Today was a tough day, I woke up feeling sick but couldn't figure if it was because I am run down or if it was the virus that it's going around camp. I took some pain killers and decide to push through today's 38k.
The first 20k went fast,I was feeling fine and run most of it, we went through Langerville a very nice small town, it was fantastic to see everyone in the village come out to cheer us on, they wanted to shake our hands or offered fruit. The second leg we went trough rivers, mud and farmland, it's hard to believe this is a desert, I run though what I tough looked like rice paddies, but turned out to be wheat.
It was after this stage that I hit the wall, I started to feel dizzy and short of breath, I had only 18k to go so I knew I was going to be ok so I just pushed though, slowed the pace significantly and all I could do was walk . In no time runners behind me quickly caught up, Todd Handcock of Red Deer became my company for the next while, Todd's wife grew up in Calgary and they now live in Hong Kong with their 3 kids, they still have family back in Calgary and they are following the race closely, like many others, this is Todd's first endurance event, you wouldn't know if you saw him, he seem to know well what to do and has finish around the 30th place since the start surprising even himself.It was nice chatting later back at camp with Todd, Eddie Naylor of the UK and Mitchell Stock of the USA all being begginers at endurance events such as Gobi March, it's always nice to hear their comments and observations coming from a fresh perspective.
even I felt like a begginer crying the last 7k totally destroyed, and this is my 6th race in 6 monts, I felt like a begginer not feeling like I was ever going to master the art at all.
Katrina Follows of Toronto and my tent mate kept me company for the last leg and tried to distracted me, she had dropped out of the race yesterday feeling sick herself so She was fantastic at making me feel better.
I am on antibiotics now and the doctor said I should be better by tomorrow, just two more hard days to push through and I should be crossing the finish line on Saturday, as I am writting this three ours after I finished, people are still crossing the finish line so I am feeling guilty for crying knowing what everybody is going though, and at the end that's why we form such a strong bond.
We are now a society that look for quick fix to any discomfort, but hardship and pain sometimes can be cleansing if it has a higher purpose.
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