The 2018 4Deserts Sahara Race (Namibia) took place from April 29 through May 5 along the Skeleton Coast and Namib Desert in northern Namibia. Eighty-eight competitors appeared at the start line and all but a few completed the 257 kilometer course. We covered roughly the distance of a marathon each of the first three days. That was followed by a 50-mile stage dubbed The Long March. After a day

The penultimate day. Our last marathon day began with a rolling amble up a soft sand and gravel road. About 10 miles in, we encountered a series of small dunes. No

Still standing. Yesterday, we turned inland for the Long March {50M}. The course trended uphill for miles. We found ourselves in a series of long valleys, ringed by rolling hills and buttes. The desert floor was covered in a blanket of green grass. Eventually, the course turned downhill on a long amble to camp. It would have been an easy run, except that we had completed three marathons previously, were still carrying heavy packs and temperatures topped 100 degrees. About six thirty, the sun obligingly dipped beneath a hill,

Halfway home. Challenging day. We started out in heat and finished with a tough 10K slog up a rocky, featureless hill. In between, we enjoyed a 16 mile trek through soft sand on the Skeleton Coast. Save for my presence, completely unspoiled. Seals, dead and alive, and shipwrecks. At one point, the vista was so beautiful, even I stopped to snap a picture. All in all, a grind it out sort of a day. Looking toward tomorrow

Two down. Today

Yesterday, after an orientation session where we were advised where to poo and not to turn over rocks for fear of disturbing scorpions, we boarded buses for the three and a half hour ride to the staging area. We had a grand night getting to know our tentmates before setting off in the morning on our first, 26.5 mile stage. As the Inuit have 50 words for snow and Siberian have 50 words for wind, I expect the Nam people have as many expressions for barren. Nothingness comes in a stunning varieties of tones, textures and landscapes in the Namib. We began by running across a vast sand plain, seemingly infinite in all directions, we then tackled an undulating series of hills, dusted with black, pulverized rock, around mile 16 we slipped past the ocean. Gorgeous. I managed a rumbling slog and wearied under the weight of my 25 pound pack. I arrived in camp 8

After six months of mostly solitary training, I found myself at Johannesburg

On Sunday, I

The mandatory equipment list for the 4 Deserts Sahara Race (Namibia), a 7-day, 250K, self-supported footrace, runs to 35 items. It includes everything from daily essentials such as food and water bottles to survival gear, like a bivvy bag

A two-and-a-half-hour drive from my home, Joshua Tree National Monument has become my preferred training ground as I prepare for the 4Deserts Sahara Run (Nambia) in late April. With a mix of soft sand and rocky trails, Joshua Tree is a fair proxy for the Namib Desert, minus the shipwrecks, seal colonies, jackals and hyenas. As my friend Stig pointed out, it

I registered for the 4 Deserts Sahara Race (which takes place in Namibia) a year ago, but this past September, I was ready to pull out. I had joined my pals, Rob and Stig, for a hike along a section of the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was a tough course, 26 miles at elevation with lots of ups and downs, but even for that, my performance was poor. Barely 10 miles in, I was lagging and shortly thereafter I was reduced to a pathetic shuffle that lasted the rest of the day. My slow pace caused us to miss our shuttle back to town and tried the saintly patience of my mates. All day, I chewed on the thought that I was an arse to think I could run 150 miles through a desert in Africa.

It wasn