A shorter blog today I think as some of my previous entries have been a little long!
Day three was absolutely brutal. Brutal, brutal, brutal. Horrible surfaces, hot hot sun, sand dunes and pain. So much pain. The finish was at the top of a 45 degree sandy slope and I got over the line, threw down my poles and felt like bursting into tears. I managed to keep it together until I got to the medical tent and then, as the doctor drained one of my many blisters of blood, I firstly felt faint and had to lie on the floor, and then starting blubbing in front of the three doctors who politely tried to ignore me! I felt so physically and emotionally drained that I could not hold it together. Embarrasing, but unavoidable as I had given every ounce of energy I had – easily the toughest physical test in my life……so far.
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Hi All,
Once again a huge thank you for all the emails and blog comments of support and wishes – very much appreciated and it is a huge help. Please please keep them coming.
I have just (I finished stage 6 hours ago) found the energy to type a blog – please tolerate poor spelling, grammer and lack of capitals from now on. Read more
Another brutal day (is there an easy one!) with 45 degrees of heat. Today the course included, salt flats (not at all flat and very difficult to find a secure foothold), some dust road (beautiful, beautiful road!), scrubland (see comments for salt flats) and 10km of sand dunes to end (big, big dunes, 200-300m high – nothing like the seaside). Saying that though, it was quite an enjoyable day, once i had banished the foot pain to the back of my mind it was quite theraputic to count off the miles.
After a relatively good night’s sleep (went to bed at 8.30!) we headed out onto the course at 8am. Within five minutes we had our first of over river crossings. We then went uphill to a nasty rocky section where it was ankle-twisting territory if you tried to run. So Gibbo and I walked across it carefully. I tried to run but I tripped over and landed flat on my face cutting my hand and grazing my elbow. My big toe, which thumped into the rock now has a huge blister under the toe which the doctor has now drained by drilling a needle through the nail!
Tom Soper and Chris Gibson on Stage 2 (RacingThePlanet Ltd/Zandy Mangold)
Before I drone on about myself and today’s stage, I want to take a moment to mention Soper’s heroic effort yesterday and an even bigger performance today – he’s pulling out all the stops.
There is a Brit girl in our tent – Wanda Summers (cool name!). Following a paragliding accident 18 months ago, she broke her back and was paralysed for 4 months. Made a miraculous recovery and is here running the AC2011. She can.t feel her toes (pretty useful for blister pain!!) and her knee gives way unannounced due to nerve damage. It took her 11 (eleven) hours yesterday. She arrived at the finish line in last place to an almighty welcome and all competitors waited for her and clapped her in. Sensational!
Running the river canyon (RacingThePlanet Ltd/Zandy)
