Stage 3

Well, by now I was getting tired, not in my knees tired, that could wait for another day, but tired none the less... The big problems was that I had only covered 32 miles so less than even a quarter of the race so I had still to traverse over 120 miles yet powered by my little leggies.

After day two's horrors day three was actually not that bad. Yes we had sand dunes, yes we had high-30s, yes we had salt planes and yes I had to cover 24 miles that day but a least I couldn't see any sodding hills that were probably mountains in the road book.

Day three was actually quite fun as we had lots of dunes that you could 'slide' down...

I am hoping that when I get back to Dubai and finesse each post I will also be able to add the each stages race map and discriminate so you can all get a flavour of the course. Obviously you had to have been there to truly emphasise with us but at least you will have some context.

Day three was pretty uneventful so it was a case of chugging out the miles. I also actually run for the first time. When I say run I actually mean a faster walk but what the heck. My logic was that, as I was faced with long, 44 mile stage the next day I could with smashing, as Bob would say, stage 3 and spend more recovery time on my back with feet elevated. That was the plan and thankfully it come to fruition. So I got back in camp after 7.5 hours rather than the usual 8.5 hours... Not quicker but worth it!

At this point I probably should describe what I was wearing as it all worked. Only about 5% of my body was exposed to the elements and I was managing to keep reasonably cool. So it must have worked.

I wore ROCULITE trail shoes and had glued on them Sandbaggers' specially patented gaiters, which are made out of parachute material and come up to your knees. I then had a pair of twin skinned Under Armour shorts. Basically two layers attached to each other.

I then had a HH long sleeve skin top that is fast wicking to wick away the sweat. Over this I had the long sleeved Railraiders 'Mencap' branded top that was like an airy blouse. I then had a buff of one wrist, to wip away the sweat, and one around my neck to pull up over my nose and mouth during a sand storm. 

I had a pair of Adidas Evil Eye sunglasses which were like swimming goggles and a desert hat which had the flap covering the back of your neck. This was also one the genius bits that Jo and Jon did to save money. They had a normal fashion hat and got Jo's Mum to stitch some Muslin on the back. It just proves you don't have to spend vast amounts of money on the MDS if you are creative.

I will describe more about my food and general kit in a later post but that will suffice for now

I will keep this post short as stage 4 will probably be like 'War and Peace' but I will end on one transformation that was occurring in tent 144. We were beginning to sabotage our fellow tent mates so that they won 'Dick of the Day'.

Even though we were a tent of 8 we were almost like mini teams. I would 'run' with Bob; Jack and Dunc would keep each other company; Graham, Mat and Jon would be racing; and poor Jo would be on her own battling against the other nationalities at the front, flying the flag for tent 144 and Britain...

During one of these love-ins, Mat said to Jon, "I think that snow over there". To which Jon, gullibly replied "nah, it can't be...". We had our Dick of Stage 3. Jon step forward and take a bow...

Now to begin writing stage 4. It's going be emotional so Bob, "will you just f off and leave me alone for three minutes..." ;-)

TTFN...