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Namib Race Blogs 2012
5
PostsNamib Race (2012) blog posts from Roger Hanney
03 November 2012 12:17 pm (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
Done!! We got in last night at 11:59:51pm in a totally different mood than any other day this week because the team pulled together and buried itself to chase a goal. Great outcome!
When Greg first put this team together to launch www.borntorun.com.au, the idea that we'd be running as fast as the slowest member and staying together rather than pushing for faster results was entirely alien to Jess and me. Running may often be a team effort, but it's still an individual sport. But yesterday, the thing that really shone through is that Born To Run Foundation's message is not a call to be the best, but to be your best.
Sand halfway up our shins, sunburnt, appallingly slow, and often at odds over how to get it done, we have reached the end of the week by arriving at a happy place. It's a place of focus toward Antarctica, awareness of weaknesses best fortified, and a certainty that the hardest part of the Grand Slam is now behind us.
Of course, we thought as much after Gobi, where the difficulty was much less of our own choosing. Sahara will remain in memory as the hardest hot desert, for her relentless heat, unforgiving surfaces, and our own failings. But this desert will hold a place of breathtaken awe forever.
Now, though, it's Day 6, also known as Cannibal Day when it all goes a bit Lord of the Flies. Nothing to do but stew in the heat, people eyeing each other's food and complaining about the time others take to write blogs and read emails in the Cyber Tent. The only other thing to do is to wait for the sun to go down, then count the hours until our morning buses pull up tomorrow to take us away to the Sphinx and the Pyramids for a final dash to Finish Line beer and pizza.
Hopefully somebody will throw a pile of food into the middle of the campsite this afternoon, so we can watch the zombie walkers explode briefly into action before waddling back to their burrows.
Thank you everyone for your support and every message we receive has been much appreciated. Check out www.bigredrun.com.au and follow Team Born to Run on Facebook.
B2R Sahara 2012, out!
01 November 2012 12:08 pm (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
Hi Jen Davino, you T1 AllStar! : ) Doing my best to keep your boy Seb from eating sugar this week. It's almost as if he doesn't even know it's bad for him. Greetings Stefica - lovely to hear from you, and Natasha, the Bakers, Jane with the lifesaving C2K move, Cristian. Thank you!!
Ran a couple of times today - it was invigorating!! My insulin pump is programmed for a schedule of running a bunch but because we're running a little, erratically, with a lot of long slow hot walking, it's a delicate dance. Basically I throw in a small amount of insulin, then run for a bit to enhance its effects. A nice boot up a hill today around the halfway mark was really enjoyable, a nice rush of adrenaline, cresting a desert valley demarcated by wind-carved mesas and swimming with the pastels of cloud shadow off to the horizon.
Lyrical, lyrical, lyrical. Seriously, as much as it's a bummer to not have my GoPro here with us, capturing the beauty of the Sahara is a job for a professional, like official photographer Scott Manthey, or our guy James Hot Knees.
--- interlude --- SOFT DRINK!!!!! Halloween handouts in camp!!! Racing The Planet subdue the scorched and starving masses with candy and soda pop. Genius!
But yes, we're perched near the top of a sloping table-topped sand mountain, maybe elevated 50 metres above the incredible plain below. It's also dotted by statuesque formations. At our feet, as always here, the crumbling stones and pebbles which dot the sand tell the story of a different time. Shells and spiral-shaped fossils are at our feet.
Early today before the sun took off, Willem from RunWell picked up a little gecko, the largest form of life on the desert floor that we have yet seen, other than a falcon yesterday. There are scorpion tracks quite regularly as well, and we have not yet seen any of the famous and hoped for camel spiders and snakes that are meant to inhabit this region.
The geckos lie buried under the sand with nothing more than their heads - which look exactly like speckled pebbles, even the surface of their eyes - protruding. One exploded from the ground beneath my foot, narrowly avoiding the crushing impact of my supercushioned Hoka as we rolled along today.
Rolled is perhaps an overstatement. If we were a car, you'd call a mechanic. It would take a massive dose of pep to upgrade to a powerhike. It looks like we're aiming for a completion rather than a beasting. This probably works well for me and Ron with Coast2Kosci in 5 weeks time, but it's so frustrating to be out in the hot sun 2 hours per day more than we need to.
Tomorrow, 85km, who knows? Today, cloud cover, mostly hard packed ground, cooling breeze, barely 5km/hr. Other competitors are nauseous from the temperatures and finding their usual nutrition strategies unpleasant. At the same time, though, many are continuing unbothered by the heat.
It's a real battle with the self here this week. As much as this is a potential challenge in any team situation, it seems like we are all so frequently on different pages this week. Ron has noted the absence of a competitive edge. I have seen Jess move faster over the final 50km of her run from Newcastle to Sydney than we did today in a gentle 34 degrees. I have seen Greg more fired up in both other deserts we have raced this year than any time this week.
We're doing all we can to generate a positive frame of mind heading into what will likely be the hardest, longest desert day of the year, even as the end of camp cannibalism sets in and half the tent eats an entire tent's share of Halloween goodies.
It's a camp of contrasts this week. And we're all coming out the other side of tomorrow sandy and scorched.
Comments: Total (9) comments
Inny Hall
Posted On: 02 Nov 2012 03:37 pm
Hey Roger, so much admiration for you all - very tough keeping in a group when you're all fatigued and not able to run the race your own way. Takes massive strength of character to keep together and keep each other going. Hoping you all have a great final stretch to the end. Sending you all positive thoughts and just a little gutted not to be there to play in the sand! Well done all of you, Inny x
adam brownhill
Posted On: 02 Nov 2012 02:00 pm
hey guys well done just one more bit to go hang in there !!
Love Adam
Stefica Key
Posted On: 02 Nov 2012 03:38 am
I wish I had some words of wisdom that would help. Hope the team can pull together and get through the hurdle of the long day. Will be thinking of you all.
Kieron Blackmore
Posted On: 01 Nov 2012 11:50 am
Roger - I won't be impressed if you use this unbelievably tough event as an excuse for not blitzing C2K in a few week's time! It sounds like you are doing it tough out there but you are a tough bunch and you will get through it with smiles on your faces. Wish I was there! Kieron
Diane v
Posted On: 01 Nov 2012 10:20 am
Hi Rog, Trying to gage your mental frame of mind... You sound good!? I'm sure you're all in the thick of it right now, pushing through to get to the end of the 85 km - I hope the team is rallying together more than ever. This desert seems the toughest one so far, and I guess today will be the toughest day so far. No GoPro!? Guess I'll have to wait for the doco! Keep up the good work!
Kristen Stokes
Posted On: 01 Nov 2012 09:13 am
Am guessing that by the time you get this the toughest challenge of your life will be a story of triumph! Sending all the positive energy I can muster for the whole team, and wishing for more of that cool breeze for you all. Cheers. Kristen, Lea's friend
Pauline Evans
Posted On: 01 Nov 2012 07:46 am
Roger, I love reading your blogs and I am afraid that my work colleagues also have to live with hearing your wonderful phrases.. well I cut it down to sharing what I decide is my favourite description each day. I you will just have to guess which one I choose daily! Amongst all of your pain and suffering, I wanted to let you know that Hoka shoe prizes for the Striders Internal Half was announced today in email.. thanking you Roger. The hoka word spreads across the club :-)
Hang in there. Going slowly is so much harder than going fast... well that is what they tell me... one day I would like to try to fast option!!
You know better than most of us that your body tells you when it needs to be looked after. Take care yourselves and especially of Greg. I suspect his body is telling him something. love... p
Brooke Wilson
Posted On: 01 Nov 2012 04:10 am
Hey Roger and Jess I am so proud of you both this is an amazing acheivement that you are doing and it makes me realise that you guys can do anything which in turn means I can to well hopefully. Thinking of you guys always and particularly at the moment wishing you a safe finish to your journey I look forward to hearing all about it when you get back. Love Brooke
Justine Laughton
Posted On: 01 Nov 2012 01:35 am
keep up the great work love reading your blog and sending all my best wishes to you and your team
31 October 2012 02:23 am (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
Hot, sandy, endless, with a touch of 'can we just get there already?'
Day 3 in the Sahara and as Ron said, 'see yesterday's blog post'.
A bit more hopeful today as the team pulled together, Matt got his blood up and Jess used one of her 3 spare gears as Greg scooted past the final medical checkpoint of the day. Very real chance that the dude with the fastest marathon p.b. in the team will find his run again by the long day. Go Greg!
Then again, if it's over 40 degrees again for the long day - Thursday Egypt time, when we run 85km in sand that's hopefully not as soft as most of today's - we're going to the slaughterhouse. It's gonna get ugly - slow, hard, and ugly.
Funnily enough, a number of people prior to this race had said that Sahara is one of the easier deserts. I'm glad I didn't believe them. While 45 degrees and cascading sand dunes make for much better travelling conditions than the dysentery of the Gobi, this classic, stunning desert with its stilled expanses of skin-toned surf is probably the most challenging we have taken on.
We're halfway finished but until we get through the long day, we may as well be at the starting line.
Thank you again to everybody on email and the blog for your support. We are sitting in a little tent with 4 tables and maybe a dozen small computers. They're not connected to the internet. We write in Outlook where everything is saved to Drafts and uploaded later. It's almost more communication than we want, out here on another planet bathed in the light of an ochre fading moon. But it's also barely enough.
Thank you Jane!! I do owe you : ) Mad prep for the long run here. It's a determined walk fest.
Jess says that her blog may have been eaten by the computer, so don't worry everyone : ) she's fine!!
Lots of interest hopefully building for bigredrun.com.au and borntorun.com.au after the Australian launch last week. Maybe there'll be news on that front when we get back next Monday. Time is really flying by. It's hard to believe we'll be running with penguins in about 3 weeks from now. However close we get to the Grand Slam, until we're all through, it's a nice dream. For now, at least, it's a nice dream with back pain and heat rash....
Comments: Total (1) comments
Rob Mason
Posted On: 31 Oct 2012 09:08 am
Rog, It is awesome following your progress. Great to hear that Greg is back and firing. It sounds bloody tough over there. Keep going guys, looking forward to tomorrow's update.
Rob
30 October 2012 01:02 am (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
it's getting hot in here. no, seriously, it's naaaasty hot in the Sahara
Day 2 of the Sahara down and we're gonna be too Burnt to Run at this rate. Hoping for a 7-hour day today, maybe cooler than yesterday. 8 1/2 hours later, everything felt like schnitzel. My thermometer picked up 38 in the shade, but 46 in the sun. The only shade here is the pocket flap on my backpack and none of us are fitting under it, so 46 was the Sahara experience today.
Amazing terrain, breathtaking. When you're running with your head down, the ripples of sand fly under your feet like water under the bow of a boat. There are shells here, but no refreshing waves - only the endless rolling megalithic sand dunes that hurt to climb, with a hilarious run down that is over too soon. Jess has covered the team's condition beautifully in her blog.
I do think the long day will open the door to a different circle of running Hell. The longer we're out, the more we hurt, and there's nothing to suggest the team is going to speed up during the week, even as our food runs down. This is so much more brutal than Atacama - soft slow sand, no shade, exponential heat. It's brilliant, but it's hard to know how to feel about tomorrow.
I think we're very very psyched for Antarctica in a few weeks time for many reasons - mainly that it won't be so fr*ck*ng hot. Thereafter, Coast2Kosci, 240km of no pack, ooh yeah. Gonna feel soooo good.
Jane, if you're reading this, mainly because you're the most reliable ultrarunner in Sydney and I don't have Senor Clear's email with me - could you possibly save my ass by booking my crew and I a cabin at Eden for just the Thursday night? Pleeeease? We'll be back in Sydney Monday night, will make good Tues if that's okay for you. MWAH!
Thank you so much for messages of support Heather, P., Di, Dan, Aaron, Colin. Thank you for thinking of us and sending your support. Every bit helps, these things can be a bit of a rollercoaster as some of you know from previous outings.
Still holding hopes that going slow for 4 days means fresh fast fun for the team on the 85km day, but who knows. We are somewhere amazing, it feels like a large part of the Earth's very history was fired in this kiln that taunts and tantalises us. It's amazing, it hurts, and it feels so good to be challenged daily without any hope for an easy way out.
Truly next level shit here in Egypt.
Comments: Total (5) comments
Stefica Key
Posted On: 30 Oct 2012 08:52 pm
It is a good sign that you can still see beauty in what sounds like a brutal environment. I am sure that is what will stay with you after it is all over and the team triumphs - once again. look forward to reading tomorrows update.
Sandy Suckling
Posted On: 30 Oct 2012 09:32 am
Great effort Roger... keep that team together and bring it home. Oh yes and those sand dunes its a love hate relationship with them I so remember.. enjoy the down hills now that was awesome just loved them.. see you in Antarctica with a nice cold cold drink... Hi to all the team Sandy
Jane Trumper
Posted On: 30 Oct 2012 07:08 am
Lucky I bothered reading ;) Stop pulling stupid faces and look after Greg. You owe me :)
Pauline Evans
Posted On: 30 Oct 2012 03:53 am
Sounds brilliant Roger. As always, love your turn of word as well as your fabulous team effort. Inspiring. Now I bet the bedouin did not go out in this crazy heat. (BTW I can't imagine how you are able to think about C2K at this time!). Looking forward to tomorrow's pearls.
Colin Suckling
Posted On: 30 Oct 2012 03:13 am
Roger as l read you description of the race l can only marvel in how strong your team is. Warm to hot water as no one can imagine when your thirsty. The blessing of the sun going down.
Amazing journey to be told.
Press on - Colin
29 October 2012 02:08 am (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
Day 1 in the Sahara, and it's a run of two distinct halves for Team Born to Run.
Unlike the other deserts this year, it's a 7am rather than 8am start because of the anticipated heat of the day. We had half of today's rubble-strewn, vast and sandy 37km knocked over in 2 1/2 hours. We haven't all run together in a while, so seeing everyone moving steadily enough was great.
But the blow-up came almost immediately that it looked like we might get through the day with no skin lost.
''Everybody okay, how you doing?" asked the checkpoint doctor.
"Ah ha, we're fine," laughed Jess as she finished grabbing some water.
And it did seem as if we were, but then Greg had his bit to say.
"Ah, yeah, I just ... I don't feel too good."
Greg's pet hate has always been heat, over the last month he's been flat out meeting work commitments, launching the Born to Run Foundation, finalising plans and approvals for the Big Red Run, and having a big family wedding. The lack of long hot soft sand running coupled with jet lag and lack of sleep surfaced spectacularly, as the second half of the run took an hour longer and ended in the medical tent.
Greg's in there on a cot now, drinking cold bouillon on top of anti-nausea medication to avoid the race-ending and dreaded i.v. drip. At last count he had drunk 10 litres of water since last putting out the fire, and we all hope his kidneys will flush again soon. Donovan clan, if you're reading this, please don't worry. He's doing all the right things and is in good hands. After scoring 41 degrees on course with my thermometer, tomorrow's just going to be slooooow.
Hitting death march mode on day 1 was unexpected, though, and is at odds with the rest of the Sahara Race experience so far. Amazing landscapes and a simmering sunset and sunrise have been perfect compliments to a great human experience. Sebastien Sasseville, a 4-time iron man (so far) who has summited Everest and already taught me some of his own interesting techniques for managing type 1 diabetes is in our tent, along with the Korean Hoka OneOne team. It's about as cool a tent as you could hope for without also throwing in Teams Japan and Brazil, and maybe Clare and Cristian from Atacama.
Now we just want Greg to be okay. The paradox of desert running with a set start time of 7am is that the only way to beat the heat of the day is to run fast, like Vicente from Wild Wolf, finishing in just over 3 hours today. But without sustaining the early speed, you're saving some time later in the day but still getting ready to hurt when the oven door opens at around 10am. Go slow, though, and stay out longer, in even worse heat. It's a hurt/hurt situation.
The new producer who's working with James is a hard-edged Glaswegian named Lorna. She has that knack of being present without being in anybody's path, but I'm not sure she's yet tuned into the variety of responses she's going to get from us at checkpoints. Matty's very controlled, Jess always has a colourful or insightful idea or observation to share, but when the heat kicked in today, all I had to share were thumb signals and silly faces. Might have to do better on that front.
So now, to suck down more food and make our bags even lighter. Oh yeah, my bag broke too, about 4km in today. The metal pin holding the strap in place at a set height to make the bag reasonably comfortable snapped in half. It all seemed a bit grim until we collaborated and cut an unused length of strap from the bag and used that to pull everything back together. It held well but everything sat too low. It's a longer day tomorrow - in every sense of the phrase. Walking wounded, over 41km, in a sandy furnace where feet sink to the ankle and the air sits dry and unkind below sea level in this basin where 150 other runners are dreaming real.
Should be a cracker!
Comments: Total (3) comments
Colin Suckling
Posted On: 29 Oct 2012 09:20 am
Great description of events Roger, wow cant belive from heat to cold in such a short time, you rock with this fantastic journey you are taking. Keep Well cheers Colin
Diane v
Posted On: 29 Oct 2012 09:04 am
Hi Rog, That "oven door" does not sound appealing!! Sorry to read about Greg. Hope the team is fighting fit tomorrow! Stay strong.
Pauline Evans
Posted On: 29 Oct 2012 03:44 am
Well Roger 'just' giving the thumbs up and funny faces... sounds like a perfect Roger response. I hope Lorna has remembered that drinking and eating in sight of competitors is BANNED! thanks for the update Roger. Wonderful to know what is going on even if it must be a bit bleak for the team. I have no idea how anyone survives that temperature. Good luck with the pack tomorrow. I wish I could materialise a new metal pin for you. take care and enjoy the experience.. P xx
Comments: Total (5) comments
Justine Laughton
Posted On: 04 Nov 2012 12:41 am
Kristen Stokes
Posted On: 04 Nov 2012 12:31 am
Stefica Key
Posted On: 03 Nov 2012 03:04 am
Brooke Wilson
Posted On: 03 Nov 2012 01:39 am
Brooke Wilson
Posted On: 03 Nov 2012 01:39 am