Day 3 Report

Day 3 was a toughie. 38 km long across some extremely tricky terrain, much of it uneven stony ground occasional dunes, gravel and then more uneven stony ground. we passed through a few wadis beside some stunning scenery, flat-top mountains, dunes, a small village or two ad some "plantations". villagers seemed to be friendly on the whole, with applause and "bonjours" greeting us along the way.

MORE...

Probably the biggest challenge other than the surface was the weather, hot as usual (guessing the same as yesterday 34 degrees or thereabouts), but also very breezy. SO breezy in fact the sand was blown straight into our eyes for much of the course. and, to cap it all, just as we battled our last few kms into the bivouac, it began to rain. To have so many different conditions to face, it's no wonder so many of us found it such a huge relief finishing the stage.

I was accompanied for much of the day by Neil Price, a personal fitness trainer friend of mine from London. To keep morale up he read a email to me that he had received yesterday from his girlfriend. It was very sweet and encouraged him to return home soon - sounded like it would be worth his while if he did. He was obviously keen to comply which would explain his strict routine of runing for 2 minutes and walking for one, no matter how strong the wind was or how tough the terrain;

We were joined by Stephen Barrett, a 27 year old, wait for it, yes really, banker from London. OK that's not quite fair, he's actually an ex-banker, and is using the MdS as a springboard to taking a year or two out travelling. The MdS may well prove a adventure hard to top. He assured us that he would be returning to London briefly for a few "light" celebrations with his friends first.

Charlotte completed the stage close behind me, her feet now accumulating a decent amount of blisters. She has also acquired a uncomfortable heat rash on her shins and ankles too. After a thorough session with "DocTrotter", the expert medical team, she seemed in good spirits and more confident about the 84 km stage tomorrow. Which is a good thing, because this is the stage which most runners find by far the toughest. She's done the distance before so I am also confident in her. Also, tough as this race is, I suspect it's no match for my wife.

Later after the stage I spoke with a few other runners; Charles Penruddock, a 24 year old surveyor from London, gets the prize for the healthiest penalty given by the organisers; he told me he got caught red handed trying.......

(Note from the webmaster - This is not sensationalist reporting - merely where the message finished... sorry folks....yesterdays report was broken into two emails that arrived around the same time... this is due to a 7 minute time limit imposed by the organisers for writing emails...as soon as we get the rest we'll post it.... trust us - we're just as keen to hear what the penalty was for too! :-) )

Thank you for the excellent detail. :)