Saturday 01-Nov-2008 was the final leg of the SA2008 event it was a short 5-6KM sprint to the finish line.

We kicked off on a Giza sidestreeet, the "urban" setting was a nice change of scenery, I use the word urban in the loosest possible sense.

Everyone was wired to get to the finish (they promised us Pizza & Booze). We flagged off & everyone was seriously legging it, we wound or way through a few narrow sidestreets, mixing it up with camels donkeys & horses carrying varying loads of Carpets, Firewood & FAT tourists respectively. There was "a good country smell" as we passed by another brace of Camels , I'm not sure if the smell was off them or the 150 sweaty competitors fleecing past.

We rounded a corner & were back onto Desert terrain again, a loose pack sand up a steep embankment, I had elected not to pack my poles away & was glad of them to get me up that hill, I made up a few precious places & all. At the top of the hill we were greeted by the Pyramids on our right & the finishline was also in sight on our left, a few people actually stopped to take pictures but I kept going down the other side of the hill past the Pyramids. We joined a section of road at this stage & jostled for position with tourist buses.  I had made good progress & I reckon I was in the front 30 of the pack at this stage. We continued to follow the road & eventually cut off acrss the Desert again to make for the finish line.

I noticed a number of other competitors approaching the finish from my left & I had assumed that they had taken a shortcut, it turns out those of us near the front had actually strayed off course & added up to 1.5 Km to the course route. Nevermind.

I had a Sprint finish with a British Competitor, I think he may have gotten a few accidental digs in the shins off my poles in the final frenzied 10 metres but thats racin' for ya !!

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Well the race is truly finished & I'm finally back home with family after a rollercoaster of a return trip to Singapore.

To all those that followed my progress through the event in Ireland, The Schtates & Singapore & sent your words of support, especially Denise & SeanOg - Thank you - you can't understand how much they meant to me out there in the middle of the Desert.

To my Tent mates in Alexander the Great -particularly the SA's, ye're a great bunch, always up for the craic!  we all managed to avoid the Dysentry afterall!

To these Cast & Crew of RTP- Sincere thanks! - GOOD JOB! That was an AWESOME event. If I never hear those 3 words again it won't be a day too soon! Seriously though- a Fantastic event from start to finish - well done!

To those of you who said I was cracked in the head & would never make it back alive - I'm still alive!

Well, thats it 99% complete, all the fuss is over & we just have a short sprint stage ahead of us to the Pyramids tomorrow.

If these blogs seem a bit disjointed & all over the place it probably due to tiredness, I'll probably go over them & tidy them up later on, when I get back to civilisation.

150km/ 250km completed!!

We have arrived in the desert about 1 hour ago. It was a long journey to get this far, we spent 8 hours on a bus today travelling across the flattest landscape I've ever seen. The bus drivers were fairly enthusiastic to get us here even drifting around some of the bends. When we got to the end of the road we transferred to Jeeps (the veeehikles) for a 15 minute cross country ride.
 
The tents are pretty big heavy duty canvas affairs with 9 to a tent. I'm sharing with one Yank, 5 south africans & 2 Brazilians, one of them is sponsored by Crocs & is running the whole event in Crocs!!! I hope they're paying him well!
 
RTP put on our last (decent) meal for the next 7 days, there was plenty of carbs & some chicken & lamb kebab, not too bad considering where we are.
It,s 21.35 as I write & its fairly  chilly, 8-10'C at a guess, with a lot of floury sand suspended in the wind.
 
We are flagging off stage one at 08.00 tomo for a 35 to 37 km stage, the sand around camp is quite loose underfoot so it might be a tough first stage.
 
will check in again tomo evening...
 
Ger.

Friday evening the 24-Oct-08

We had some very interesting weather today, the morning started off a little cloudy & cool , we had a thunderstorm with some rain, followed by a sandstorm in the afternoon. The sand was very light & floury & gets in everywhere. This evening it is actually cold, it feels like 10 – 12’C.

 

 

 

We have a scheduled gear check in the morning followed by a 7 hour bus ride to the start line.

One of the racers from the States had a lot of his kit lost by the airline but he has managed to beg borrow & steal from other competitors, so panic over.

Everyone is in good spirits, sitting around discussing pack weights, food types & electrolytes are also a very hot topic, I hope the McDonalds salt sachets I lifted last week are adequate!!

 

 

 

Its 18.20 now & already dark, this could make the night stages longer than previously expected.

 

 

 

I’ll sign off until tomorrow,

Ger

To Family & Friends, I intend to post here every evening, except Thursday the 30 November. You can contact me through e-mail by clicking here

It less than a week until I head off into the Sahara for 250Km of god knows what. The reality is really hitting home today! I laid out all my kit last night & did a final check against the mandatory kit list, I have almost every thing & only 4 non mandatory items: RTP Gaiters, Poles, Buff & HRM.

It looked pretty impressive laid out there on the floor of the spare room. I wonder if I'll be equally impressed on the start line next Sunday when i sling it all on my back & head off across the Desert? - Doubt it!

Having said that I'm glad we did those long training sessions with Hwee Hoon, Joyce & Bernd in the singapore humidity over the last couple of months, I hope they pay off when it comes to showtime!!

I have vac packed all my daily rations into individual bags for ease of retrieval in the Desert. The typical daily ration is as follows:

Breakfast: 1 x Complan serving & 1 x Clif bar

On the trot: 2 x Clif Bar & 2 x Perpetuem servings

Evening meal: 1 x recovery drink, 1 x Freeze dried meal & an Almond Magnum.

This increases for Wednesday & Thursday to prepare for the 100Km overnight stage on Thursday. Average daily intake is 2,200 Cal. Total rations for the week are just about 4Kg.

I hope that the pack will weigh less than 9Kg at the start line & this will be decreasing over the week as I consume the food.

The last week has been pretty easy on the training front, short runs (unloaded). After all the training runs with load over the last 2 months it feels like walking on air when you run unloaded.

See you all in Mediacity on Friday

Ger.