In this final blog I shall focus on lessons learned from what was for me overall a fantastic race. At the start of the race if you offered me 13^th overall and age group winner I’d have been more than happy with that. However I still finished with a feeling of disappointment because on the long day (which is the focal point of the race) I was not able to perform as I would have wished. Such is life and it is a fool who doesn’t learn from his disappointments and mistakes. As Ghandi / Mandela or one of those other long distance running gurus said “It’s not about whether you fall down, it’s about how you pick yourself up

Things that Worked for Me

 

I made a number of changes from my previous desert run and some of these worked and some didn’t

(1)   Lighter Bag – a huge drop from 16.5kg at the start of the Gobi to 10.5kg at the start of this race produced major benefits for me. Whilst 10.5kg was still towards the heavy side it was certainly a far more comfortable weight. That’s not to say I will not try to get lighter next time of course

(2)   Training with a Heavier Bag – all my training was done with 8kg of rice and 4.5 litres of water plus a few other bits and pieces. This meant when I put on the 10.5 kg bag my reaction was more “Not bad” than “ I have to carry this goddam thing how far?”. At no time did I feel the bag to be a burden

(3)   Taking treats – There have been few moments in my life as joyous as that on the Friday after the long day when the thought of Expedition Food was enough to have made me hurl, I discovered 4 jelly babies in a pocket of my backpack. I was sure I had finished them all the night before. Never has that combination of Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Water, Gelatine, Citric Acid and Flavourings tasted so good. I relished each and every one of them and shed a small tear as the last piece slipped down my throat

(4)   Compression Bag for storing sleeping bag – as well as getting weight down it is necessary to get everything as compact as possible. I am useless at rolling a sleeping bag to its smallest possible size but fear not there is a solution at hand. The purchase of this was a necessity as I had somehow contrived to lose the original bag in the Gobi in 2012. It proved to be a godsend. Roll your bag to any sort of standard then simply start to pour into the compression bag. Once it’s in use the straps to compact to the lowest possible volume. I saw tend mates spending ages rolling, re-rolling and squeezing all possible air out of their sleeping bags to get them compact. No such problems for me.  

(5)   Hokka Shoes – these I had previously dismissed as clown shoes when I had seen guys on HK trails with them. That I was able to walk with no discomfort the day following the race is testament to their cushioning properties. The entire extent of the damage to my feet was one small blood blister on day 2 which the doctor burst and taped and which caused me no discomfort at all after that. This was a dramatic turnaround from the Gobi in 2012 and much better than many of the feet I saw when I went to the medical tent to get the sand out my eye. Grateful thanks therefore to Matt at RTP for persuading me to give them a try. I won’t be using anything else off the road for a good while.

I also seem to benefit from having feet not particularly prone to blisters compared to others. I am not sure why this is. It could just be good luck but I think that whilst I have no firm regime for toughening my feet I do run in a great variety of shoes and I spend a lot of time in bare feet or sandals only. I think this contributes to fairly tough feet. Multi stage desert races are no place for feet with beautifully smooth soft skin.

(6)   Taking bread and sardines for a meal on the Saturday before the race – I saw many people happily downing dehydrated food on the Saturday as I did when I did the Gobi. I chose to buy some food locally and take that instead. This turned out to be very wise as after 3 days of dehydrated food I wasn’t able to keep them down any more. I think this contributed in part to my poor performance on the long stage and if I had gone the dehydrated route on Saturday this may have struck a day earlier

 

Things that didn’t work for me / Lessons Learned

 

 

(1)   Taking Kindle – despite being told it was unnecessary weight I took it along. I did not look at it the entire week. Did it affect my result ? I can’t imagine it had a huge impact but it was certainly unnecessary weight. I won’t repeat.

(2)   Too many batteries – As well as a spare torch I took along spare batteries for my headlamp and the spare torch. All I used the entire week was the headlamp which is still going strong. I’d have hated to have run out of light source on the tricky downward finish but this also has to go down as excess weight

(3)   Test the firmness of the poles holding up the toilet covers before grabbing on – This happened to a friend (honest). After the end of the long day he had to make use of the facilities. Like many westerners unused to crouching toilet, hidden danger he was not that comfortable in holding the necessary position. Never more so than after having completed 245km hiking through the desert. As was common he used the pole holding up the cover to hold himself in position. Imagine his horror when the pole started to give way and he started heading backwards towards the hole of doom. Despite extremely painful and distinctly wobbly legs he managed to arrest his descent in time. I suspect there is never a good time to fall in to a hole full of others’ bodily waste but there can be few worse than when you are at least 5km from the nearest running water with only 3 wet wipes to repair the damage.

(4)   Food – the dehydrated meals proved fairly disastrous for me. I am not sure why this was or whether I should have foreseen this. I used them in the Gobi without a problem (other than boredom with the taste) but in Jordan they were making me gag. So much so I didn’t finish on the Tue or Wed night and I didn’t even bother trying on the Thu or Fri preferring just to go hungry. As a result I may have not eaten the required amount of calories and this may have contributed to the dizziness, increased heart rate and general lethargy I was feeling. Post race bingeing certainly seems to have cleared the problem up. I will definitely have to re-think food for the next one. At the moment I am leaning towards porage as a source I feel I can rely on without any issues but I probably need to find a higher cal / weight ratio version if it exists as my current breakfast is a measly 4 cal per gram.

(5)   Poor bag organization. I gave far too little thought to organizing things in my bag. The wise runner will have everything easily to hand and will have thought through the entire week and what he will need when. I was not the wise runner. Too used to running marathons where the only requirement is turn up, make sure you have your number pinned on and a couple of gels in your pocket I took a cavalier “winging it” approach. As a result I was constantly stressing, unpacking and repacking and never got it together sufficiently. This time would have been better spent on stretching and recovery

(6)   Pacing – My performance on the long stage was way below what it should have been. I think partly this was done to food problems but also possibly due to holding nothing back for it. I ran every stage if not flat out (my shuffling does not merit that label) at least as if it was a one off race, looking to finish it as soon as possible. I am sure there are better tactics. I am not sure how I can learn them without doing many more events so this is a mistake I’ll probably repeat

(7)   Lack of preparation – I spent too much time running other races of different types in the build up to this one. This meant that instead of focused specific training I was training for road races, tapering and recovering much of the time. My performance would have been better if I focused properly on this event and trained accordingly.

 

None of the negatives takes away the fact that I had an amazing time at this race. Particular highlights were meeting up with old friends from the Gobi, getting to know some of the guys closer to the front of the race this time and if one part of the race stands out it was probably when we ran into a bunch of tourists on camels. I doubt they will ever know how much their cries of “Go Scotland” lifted me and when people talk about running highs it doesn’t get any better than that. I also felt particularly inspired by the blind competitor. No matter how tough I felt it got, no matter how many stones I kicked, times I slipped on that hellish descent to Camp 5 I knew there was a guy out there overcoming much greater hurdles. I spoke to him just after the finish and have to say his cheerfulness put me to shame.

 

When I got back there were many questions from people who knew I was doing it. The two main ones were

(1)   How do you keep going, where does the determination come from? and

(2)   What do you think about / don’t you get bored

 

The first one I can’t really answer. I just know that unless I am actually physically unable to continue then I am going to finish. I may be slow but I’ll get there

As regards the second one the question baffles me. I have never run out of things to think about. I have never been bored on a run. Generally on the course I am having a great time. I can only imagine people asking this have never spent an hour on a conference call on how to comply with Reg W requirements

First 4 stages of the race were a dream for me – virtually all runnable

Yesterday was my nightmare. Was going well until just after checkpoint 1 – so not very far really – then  just hit a wall. Possibly it was the heat in the canyon possibly it was a result of puking up the delicious  and nutritious expedition foods. Tried to compensate with some sesame seeds but don’t think it was enough. As a result I saw a lot of unfamiliar faces go past and I could do nothing about it but watch

Lots of steep uphills and lots of rocky ankle breaking terrain which I am always rubbish at tackling. Even had to take a minute out on some of  the hills as I was getting light headed   and for some reason couldn’t stop yawning. Over eat on electrolytes, used a tube and haf of Nuun and countless endurolytes as well as all the gels and bars I had left. Managed to lose a gel as well and that was my cue for another  breakdown

Last two stages I walked in  with my new best buddy scott who had been running the same sort of times as me during the week as me and was having similar issues. I think we helped each other get through it and I really don’t know if I could have done it myself. The last 2km were truly crazy scrambling down a rocky hillside in the pitch  dark. I managed to scrape my knee a very slight amount but otherwise no injuries which s a great result for me.

I may have just about managed to hang  on to the lead in the age group but yesterday really wasn’t about that for me. The first 4 days I was competing and am very pleased with how I did. Yesterday was about surviving and in a strange way I am probably prouder of that. 2 big lessons are I should stick to running on roads and I should never enter  events that finish in the dark. Hopefully I’ll learn from this but somehow sitting in comfort in hk these extreme races have a strange allure

 

I am really looking forward now to the sanity of the Manchester marathon in april and comrades in june. Definitely more my kind of running ad after yesterday should be abreeze.

Thank you for all your comments. I’d have loved to have hung on to my lofty position but truth is I got my ass kicked by the course and there have been many lessons to take away from that. First one I think is to show the event a lot more respect. My race  schedule before this was crazy so if I do one of these again I have to do no racing at least  3 months before

I know Kirsten is very  pleased with the fund raising efforts so far but if you  do have a few dollars you’d like to give please do so.

Today is rest day, tomorrow I believe is not timed. Rumors are sweeping the camp the organisers will hand out pepsi this afternoon. This may be wishful thinking. Right now post race mcdonalds craving is kicking in big time. Glad it is done and  I’ll do a fuller blog on the experience when  I get back which I hope can help some future participants or at least give some food for thought.

Looking forward to the simple comforts of normal life again – a sit down toilet, a fridge full of coke zero a sofa and a dvd player. What more could you want

Short blog as it is almost 6 oclock and time for bed

Running is going well and I see I was in the lead for the old geezers class at the end of stage 3

I was 12^th today so think this should be good enough to keep that place

It’s all about tomorrow though and keeping it together for the long stage. Would be nice to win the prize but that’s not really what I came for so if it doesn’t work out I still have had a great experience.

The only problem has been food. The expedition meals are not working out at all and I am leaving them unfinished. Fortunately I have enough other food to make up the calories so should  get through ok. I am like everyone  looking forward to some real food though in  a few days,

Loving it here but look forward to getting it done

Day 3 done and although not quite halfway in distance there is a distinct feeling that tomorrow we begin the run home.

One more normal day tomorrow and then the long day to come

No worries about tomorrow – worst case I’ll walk it in. so far the course has been mostly runnable although the speed I am moving at could barely pass as running

It  seems every day brings a fresh challenge in camp. First day it was rain, second the cold and tonight looks like being wind. The staff and volunteers are doing a great job of making us if not comfortable then at least staying alive and relatively sane

Had to make a few too many toilet trips in the cold and dark last night as the   dreaded Jordan jips struck. 4 immodium later it seems the flood has been stemmed. If it wasn’t for the fact that lights out here is 6pm and we get up at 6am then I may have been fatigued by this but as it is all is well

Running today was harder than previous days, just no  spring in the legs as the previous days have caught up. Will do a bit of stretching tonight but could really do with an  ice bath to freshen them up.

Tomorrow should be fine and the long day will   just be  a battle of endurance but once this is done we are finished as final day is little more than a lap of honour.

I have been very pleased that I have managed to raise a decent sum for Kirsten’s Zoo but if you haven’t given yet please think about doing so. Any amount can make  a difference and will be well used in the great work they do

Sorry for not posting blog yesterdsy but conditions were pretty bad with cold and rain so only wanted to lie in the comfort of our luxury tents

They told it would be cold but being Scottish I knew this was something I could handle no problem – big mistske

We had a cold night or two whenI did the gobi 2 years ago. This meant I had to fully zip up my sleeping bag and pull over the hood

Laast night I had a liner, the same sleeping bag and my survival bivvy as well as wearing every piece of clothing I have brought. I was still cold and only got comfortable when the organisers threw us some blankets

Accomadation is pretty basic and I wasn’t surre what to tell the americwn chap when he asked me where the bathroom was. I pointed him to the the hile in the ground and hoped he would not hold it against me. If at all possible it is definitely worth making your visits early in the day. Alternatively make friends with the chap with the unenviable job of throwing sand over the doings of 200  or so runners.

So far the running has gone well and I have been quite content to  come in under 5 hours each day. I have no expectations re placing I just want to leave knowing I gave it what I could. I think for the first two days at least I have managed that

Saw three camels today, all dead. That is another smell I could live without in future

Time is pressing and the keyboard is small so no time for anymore. i am afraid this is all a bit rambly and unstructured but on  return to civilization I will post a fuller story

Believe it or not the running is the easy part of this thing

I went for my first run since the China Coast Marathon and it was painful. Clearly the quads have not recovered. As I knew it was going to be a bit ropey I decided I

Since I am running for an animal charity I feel I should point out ways in which dogs can help us, particularly in relation to the race we will soon be taking part in. It may surprise you to learn that dogs can in fact serve a very useful purpose as a navigational aid

As all competitors know, a compass is part of the mandatory equipment for the race. Anyone who has done one of the races however will tell you this is purely for decoration purposes as you just follow the pink flags. The experienced competitor will therefore buy the smallest, cheapest piece of plastic that could possibly call itself a compass.

With this in mind my attention was piqued when a guest on an American chat show (it was Kevin Bacon I believe) disclosed a particularly useful nugget that it is worth keeping in mind in the extremely unlikely event you get lost in the desert. Dogs always face north when they poo. Apparently the canine bottom is so attuned to the magnetic core of the planet that it is in this position and this position only that Fido feels comfortable enough to let go. Now clearly this may not be the case if Fido has had 12 pints of Guinness and a dodgy curry the night before, in which case he will thank his lucky stars he is in fact a dog and has no need to seek the privacy of a public lavatory – or at least a decent sized bush - and will simply let go whichever way he is facing, but absent that unlikely scenario this information could prove invaluable.

Since even the lightest dog – the sort the placenta slapping ladies of HK carry in their shopping bags – is going to weigh more than a GPS I am not suggesting you should carry one with you. That would be stupid.  However it may be worth your while carrying a few squares of laxative chocolate so should you happen to lose your way and come across a local mutt you will have the necessary means to check the accuracy of the dodgy compass you bought to save 10g in pack weight. Be careful however not to mix it with your end of run treat though or your result and indeed enjoyment of the race could be seriously impacted by the amount of time you spend facing north the next day.

There has been no real training this week for me as my legs were not in good shape after Sunday’s marathon. I am normally ok after a marathon but my schedule of races since September has been fairly heavy. I have managed PB’s in them all so there has been no hanging back which would have been the sensible thing to do. I have therefore spent the week using the elliptical in the gym. It’s not running but at least it burns a few calories and helps prevent pre race weight gain. I may be wrong in this but I think it actually helps recovery after a race by getting the legs moving again as compared to doing nothing. I have got stronger as the week has gone on so next week I plan to be back out running and hopefully by the weekend I’ll have the backpack on again.

I received notification during the week that my gym is closing down as another victim of continuing rental increases in Hong Kong. Notwithstanding this I was informed that I must resign in writing if I didn’t want to continue to pay monthly membership. Apparently in Hong Kong it is entirely reasonable and legal to charge you for membership of a nonexistent gym unless you explicitly tell them you’d rather not pay.  As the resignation has to go to the gym manager I am not sure what happens if you decide you’d rather stop paying after they close. Do they continue to employ a manager for the nonexistent gym so you can send him the letter or is an imaginary  resignation letter to an imaginary manager of the imaginary gym enough to absolve you of liability? Such is the Alice in Wonderland world of HK Customer Service – a place where when your cable tv company decides to change decoders they expect you to disconnect the old decoder, take a trip to their shop at a time that suits them to pick up the new one then install it yourself.
 

At this stage it is unlikely that any major fitness gain will be made before the race so it is really just a question of ironing out wrinkles with the gear, getting used to where things will be and most important of all avoiding any injuries.

My thoughts are turning to the apparently minor which could turn out to be major issues

1)     Lubrication

Like many I have been very sad to learn of the demise of Hydropel which saw me through the Gobi March. I have read but will not repeat the recommendation of another blog on here. Alas I lack the necessary mental fortitude to go into shops of that nature and ask for such a product. I may end up paying a heavy price for my repressed Scottish upbringing where a handshake was considered a gross invasion of personal space by someone of dubious morals. As we used to say in Scotland “a nod’s as good as a hug” (I’ve cleaned that up slightly). I have therefore purchased the alternative produced by Body Glide. This comes with no recommendation whatsoever and foolishly I have not tried it out. As it is likely I will have no long runs now before the race I am afraid I shall have to wing it. Fortunately I have found that wearing compression shorts provides me with sufficient anti chafing protection in the nether regions so it is only the feet that are of concern. But I am guessing they may be kind of important in the race

2)     Nipples

To date I have never gone down the elastoplasts over the nipples route. Being a somewhat hairy person (apart from on the head of course) I have always shied away from the depilation that would be required. From my recollection, the 4 desert races do not have the lovely ladies standing at the side of the road offering lubrication assistance that was one of the highlights of Comrades Marathon for me so it is necessary to carry an entire week’s supply of Vaseline in the backpack. In the interests of weight saving then I shall be getting out the Lady Remington, shaving my chest and applying the Elastoplast. I wonder if this could be turned into a charity event?

3)     Walking Sticks

I think there is no doubt that walking sticks can be of great benefit in the race. I am however having a bit of an internal debate at the moment but I think I’ll probably end up not taking them. This could of course end up biting me on the bum if I find myself in a situation where I need them. Overriding that (at least for now) is the feeling I am sure I would have at the end of the event if I did use them that I hadn’t really done the event. It wasn’t just me against the desert. I may change my mind on this though. I understand some users prefer the term “hiking poles” however I tend to call a spade a spade rather than “a vertical soil excavation implement”. Hence management consultancy or menu writing was never a viable career choice for me. As an aside I stumbled across a place in HK that had managed to combine the world of management consultancy with that of food and instead of offering a menu has a “catering solutions selection card”. What would George Carlin make of that? As I was looking for a burger rather than a powerpoint presentation I went to the place next door.

4)     MP3

I have done races with and I have done them without. Last time in the Gobi I took it along but did not take any charger so it was one time use only. I used it on the long day at a low point and it definitely helped. I think I am mentally tougher now but will probably carry one just in case. The extra weight of the charger though I will definitely go without. I have a battery powered one so may go with that and carry a couple of extra batteries

5)     Kindle

My weight saving king tells me taking a kindle is the height of decadent living on a 4 desert race. I see it as an absolute necessity as sometimes I just need some quiet time and this stops me from ever getting bored. Is the 150 grams weight saving really going to make a difference? I imagine those who saw their toothbrush in half and drill out the centre to save weight or who see double ply toilet tissue as extravagant excess are at this very moment convulsed with laughter at the stupidity of such a question. I am not so sure though. This is a decision to make closer to the time.
 

6)     Electorlytes

Like many competitors my main source during the Gobi was Hammer’s Endurolytes. These apparently are now banned in Hong Kong and I have found it impossible to locate them anywhere. Even an attempt to buy them on Amazon failed as they will not ship to Hong Kong. My only trip out of Hong Kong since I discovered this was to Macau so the personal import option was not available to me either. I managed to find around 30 in a Ziploc buried deep in a pocket of a long abandoned backpack. These have been resurrected for use. A hunt around the various health and sports food stores of Hong Kong has yielded a couple of alternatives. Possibly I got there before a daring police raid to seize the contraband. Thus I was saved from donning the balaclava and holding up the local McDonalds for sachets of salt. I’ve tried them out in a HK winter and they seem fine. Fortunately the weather in Jordan should be quite similar and I am not anticipating any problems. Hopefully by the time I do one of these races again salt will come off the HK Dangerous Substances list or I’ll be able to make a trip to the UK and smuggle some in.

It's getting really close now

It is not my first time at doing a 4 deserts race but it is my first time blogging. It’s not normally my thing but the guys at Kirsten’s Zoo foolishly believe my ramblings may have a positive impact on the funds we are trying to raise. I don’t intend to go into any hard sell on the charity but I will say that it is a small underfunded local charity doing great work on a 100% voluntary basis to rescue domestic animals that have been subjected to the most horrific abuse. If you have a few dollars to give please do so. More information can be found at their website http://www.kirstenszoo.com

I have read many of these blogs in the past and found them a great source of information. If I am able to pass on at least one pearl of wisdom to one person through this effort then I will have repaid in a small part the debt I owe

As usual at this stage I find myself woefully under prepared for the race. I have done nothing like enough training as I have been having too much fun running in events instead of packing in the hours on the hills of Hong Kong with the backpack full of rice. Since I ran the Berlin Marathon at the end of September I have completed 2 full marathons, 2 half marathons and 2 50km races in 11 weeks. Every race means a taper period of sorts and a recovery period of sorts. These have of necessity been shorter than usual (probably shorter than they should be) and as a result I have various niggling pains and an overall tightness in the legs that does not bode well

In a full blown panic over the Christmas period I decided it was time to get serious (it was in fact way past time). So I staged my own mini multi day ultra event in HK. This took the form of six consecutive days of 3 to 4 hour runs with the bag. To make it more realistic I restricted what I ate to desert rations. I drew the line at sleeping outdoors and peeing in a hole in the ground though and much to the relief of those I met I did take full advantage of running hot water and showered as normal. Net result was one totally wrecked back pack, a number of additional leg pains and a 2kg weight loss. So whilst most were enjoying the festive season I was tired, hungry and questioning what on earth I was doing. However several days on from it I am very glad I have done it as I feel much better prepared. I still haven’t really done any preparation for the long day, in particular running in the dark which will be new to me. I have decided therefore to trust to luck and hope “it’ll be alright on the night”. The only plan I have come up with so far is to run really quickly through the day so I finish before it’s dark. I didn’t say it was flawless but at least it is a plan

The sensible entrant would of course now be using this as a base and round off training for the event over the next few weeks. I however will be running the China Coast Marathon on the 19^th of Jan so am now in taper for that. A week or two of recovery should see me nicely into the taper period for Jordan. Training is therefore more or less complete and it will just have to do.

I can laugh about it now but I expect there may be some tears to come in the desert, hopefully when no one (especially no one with a camera) is looking.

This week I did the China Coast Marathon in Hong Kong. This is a particularly hilly road marathon described by the organizers as