Day 3

Day 3 course: 43K total: desert plain all the way.

Times: Owen - 3:26, Me - 4:10, Budjargal - 4:20, Ian - 5:00

This was a long, long day on the trail. The first thing to remark on is that all 20 or so runners and walkers are still going strong after the longest stage. The last 2 to finish, Robert and Una - a local girl, came into camp around 11 1/2 hours after starting. That really doesn't give much recovery time before tomorrow.

Today's weather was incredibly friendly. It was a cloudy and cool start and it stayed that way until about 11am, giving us all 3 hours of really good running conditions. For me the last hour was pretty hot. For those further back it was a bit more time in the heat, but at least everyone had got some miles under their belt in the cool. There was even a sprinkling of rain for us front runners which was very welcome, although I hear that it was a bit more of a downpour for everyone else.

This morning Owen and Budjargal shot off like rockets so I quickly settled into my own comfortable pace behind them. After a few K I realised that Ian was just behind me and so I ran with him for a bit before falling behind him. I think that my pace was similar to previous days so others were taking better advantage of the conditions. At the 10K checkpoint I was feeling good but in 4th place. The next 5K took us up to a small settlement which we bypassed and then headed straight down the plain towards absolutely nothing. By this point I'd re-passed Ian and had Budjargal ahead in the distance to follow. At the 20K checkpoint I'd timed that I was around 2 minutes behind him and still feeling ok.

2 hours signalled the reward of some tunes on the iPod so the Proclaimers, Tom Jones, Daft Punk et al kept me focussed for a while since the plains didn't hold much interest. By 30K my legs were pretty sore and the sun was out but I had closed the gap to less than a minute behind Budjargal. Determined to hold my pace I eventually passed him around 35K and motored on for a bit before having to walk a minute or two just before the last checkpoint at 38K. I did manage to keep Budjargal out of sight behind me and even though the last few K were slow and sore I managed to finish in 2nd, feeling very proud of myself.

In overall standings I'm still 3rd but had a nice finish and feel like 2nd is a possibility. The knees are sore and there's one tiny blister on my toe, but that got popped by Budjargal standing on my foot in camp. Either way, apart from fatigue there's nothing to slow me down too much. There were a few grumbles in camp today about poor camp state (it was a miserable, barren camp ground, but then there wasn't much choice down here on the plains) and lack of communication but generally everyone's been doing well with the event. Owen's absolutely flying and could win even if he walked in from here I think. My feet have held up very well. I noticed I'd lost a layer of skin from the whole bottom but it all looks good. Ali gave both Owen and me a calf massage which was much appreciated and event commented how "great my feet looked". I don't think anyone's told me that before. Right now I'd be very keen for a beer and a pizza.