Wow. Wowowow. So strange to think both that we started what we finished over 24 hours ago, and that excluding tomorrows 2k photo op theres not much elsewhere left to run to. Hope you can tell what an amazingly positive experience (yesterday and over the whole 6 days) Ive had thanks to cheery volunteers, dehydrated meal variety and super supportive tentmates.
    Which is not to say that Im certainly not feeling the effects of the race. Consuming about 2,200 calories daily when sedentary Trevor normally runs on about 3,000 has sowed an amazing amount of weight loss out here; my face feels gaunter, muscle mass has been stripped down into energy and everyone lies around camp exhausted and making deals with the local bedouins for bread and canned tuna. The heat has had a suprisingly good effect on curbing appetitite, but its reached the point of the race where talking about the food were going to consume has replaced the perceived importance and frequency of actually eating it.
 
On the list for consumption:
 
-carnitas burrito (super)
-assorted tacos (regular)
-strawberry milkshake (large)
-frozen yogurt (flavor irrelevant)
-grilled cheese
-snow crab omelette
-bread
-sticks of butter
 
    Seems pretty far away at this point though, I guarantee you. Writing this at about 10am as the last of those making the cutoff time from last night continue to filter in (including the Taiwanese, who have literally carried that 10 kilo Prince for the entireity of the race). As for myself, I called it a relatively early night by stumbling deliriously at around 11pm last night, arriving to a sparse camp of sleeping tentmates and Italians smoking weed after their team victory. Like one-day events of this time scale Ive done in the past I knew that Id be running into a whole gamut of emotions out on course, and this as always proved to be true. Fine sand has found its way into everything, meaning among other things that the iPod was out of commission for the long day.
    I was able to pretty successfully zone out for the first 10 or so miles (to awaken to an aid station with cold Coke!), focusing on nothing but trying to quiet my mind and footsteps to a style of minimal consumption. Heat of the day from 11 to 2 was certainly the most challenging part of the day, and I lucked out by finding some good conversation in Frank the British farmer, whos been having his neighbor "watch his farm" so he can hang out here for a week. Hugely different lifestyle from my own in the way of nearly everyone I talk to here. From here (30 miles), accumulating distance was much more about simply slogging it out and I accordingly slowed to a fast walk until about nightfall. Miraculous result, though. The swiftly dropping temperature completely changed the game and imbued me with a completely newfound energy. Not wanting it to fade, I downed a caffeine pill and churned out another yet another 10k, leaving miraculously just the last one to go. Bit disappointing to show up to the last checkpoint hoping to find cheery atmosphere but instead finding two lone volunteers sitting placidly. The fact that neither spoke much English didnt give me much choice but to continue quickly on my way.
    From here, the night sky became so bright that headlamp was no longer necessary and I walked for miles just stumbling from dune to dune, losing the caffeine boost and counting chemlights just to get create some semblance of distance covered. I wish I could tell you I found revelation out there on those last few miles, dear reader, but I think youd have to look back to day three to find me at my worst, on hours slowly ticking by were significant not because I went quickly but because I told myself Id finish and I did.
    Im happy to report that limits can be pushed that much further.
 
Skinnier, happier, sleepier, but loving you guys just the same,
 
Trevor
 
 
A soundtrack for the past few days though:
 
Stage 1 - Radiohead, Bon Iver
 
Stage 2 - Dubstep, Kid Cudi
 
Stage 3 - Rolling Stones, shuffle
 
Stage 4 - Conversation

    Super surreal to be sitting here typing out a blog on the night before the last day of racing- to think that 4 days (not to mention 4 days filled with running) have already passed speaks to how much intensive fun this has been. I can honestly say that each day has provided within itself a unique and at times seemingly insurmountable challenge to experience, which are often determined as frequently by nutritional struggles as they are by purely physical ones. With the end at least somewhat on the horizon tent talk tonight turned to the sheer quantity of food we'll all be consuming once we get back to the real world. I confess unabashedly that entire pizzas sound pretty good at this point, along with the longest showers Ill probably ever enjoy.
    Todays course was at at least a slightly easier one, leaving the dune enclosure of last nights camp to cross three gigantic plains of mixed hard sand and reach camp in an cove created by huge sandstone formations. I spent most of today steadily trekking with Scottish tentmate Fergus in an attempt to save some enrgy for tomorrows double stage. Pleased to note that my legs havent cramped in a while, meaning that everythings set as far as water and electrolyte balance goes, meaning that most of the trouble (the fact that running has been so difficult, primarily) has been coming from aclimatizing to the temperature. Tomorrows concern then will be keeping pace up during the heat of the day, but scaling back enough to take advantage of the cooler temperatures of the evening and night. Tough undeniably, but 55 miles made only slightly more tolerable by the fact that its the almost the last asked of us. Ill be sleeping for days hopefully...
 
Climbed to the top to watch the astonishing sunset tonight in camp, and was quite pleased to stumble upon a few fossilized sand-dollars laying around on the lunar landscape. Taking bids? Will happily trade for calories as well.
 
Running (shuffling) in my sleep and with much love,
 
Trevor

    My god I've started to develop the strangest tanlines. As evidenced by a nasty neckburn picked up today, every exposed patch of skin gets the full baking treatment, particularly in the multiple valley basins of today's exceptionally challenging stage. Started out power walking for the first 5, then followed with more powerwalking, then followed with MORE powerwalking to make my way across empty plain after empty plain and over a soft-sand plateau into camp. Definitely was feeling the heat, and had a pretty rough last few miles with full on inner monologue of doubt and rebuttal. Every day provides something I feel challenges me to my utmost, and I'm pleased to report that the threshold for that utmost feels like it's rising. Reassuring to know that one can push the body towards perceived limitations and still wake up and do it all over again. Realizations of this variety convince me that this is more than worth it when compared to (what are still pleasures, I suppose) training and traveling.
    It's been peculiar to make cerebral observations on a body that's been experiencing so much every day. For example, noticing that you really can't feel much of anything in your legs after so many steps is quite different when they are in fact YOUR legs. I find myself looking up at various point in the day to think to myself: "how did I even get here to such beauty and isolation?" Couple this feeling with an iPod backdrop of desert-esque sounds and I might as well be in Hidalgo. This positive spin (and success in general in stuff like this, it seems) comes from NOT thinking about the events to come, in contrast to nearly every other endeavor most of us take on. Distraction is as much a part of completion as focus; indeed, they are one and the same.
 
    Tomorrow looks slightly easier in distance and terrain, but I'm more just happy to have made it into camp today. Survival meal: Curried Beef with Rice. Savor your real food like life itself dear reader! And take a shower for me.
 
Grimily, exhaustedly, but positively,
 
Trevor

Another rough, mostly sandy day out on course leading to a good first checkpoint (to which I ran nearly the entire way) but much longer 2nd-4th stages after being reduced to a speed walk to cope with the soft sand. Funniest thing about being out here is the complete lack of depth perception; we spend an hour walking towards a small looking feature only to discover it's hundreds of feet tall. Every dune summited produces yet another beyond it, and a lack of mental discipline could spell a huge crushing blow if you're not aware of your distance to the next checkpoint. In what was probably as experientially close I'll ever get to climbing Everest, we power walked a huge dune in the final kilometers thinking it'd drop us right in camp but tragically discovered a huge 2k wide basin left to traverse at the top. Steps are requiring more and more effort, particularly with restricted calories and I'm curious to see how tomorrow will go. Undoutably looks more like a scenic hike than an aggressive run with all the dune ields remaining. Staff have been great about keeping people in high spirits though and it's really been a blast just hanging out in the tent each night, watching competitors steadily trickle in as evening approaches. This all culminates with the camel sweeper rolling in of with the last group of hikers and two huge satchels full of glowsticks, which we could see across the plateau tonight from miles away. Still haven't gotten sick of this place even with sand making it into every crevice of every gear item. Showers anticipated.
Things are getting tough only two days in, but still feeling fully functional and ready to give tomorrow a good shot. Hope everything's well back home!
 
Mouth cramping while yawning,
 
Trevor

    Im beginning to understand why the British were so drawn to this place- the fact that there is literally NOTHING out here for large stretches of terrain makes things very zen. Definitely wasnt feeling very zen today though, as was forced to walk it in after threats of cramping following the 2nd checkpoint. An old caravan road sped things up for a few miles and allowed me to run the first 13 at about 10 minute miles, but rising temperature and limited nutrition options slowed things down considerably after around 10:30. Could certainly be hotter, but adjusting to this environment is a challenge in itself, even when exposed for only a few hours a day. Being out in the open is REALLY being out in the open, and miles would go by today without seeing any shade whatsoever in any direction. Makes one grateful for amenities such as jerky and enclosed cybertents.
    The dissatisfying slip of soft sand underfoot was a bit of a concern though and makes racking up distance quite frustrating. The final miles had a little bit of dizzyness and drove me to step counting as a means of distraction, but judgin by the hobbling in camp things could certainly be worse. I was a bit disappointed with how I felt today, but revising the nutrition strategy and continuing to chug all provided water should hopefully speed things up and keep me running consistently. Things were getting pretty high up on the pain scale towards the end of today, but seeing the crazy feats of strength of some fellow competitors (running in board shorts, for instance, or the group of Taiwanese performers carrying a 10 kilo ceramic "prince" the entire distance of the course) makes regular racing seem much more manageable.
    Further in the world of zen, I woke up around 4 this morning to go check out a razor-sharp and unobstructed night sky, though one could still pick out the gentle glow of light pollution from Cairo off to the Northwest. Being this isolated (and finishing at noonish every day) creates a very unique environment, and one radically different from any other I've previously raced in. We've got a super sociable tent, including the current race leader, which is a nice plus as well. Just being able to collapse and get some sleep immediately after finishing provided huge motivation to get in in a timely manner.
 
Headed off to catch an afternoon nap and finish up the 2nd of our 3 allocated camp bottles, but will post again after tomorrow's stage: slightly longer in distance and filled with soft-sand dunes. Wish me luck...
 
Sandy sandy love,
 
Trevor

    After going through the various check-in/checklists of today, weve made it out to the first camp in what is most definitely the desert. Camp is situated next to a deep cerulean lake about 3.5 hours outside of the city on a mix of hard and soft sandy terrain for tackling tomorrow. 10 to a tent reminds me quite a lot of squeezing into AT shelters, alternating head to feet to save space and begining the slow but steady process by which everyone begins to smell unbearable but no one seems to care. Spent the evening moving from tent to groups of clustered competitors, guessing language spoken by nationality arm patch and stumbling into some Italian practice by mistake. Everyones been super friendly, particularly those going on their 10th plus Racing the Planet event.
 
    As we were closing up rehydrated dinner, traditional Bedouin music suddenly took up right next to us and I now sit tapping away while competitors of all ages clap along off down by the fire. Our sitting group burst out into grins immediately. Im just suddenly struck by how concretely far away all of this is when there;s nothing around you to provide distraction. This place is more like being on the moon than it is being in any particular city. Email and blogs are a definite luxury (of which I get one of either per day), particularly after driving through towns strewn with trash and characterised by a poverty I haven;t seen in a long long while. Brings stupid little things like breaking a spork right into perspective.
 
Definitely nervous for tomorrow and missing home a bit, but excited to see how things fall out tomorrow on course. The beginning of something crazy...
 
Write more tomorrow!
 
Trevor

For those wondering if everything's gone to plan so far, I can happily report that I made it here without incident (thanks to a super efficient 5-minute customs experience and hotel staff who have clearly run this rodeo before). Flights from San Francisco to Cairo have landed me in the lobby of a starkly modern and quite beautiful Inception-esque hotel, watching competitors of all nationalities (tanned and non) stroll by in short shorts and hotel slippers. Totally underepresents how gross and sweaty things are about to get. Soooo sweaty... Today, it seems, is the day for second-guessing everything. With nothing to do in the morning but sit around and consume buffet fruit the mind inevitably turns to questioning the plan as constructed so far, particularly when seeing other competitors and their gear. Fitness, training, gear choice and nutrition plan are all given a hefty dose of reexamination. A plastic ziploc with 800 calories of drink mix suddenly take on a hugely heightened significance. Not that this process is out of the ordinary; normally, all this doubt would occur in a trailhead parking lot, so I guess its preferable to have it happen with time still to spare and in such a beautiful location. Inevitably, this leads to stupid ways to save weight without sacrificing performance. Case in point: cutting off the corners of the dehydrated meal packets to save packaging weight for a savings that will in all likelihood make no difference at all. Other stupid questions: Will I feel anything from the 10 calorie difference between flavors of ProBar? Does it make a difference if the pack straps compression straps are on the inside vs. the outside of the pack mesh? Is that back twinge real or just phantom pain? When Mel Gibson marries his dead wife's sister in The Patriot, shouldn't his kids find that kind of weird? Don't you find that weird? Different strokes for different folks? Meandering and doubting paragraphs aside though, I should stress that I'm more just excited and rearing to get going. I'm feeling cautiously confident, and can't wait for the days ahead. This afternoon will hopefully afford the opportunity to head into downtown Cairo to explore a little bit. My Arabic is definitely not where it should be, but given that this is a city where East meets West and one renowned for its hospitality at that, I can't imagine that should be of too much trouble. I'll have a few days to travel after the race, but with one of the world's greatest cities sprawling out before you in a hazy kaleidoscope it's tough to sit still. Tomorrow begins at 8 am, with a group breakfast and mandatory gear check, before we jock-up and take a 3.5 hour drive into the desert. Getting sleep will undoubtedly be tough tonight with so much in store. I should add another huge thank you to the family, friends and other donors who made this trip and the conjoined donation to Water.org possible. This place is so far from home and comfort, but I can't stress enough how exciting this all has been (and nothing's even happened yet!). Love, Trevor