Made it to the start line! Felt better as day progressed. Very hot between 12 noon and 2pm when ascending hill and descending into sand plain: like running into an oven.
5km to finish: don't know what happened! Felt fantastic. Managed to overtake another 25 places in 5km. Huge smile to finish: ready for tomorrow's 51 miles!
Bad sand storms continually filling the lungs and have sandblasted my nostrils!
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
9 April 2012 Stage 2 - OUED EL AATCHANA / TAOURIRT MOUCHANNE : 38,5 Km
Tony from our bivouac abandoned today. Hard terrain to start with sand dunes. Huge salt flat: ran across for 6.25 miles in worst heat of day:52C. This was followed by an oasis full of wild camels which stank. Wheels fell off at 25km:no energy at all;hard to put one foot in front of the other.
Long way to reach 38km finish. Crossed line. Vomited lots; keeled over.
Next thing I knew I was being carried by Berber and medic to tent for stats, then jeep to medic tent. Given water with salts: vomited lots again. Put onto another bed and strung up for IV drip: 5 bags x 500ml. 2 hour penalty.
Wondered what's that flashing? Found myself surrounded by 3 photographers and videographer. Annoying. After 4 hours felt much better.
Back to our bivouac tent, but I had diarrhoea late into the night. Tried to sleep. Decided to abandon.
Long way to reach 38km finish. Crossed line. Vomited lots; keeled over.
Next thing I knew I was being carried by Berber and medic to tent for stats, then jeep to medic tent. Given water with salts: vomited lots again. Put onto another bed and strung up for IV drip: 5 bags x 500ml. 2 hour penalty.
Wondered what's that flashing? Found myself surrounded by 3 photographers and videographer. Annoying. After 4 hours felt much better.
Back to our bivouac tent, but I had diarrhoea late into the night. Tried to sleep. Decided to abandon.
Sunday, 8 April 2012
8 April 2012 Stage 1 - AMMOUGUER/OUED EL AATCHANA: 33,8km
French organisers wake us up at 5.30 driving around in Land Rover with speaker blaring sound of cockerel crowing. Funny.
3 minutes before we set off to the rhythm of AC/DC's Highway to Hell (doubly funny) a competitor passed out and was dragged off. Don't know if he started. 32C at 9am according to tent mate Wayne's watch.
Finally got running. Sand and dried river beds. Steep climb up a jebel for 200m with 15% gradient: rucksack feels heavy. People wobbling all over the place. At bottom of descent wave of heat very noticeable. [Later learnt temperature hit 48C today.]
Passed French competitor projectile vomiting at side of track. Looked in a bad way. "Ca va?" I asked. He nodded at me with hamster-like full cheeks and concern in his eyes . . . and projectile vomited everywhere again. Further up the track another competitor was in a bad way being overseen by Doc Trotters who'd arrived in their Land Rover.
Through CP2. Ahead started 1.3km sandy track to top of Tibert Jebel. Steep. Ensured I stopped every few steps once heart rate hit 160. Incredibly hot in the windless cover of the jebel. Finally saw finish bivouac 4.5km away. Took an absolute age to get there.
Back at bivouac heard rumour of an old desert well few 100 metres away. Tent mate Mark and I went to investigate. Sure enough, people luxuriating in cold waters drawn from well. We took turns dragging old leather bucket from the depths and pouring it over each other: freezing cold but felt fantastic. Felt much better after that. Also washed our kit. Not likely to have this opportunity again.
Dawning on us what we've let ourselves in for.
[Original Stage 1 email postings not sent from bivouac. This entry submitted later.]
3 minutes before we set off to the rhythm of AC/DC's Highway to Hell (doubly funny) a competitor passed out and was dragged off. Don't know if he started. 32C at 9am according to tent mate Wayne's watch.
Finally got running. Sand and dried river beds. Steep climb up a jebel for 200m with 15% gradient: rucksack feels heavy. People wobbling all over the place. At bottom of descent wave of heat very noticeable. [Later learnt temperature hit 48C today.]
Passed French competitor projectile vomiting at side of track. Looked in a bad way. "Ca va?" I asked. He nodded at me with hamster-like full cheeks and concern in his eyes . . . and projectile vomited everywhere again. Further up the track another competitor was in a bad way being overseen by Doc Trotters who'd arrived in their Land Rover.
Through CP2. Ahead started 1.3km sandy track to top of Tibert Jebel. Steep. Ensured I stopped every few steps once heart rate hit 160. Incredibly hot in the windless cover of the jebel. Finally saw finish bivouac 4.5km away. Took an absolute age to get there.
Back at bivouac heard rumour of an old desert well few 100 metres away. Tent mate Mark and I went to investigate. Sure enough, people luxuriating in cold waters drawn from well. We took turns dragging old leather bucket from the depths and pouring it over each other: freezing cold but felt fantastic. Felt much better after that. Also washed our kit. Not likely to have this opportunity again.
Dawning on us what we've let ourselves in for.
[Original Stage 1 email postings not sent from bivouac. This entry submitted later.]
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
At last!
Done: all packed and ready to go. Well, except for my hotel bag . . . I'm bound to have forgotten something.
The ambitious plan is for me to try and briefly update this blog after each stage but that depends on how shattered I am.
Best laid plans and all that!
Can't wait and itching to get on with it . . .
The ambitious plan is for me to try and briefly update this blog after each stage but that depends on how shattered I am.
Best laid plans and all that!
Can't wait and itching to get on with it . . .
Rucksack weight
Today I finally packed up my rucksack and waist pouch and I'm really pleased to have got the weight for both down to 8.6kg in total: 4.1kg for my food supplies over 7 days (a total of 16,740 calories), and which will drop by about 600 grammes per day, and 4.5kg for everything else.
That's before adding water to my water bottles (about 1.4kg: unavoidable), and the other stuff the MdS organisers will issue on arrival: the compulsory distress flare (about 350 grammes), salt tablets, the road book (containing sketch maps and compass bearings) and 8 bags for the "toilets" which, although I don't intend to use them, are a compulsory item to be carried.
It's been a fascinating exercise in cutting down weight!
For example, I need to take some topical disinfectant as a compulsory item and once I finally got hold of iodine (off the internet, unbelievably, rather than Boots or my local chemist) I decanted the 25ml glass bottle contents into an emptied plastic bottle of Simple Eye Make-up Remover (which my research in Superdrug showed had the same bottle top design as the original iodine bottle), saving 33 grammes!
And yes I have cut off excess straps and unused buckles and togs off my rucksack, saving between 10-20 grammes.
I've also decanted my various freeze-dried foods out of their original foil bags into Poly-Lina Pour and Store bags which can take boiling water, meaning I save between 7 and 15 grammes per bag dependent on the freeze-dried brand. For 5 meals that weight saving allows me to take my Garmin GPS watch without too much guilt!
In total, by thinking about every little bit of my kit and foods (which themselves had all been bought with weight considerations in mind) I've saved up to 1kg in unnecessary weight.
This does mean though I'm travelling with little: just one spare pair of socks and one spare pair of shorts for camp in the evening to allow things to, er, freshen up as best they can. And I've ditched a 67 gramme pillow: it was too uncomfortable and I'll have to rely on putting my head on my rucksack.
Every gramme will count!
That's before adding water to my water bottles (about 1.4kg: unavoidable), and the other stuff the MdS organisers will issue on arrival: the compulsory distress flare (about 350 grammes), salt tablets, the road book (containing sketch maps and compass bearings) and 8 bags for the "toilets" which, although I don't intend to use them, are a compulsory item to be carried.
 |
| The packing jigsaw begins. No, the bed's not coming. |
For example, I need to take some topical disinfectant as a compulsory item and once I finally got hold of iodine (off the internet, unbelievably, rather than Boots or my local chemist) I decanted the 25ml glass bottle contents into an emptied plastic bottle of Simple Eye Make-up Remover (which my research in Superdrug showed had the same bottle top design as the original iodine bottle), saving 33 grammes!
And yes I have cut off excess straps and unused buckles and togs off my rucksack, saving between 10-20 grammes.
I've also decanted my various freeze-dried foods out of their original foil bags into Poly-Lina Pour and Store bags which can take boiling water, meaning I save between 7 and 15 grammes per bag dependent on the freeze-dried brand. For 5 meals that weight saving allows me to take my Garmin GPS watch without too much guilt!
In total, by thinking about every little bit of my kit and foods (which themselves had all been bought with weight considerations in mind) I've saved up to 1kg in unnecessary weight.
 |
| And it all fits! |
Every gramme will count!
Heat acclimatisation
I'm fortunate to live close to the Harrogate Turkish Baths which have three rooms with three different temperatures (45C, 55C, 70C) which are also a dry rather than humid heat, so ideal for getting used to some desert-like conditions.
Today was my last day in these and I've had 12 days of one hour sessions. I started straight into the 70C room and felt a little unwell after 45 minutes but managed to stick with it. I really noticed the taste of salt in the sweat pouring down my face (which started after about 3 minutes).
For the last couple of days I've sat for an hour in the 55C room. Over the last week or so I've really noticed a significantly reduced salty taste in my sweat (part of the body's heat acclimatisation process is apparently reabsorbing a significant percentage of the body's salts rather than excreting it: see Mike Stroud's book Survival of the Fittest) and it's taken an increasingly longer time before I'm dripping buckets.
Initially too my heart rate monitor (yes, I wore it!) showed a higher than normal heart rate as it sought to cope with the stress of 70C, getting up to 110-120 beats per minute just from very gentle leg stretching. During a spa weekend away last week I sat in a room which was at 85C: very uncomfortable and I didn't last more than 15 minutes before a 5 minute break (then back in for another 10!).
But today's last session felt fine and gave me some confidence I'll be a little more comfortable when I arrive in the Sahara on Friday.
As the highest temperature I'm likely to experience on the MdS shouldn't be more than 50-55C (though some of last year competitors recorded 56C) I sat in the 55C room yesterday and today. This felt far easier than the 70C room and it took a lot longer before I was dripping. My heart rate also didn't exceed 95 beats per minute during some stretches.
I'll be fascinated to see whether this heat acclimatisation exercise will have achieved anything once I'm in the desert on Friday!
Today was my last day in these and I've had 12 days of one hour sessions. I started straight into the 70C room and felt a little unwell after 45 minutes but managed to stick with it. I really noticed the taste of salt in the sweat pouring down my face (which started after about 3 minutes).
For the last couple of days I've sat for an hour in the 55C room. Over the last week or so I've really noticed a significantly reduced salty taste in my sweat (part of the body's heat acclimatisation process is apparently reabsorbing a significant percentage of the body's salts rather than excreting it: see Mike Stroud's book Survival of the Fittest) and it's taken an increasingly longer time before I'm dripping buckets.
Initially too my heart rate monitor (yes, I wore it!) showed a higher than normal heart rate as it sought to cope with the stress of 70C, getting up to 110-120 beats per minute just from very gentle leg stretching. During a spa weekend away last week I sat in a room which was at 85C: very uncomfortable and I didn't last more than 15 minutes before a 5 minute break (then back in for another 10!).
But today's last session felt fine and gave me some confidence I'll be a little more comfortable when I arrive in the Sahara on Friday.
As the highest temperature I'm likely to experience on the MdS shouldn't be more than 50-55C (though some of last year competitors recorded 56C) I sat in the 55C room yesterday and today. This felt far easier than the 70C room and it took a lot longer before I was dripping. My heart rate also didn't exceed 95 beats per minute during some stretches.
I'll be fascinated to see whether this heat acclimatisation exercise will have achieved anything once I'm in the desert on Friday!
Desert hygiene
The desert is a sterile environment but hygiene problems will be created from the usual suspects: hand-to-mouth contact, the toilets (a hole in the ground in a small tarpaulin make-shift cubicle) and cooking.
Inevitably I'll finish the week absolutely stinking as washing is not really an option with a limited water supply. I'll give myself a token daily wipe down using Wemmi Wipes, a tablet the size and depth of a couple of £1 coins which, when a drop of water is added, expands to a damp towel about 20cm x 20cm. Very clever!
But that realistically won't do that much and it's still possible I'll end up binning them just before the off. If I'm going to stink then I may as well really stink!
Every other bit if hygiene risk I've thought about carefully. You could be the fittest person in the world but once the D&V take a hold (as, historically, it has done to the majority) there's a very real risk of DNF (Did Not Finish).
So my hygiene thoughts are as follows:
- using a toothbrush and toothpaste is a risk from hand-to-mouth contact so I won't be using them for a week and instead I'll be using Orbit Spearmint chewing gum;
- I don't intend using the provided "toilets" and will instead head off a few yards into the desert to dig a hole, taking care to stamp around loudly to ward off inquisitive desert nasties like scorpions and camel spiders, and incinerate with my lighter the paper left behind (apparently in years past some competitors haven't done this, creating interesting wind-borne items in sand storms!);
- in a similar vein is the issue of how much toilet roll to take and how? Best tip I've heard is bagging up a day's ration into a sandwich bag so I now have 7 such bags with a guesstimate of a daily supply and a glove; in this way I reduce the risk of transporting around my person and taking back to the bivouac a contaminated single roll of toilet paper;
- cooking: I'll be boiling my spork before each meal and afterwards applying alcohol gel; all my meals will be eaten out of disposable bags, reducing the risk of contaminated pots etc;
- water bottles: I can't change my water bottles on a daily basis but after a few day's use they'll become a bacterial breeding ground without some attention, so I will add half a Boots Micropur chlorine-based sterilising tablet to some water in my bottles and leaving them for a few hours.
Bet I still end up with problems!
Inevitably I'll finish the week absolutely stinking as washing is not really an option with a limited water supply. I'll give myself a token daily wipe down using Wemmi Wipes, a tablet the size and depth of a couple of £1 coins which, when a drop of water is added, expands to a damp towel about 20cm x 20cm. Very clever!
But that realistically won't do that much and it's still possible I'll end up binning them just before the off. If I'm going to stink then I may as well really stink!
Every other bit if hygiene risk I've thought about carefully. You could be the fittest person in the world but once the D&V take a hold (as, historically, it has done to the majority) there's a very real risk of DNF (Did Not Finish).
So my hygiene thoughts are as follows:
- using a toothbrush and toothpaste is a risk from hand-to-mouth contact so I won't be using them for a week and instead I'll be using Orbit Spearmint chewing gum;
- I don't intend using the provided "toilets" and will instead head off a few yards into the desert to dig a hole, taking care to stamp around loudly to ward off inquisitive desert nasties like scorpions and camel spiders, and incinerate with my lighter the paper left behind (apparently in years past some competitors haven't done this, creating interesting wind-borne items in sand storms!);
- in a similar vein is the issue of how much toilet roll to take and how? Best tip I've heard is bagging up a day's ration into a sandwich bag so I now have 7 such bags with a guesstimate of a daily supply and a glove; in this way I reduce the risk of transporting around my person and taking back to the bivouac a contaminated single roll of toilet paper;
- cooking: I'll be boiling my spork before each meal and afterwards applying alcohol gel; all my meals will be eaten out of disposable bags, reducing the risk of contaminated pots etc;
- water bottles: I can't change my water bottles on a daily basis but after a few day's use they'll become a bacterial breeding ground without some attention, so I will add half a Boots Micropur chlorine-based sterilising tablet to some water in my bottles and leaving them for a few hours.
Bet I still end up with problems!
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