noon came around the wind came with it which was a life saver! Tomorrow is the big one and I plan on going out hard again up till noon, than try to get some rest, don’t know how the cut off times will be at the checkpoints yet but ideally I would like to stay in the shade till 4ish than start slow for an hour or two and than hammer again when it cools down and stop at the checkpoint after 60km to eat a hot meal and rest an hour or two than keep going through the night, hopefully it will go well!
 
Now I am off to get some rest!
 
Eddie

Ouuch! Today started great! I felt very good, no pain anywhere! Was a very nice day and at km 24 there was a spring which some of us took a dip in, was very very nice! After the dip the sun had risen to its highest point in the sky and it was very hot, today the sun cooked me and I struggled getting in. Had lots of pain in my legs and the last 9km took me over 3 hours even though it was slightly down hill and flat. But I mad it in in one peace but I am not feeling to hot at the moment, have eaten a bit and now going to get some rest. Alex seems to be doing ok, some blisters and slight cramps but nothing major. Roland however had a tough time. His skin on his shoulders are very sorr, he has blisters on all his toes and heals which leak, and every step he is taking is painful, after km 24 the course beat him and he called off. He is heading back to Cairo tomorrow to shower, eat and get some proper rest!
 
Hopefully I can get some good rest tonight and be fresh in the morning, will see. But all in all it was still very very nice out there and lots of more amazing views!
 
see you all later!
Eddie

What a day! Today started at 6:30am with nice cool temp. It was a lot of loos sand but increadible senary all day! Way out there in the desert and the land scape was amazing. Thet temp at mid day was a bit less than yesterday but it was still tough. I took it a bit slower today and focused on making it to the finish in one peace while enjoying the seroundings, it really comes down to just surviving the day and any thoughts about times or positions have compleatly gone out the window with the exception of course of making it in before the cut off times. Alex was fealing strong today and ran a little part of the course. Rolland however was strugling a lot and almost gave up at one point, but he did finish as well but his hole body seams to be in pain, but he is up and walking around, will see how well he recovers over night. For myself I am doing ok, was quite tiered tourds the end, but I thought about the poor bears and pushed on the last couple of km to be greated by some beating drums at the 2nd stage finish line. My biggest consern is my left achilies tendon which is bothering me a bit from walking all day today and most of yesterday in loos sand. Hopefully it will feal better tomorrow and wont get worse.
 
Looking forward to what tomorrow holds!
 
Take care everyone!
Eddie
 
PS thanks for all your coments on the blog!

I made it! And so did Alex and Roland! Today started at 7am with very nice cool tempreturs! However the first half was all through loos sand which sapped a lot of energy! Roland stayed behind at the half way point to rest a bit more and fix a big blister. Alex and I pressed on, the ground got slightly harder but still soft at many points. The tempeture however went up to 48-49 degrees and the last 10km were really hard. Both Alex and I were quite dehydrated at the end. The water allocation was on the slim side and a lot of competeters seemed to get dyhdrated and a few had to be pulled out of the race already today. Alex and I got in around 3pm and Roland about 45-50 minutes later. Tomorrow awaits a lot of sand dunes!

Tomorrow morning we are heading off to Cairo! Been struggling with my packing today as I have been having trouble getting all the food to fit into my backpack. I did finally get it all in after exchanging my wormer jacket to a thinner one, so hopefully it won’t get to cold in the evenings! J.  I talking to Roland and Alex today as well and they seem to be having the same problems; Roland opted to hang half his stuff on the outside of his pack!

Saturday we check in, get our starting numbers, go through all our mandatory safety gear with the organizers and then head off to camp 1 for the first night. First stage starts at 8:00am Sunday morning!

Hopefully stage one will go well and I’ll talk to you all more than!

Hi, welcome to my blog! 

Here you will be able to find updates on how it is going for me during the Sahara 2010 race. Each evening I will post a couple of lines how the day has gone and how I am holding up (a word or two about Alex and Roland may also be found who are joining me on this adventure). If you are donating to help stop bear bile farming, this is a good place to find out if I have successfully completed a stage or not. (Please see www.justgiving.com/eddiehult)

Hope to see you soon! Until then, have a good one!

Eddie