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Namib Race Blogs 2012

Shayne Stoik

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Namib Race (2012) blog posts from Shayne Stoik

03 November 2012 12:04 pm (GMT-07:00) Mountain Time(US & Canada)

Sahara rest day,

So, it is all done. 86.3km is a ridiculously long way to go. It was hot and extremely sandy, which lead to some difficulties.

I walked to the first checkpoint, as I was trying to take it easy at the beginning. After I reached I started running a bit and I eventually worked my way up to 35 position by checkpoint 5. By checkpoint 7 it was dark and I was really starting to tire. I walked for most of the last two checkpoints. I was pretty dead when I eventually crossed the finish line at 21:50. My legs were super sore as soon as I laid down and I woke up a few times in the night because of the pain.

The scenery through the valley of the whales was quite lovely. There wasn't as many fossils as was hoping for, but there was plenty of beautiful rock formations that I got pictures of. At checkpoint 5 there was a really beautiful white sand dune that we climbed up. I got some really beautiful pictures of it.

Today we are just resting around the camp waiting for the time to pass. It is really hot, but the campsite is beautiful in a desolate kind of way. When the last competitor crossed the line at 10:30 today, I got to get up on the camel for a few seconds. I got some good shots in front of the bannner.

Tomorrow moring we will take a bus to the pyramids and run the last bit. It is not timed, so I am just going to take pictures of the sphinx and pyramids.

Shayne

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01 November 2012 12:30 pm (GMT-07:00) Mountain Time(US & Canada)

Good news, my leg is feeling better.

Zac, could you email my mom at [email protected] and tell her how to follow my blog please? She send me an email message about not getting updates and I am worried, that she will worry. Thanks for letting me know about Star Wars. It is news that should be told not matter where one is in the world.

Amy, it is not nerdy.

Shri, I remember you and I appreciate your email. The heat here is brutal and the sand is slowly driving me insane.

Before the race one of the Canadian guys was dancing solo in front of the big green Sahara banner. Another Canadian and I joined him and a Canadian got some footage of three Canadians dancing.

Today went better then I expected. I was super paranoid for the first half about my knee, but because there was not that much pain and I was not taking that many pain killers, I started to run in the second half. At the first checkpoint I was 97 spot due to super slow walking, but by the end, I finished at 57th. I am hoping my knee goes strong and I can managed a top 40 finish tomorrow.

The scenery today was once again beautiful and there was mercifully some cloud cover for about half of the race. It was still ridiculously hot, but it was nice to have some relief from the nonstop burning sun. We ran through some amazing plateau's with amazing rock formations and sand that once again went on forever. The sand was a little rockier the second half, so it was much better to run on.

Tomorrow is the long day with 86.3km to go. We get to run through the Valley of the Whales, which should be super cool. I hope I am feeling good and have the energy to take pictures.

One day to go and it is basically all done. We run past the sphinx and the pyramids on the last day.

Shayne

Comments: Total (3) comments

Sam Karras

Posted On: 02 Nov 2012 10:23 pm

Go for top 30. you can do it!

Zachary LaRocque-Walker

Posted On: 01 Nov 2012 06:08 pm

Hey I emailed your mom with the link to the blog, as well as the other way to find the blog so hopefully she can track it down much easier. Glad to hear the leg is doing much better and that you are making up time and I'm certain you will hit the 40 mark. Can't wait to see some pics, keep up the good work. And I agree, Star Wars news like that does need to be shared, it has fellow nerds excited as to what will happen next. Keep it up! THE ZLW

Lisa Cox

Posted On: 01 Nov 2012 01:14 pm

Shayne glad you got your blog set up I was bummed when I couldn't blog you. You are doing awesome. Glad your knee is holding up. You are in a great position I am so proud of you. LISA

31 October 2012 02:18 am (GMT-07:00) Mountain Time(US & Canada)

Today was a long day. I stained a ligiment in my knee at the end of the stage yesterday. I didn't feel it until a half an hour after I got back into camp. I took some motrin and went to sleep. When I woke up it was still sore, so I decided to take it a little easier today. 

The scenery was once again ridiculously beautiful, with sand dunes and rock cliffs as a backset. At checkpoint two we saw a beautiful monastary with a swimming pool near the checkpoint. Several competitors took a dip in the beautiful water.

After the pool we ascended a large sand plateau with a beautiful view at the top.

At check point 4 we came to the top of a plateau that had a beautiful breeze which helped to cool us down.
I made it all right to the end. It was hard and I didn't feel optimal at spots, but I finished. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow and make up some lost ground.

Shayne

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Zachary LaRocque-Walker

Posted On: 31 Oct 2012 06:43 am

Sorry to hear about the ligament problems duder. I hope that you get lots of rest tonight and it feels better for tmrw, i'm sure that you will pick it up though and will do fine. Sounds like the race has been going well and I want to see pics of the monastery and pool. When do you see the pyramids? Side note, Disney bought Lucasfilm for 4 billion dollars, and announced a new star wars for 2015. That's crazy news that you should know ha, take it easy and kill it tmrw.

30 October 2012 12:11 pm (GMT-07:00) Mountain Time(US & Canada)

Today was really hard because of the heat. I was told that it got up to 42 degrees celcius, but I am not sure if this was true. It sure felt like it was though. The heat was nearly unbearable at spots, and there was little to no breeze for the majority of the today.

I started off good and ran most of the way to checkpoint one. The scenery was amazing. There was white sand and a flat plain that seem to go on forever. From checkpoint 1 to two the was more of the same, but with beautiful white sand dunes in the distance. After checkpoint 2 we were running on dunes and there was amazing rock formations off to the side. Right before checkpoint 3 it turned a rock filled type of sand. After a couple kilometers of this there we were running near a cliff and we got to see a beautiful Coptic monastery from on high. A little bit after this we reached a point where the course went turned back into the desert and we were overlooking a beautiful view of white sand mixes among rocks in the distance and a steep drop over sand right in front of us. After we got to the bottom and ran a few kilometers, of we turned back, we saw a massive sandy plateau right behind is and the Coptic monastery to the right.

After we ascended a ridiculous sand plateau, we had many more dunes in front of use before we reached the camp. The camp site was once again on a bed of beautiful white sand. When it came time for sunset, I walked up a dune behind the camp and watched an amazing sunset set amid rocky ridges and shifting dunes of pure sand. After the sun set I turned around and saw a moon that looked to be right out of a movie(Star Wars to be exact).

Shayne

Comments: Total (1) comments

The Zac LaRocque-Walker

Posted On: 30 Oct 2012 04:19 pm

Sounds like things have been going well so far. Me and Amy and Charlie send our regards. Congrats on the performance increases and doing better and better, i'm sure that you'll kill this race. Just think, you'll be able to finish first easily in Antarctica as it's what you train in usually ha. Can't wait to see some pictures, good luck today!

28 October 2012 11:51 am (GMT-07:00) Mountain Time(US & Canada)

I tried to make a blog post right before I left and I don't think that it uploaded. This is unfortunate as I had spent over an hour composing an entry that summarized my adventures in Egypt so far. I guess I will try again.
We left the hotel yesterday at about 13:00 and arrived at the camp site just before 17:00. The camp site was absolutely gorgeous. The tents were resting on white sand with a beautiful blue lake in the background. We arrived about half an hour before sunset, so we got to view a beautiful red sunset amid a beautiful landscape. There was a brief karaoke show where some Korean and Japanese competitors sand Gangam style while dancing, which was, as you can imagine extremely entertaining.
Today we started at 07:00 to try and beat the heat. At the start line we saw two camels with the Sahara race patch attached to each side of the camels. I got some great shots of them.
We took off parallel to the lake which was really nice. It made for nice scenery as we ran. We ran the first leg and then headed out between two lakes. There were called the upper lake and the lower lake. I can only guess that this is in reference to the ancient names of Egypt before it was made into a united land. After this there was mostly sand. There was soft sand, hard sand, sand with rocks and more sand.
It didn't get too hot out here today. I was told it only hit 39 degrees celcius, so it was beautiful weather for running. In all seriousness, it got really hot at places on the course, but there was often a nice breeze that cooled us down, so it wasn't too bad.
The course today was 38.2km or so I believe. I came into camp at 12:23, with a 31st place finish. This is 29 spots better then day one in the Gobi and 70 spots better then in the Atacama I believe. Hopefully I can keep this up, but we will see. It takes a lot more energy to run in the sand. You sink in every step you take which slows you down quite a bit and tires you out. My main goal is to finish this race, so i hope I don't fry my brains out in the sun tomorrow.
Shayne

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