3.4.2011 The START to the challenge of my lifetime
I slept more or less well, packed my stuff into the bag, got my water and went to the starting blocks. The mandatory MDS photo , building a human 26 is taken. Everyone is nervous. It is hot and we drink and drink and pee and pee.
9.00h the start. We run into nothing , there are small dunes and some people are running as if this was just a 10km race. I control myself, already at the start I am at 100BPM. How will it be? The countdown starts, they play highway to Hell, the helicopter is turning and turning, lower and lower 3.2.1....of we go. Chose the right step, don't fall...not too fast calm..the helicopter now comes sideways waow... why are these idiots in front of me? They are so slow, maybe even just walkers but they needed to be in the front for the start. Let's overtake them. Run run run , limit yourself at 140BPM, watch out where you run.
We have reached 11km and the magic moment becomes like 1001 nights. Were standing in front of these huge dunes. Let's take some shots.
Let's stay out of the others traces to have a harder sand and or run on the back of a dune, where the wind has compressed the sand. It is very pleasant for me to run in the sand, the snow training has prepared me well. Others start already to walk as they sink in too much. One after another I start to overtake, and it is just about 50% of the stage. My bet was right. Again the magic moment when the helicopter closes in. What a feeling! I hope Daniela can see me thanks to the Swiss flag.
2Km prior to the end of the dunes, I am now overtaking Denise. Her legs are red like fire and she has taken out the poles to help her in the sand. This is not yet an option for me. I know that I would run slower with them. The control point approaches. Right after the control point I see that it goes slightly up stony dunes and a car stops: the German TV team has seen me and they jump out, one holds the camera, the other the micro and the third interviews me while we're running all the four of us. I feel great now. The only worry I have is that I am again and again in the area of 150BPM and I slow down. We're coming down now and it is only fat, black stones and very few people in front of me. The heat is incredible.
After 10 minutes I reach Antonio and Marc. What a feeling; I got them yesss.The wind is now like a hairdryer, incredible. They are walking and I decide to lower my pace and to go with them. Run, walk, run , walk, come on guys let’s do that honorable, we are accelerating the rest and come in all 3 together after approx 4.30h, holding each others hands. Stage one is done and there are so many people behind us. Did we manage to get in below the first 250?
**** I have done something wrong, I already need to pee. This is a bad sign, not enough salt, too much water. I swallow a salt pill, no two right way and some water. I must get into the water balance and not pee out everything. I do not sweat, Denise and the other Swiss are running away. Am I so bad? I don't care , the duck is fat at the back. That's what I've read once and it always was true. It is important to have power at the end. But if I start off to slow? No , run your own pace and race. Don't fall into the trap, you'll see most of them again later. I think about the most economical way to run.
Let's stay out of the others traces to have a harder sand and or run on the back of a dune, where the wind has compressed the sand. It is very pleasant for me to run in the sand, the snow training has prepared me well. Others start already to walk as they sink in too much. One after another I start to overtake, and it is just about 50% of the stage. My bet was right. Again the magic moment when the helicopter closes in. What a feeling! I hope Daniela can see me thanks to the Swiss flag.
After the finisher line we get the famous sultan tea, what a pleasure. Now we need to pick up our 4.5L of water. Man they feel like lead, luckily the only pain I have are my shoulders due to the weight of the backpack. Again and again I have pulled my hands under the backpack to support the back a little bit. What can I take out?
Meeting at the tent. The first thing I do is to sit down and to take the shoes of. Away with the socks and: hardly any sand and the little bit that is in helps to keep the feet dry, it's like baby powder and not abrasive. There is no sand in the shoes, only in the socks. How is this possible? The only damage I can see and feel is a very tiny blister at the exterior of my little left toe, no worry at all. I take a needle, perforate it and disinfect it with merfen liquid.
A check on the Suunto reveals: TE 3.0, 85mol, 3312 Kcal, average HR 145, min 119, max 162, avg speed 7,43 min/km, 304m ascent, 310 descent oh yes and I forgot to turn it on at the start so I believe 3mins are missing. Nevertheless I was too fast, I hope I will not pay this tomorrow. .
We prepare our first meals, little conversation, then a quick check for the ranks- incredible I am amongst the top 100, 81st to be exact and Marco comes in 51st. This cannot continue like that. Let's sleep.
4.4.2011 Day 2
In fact we didn't sleep that bad. Everyone is awake before they are carrying away the tents. I prepare a delicious red fruit muesli (honestly). The TV team is back to film me. All of a sudden a sandstorm starts and it becomes really cold. I decide to run with my skins and the bionics jacket. The buff is welcome, anyway I 'll leave it on day and night.
I'm so happy that my sleeping bag was warm. A good choice definitely. The camels are already at the start, the wind gets stronger and stronger. Quickly some shots in B/w and hurry up to the line.
A short interview and hop we go. I only follow my heartbeat and there is no sign that I mastered 33Km yesterday. Again the helicopter. After the stony start we are back to sand dunes again. I love it, it is so forgiving to the feet compared to the stones.
Only the wind takes its tribute and makes our life difficult. After the dunes we're running through a stone desert again and finally into a dried riverbed. The soil before is hellish, it's like waves in the hard soil, a torture for our feet. The foot never entirely touches the ground. All of a sudden there's a hoard of black camels on the right.. As from now on the soil gets softer and softer and you often sink in. Keep up the speed, like with a motorbike! Now I catch up to Marc and Antonio again. Marc needs a break due to a massive blister, Antonio stays with him, I continue and swallow my nuts and raisins. Actually they are not that bad at all. A few Km further down the riverbed it becomes too hot and I decide to take of the jacket. What a waste of time. Nobody in front of me, 2 guys a few 100ms behind.
A short interview and hop we go. I only follow my heartbeat and there is no sign that I mastered 33Km yesterday. Again the helicopter. After the stony start we are back to sand dunes again. I love it, it is so forgiving to the feet compared to the stones.
Only the wind takes its tribute and makes our life difficult. After the dunes we're running through a stone desert again and finally into a dried riverbed. The soil before is hellish, it's like waves in the hard soil, a torture for our feet. The foot never entirely touches the ground. All of a sudden there's a hoard of black camels on the right.. As from now on the soil gets softer and softer and you often sink in. Keep up the speed, like with a motorbike! Now I catch up to Marc and Antonio again. Marc needs a break due to a massive blister, Antonio stays with him, I continue and swallow my nuts and raisins. Actually they are not that bad at all. A few Km further down the riverbed it becomes too hot and I decide to take of the jacket. What a waste of time. Nobody in front of me, 2 guys a few 100ms behind.
Now we are crossing a phantom village.
My Suunto says 34Km and I can already see the CP. But where are the balloons? At 35 km I understand, it is just another CP. Another 7km s to go and I have already dropped off my water and increased the speed! What a mistake. Antonio and Marc arrive as well and I continue. Run, don't walk! Every km/h brings me faster to the end if I manage to stay within my 140BPM. It works for today. Rocks again, they pinch like needles across the shoes and finally dunes again. I stick to an English lady with a rasta haircut. She isn't that thin so I should manage to beat her. (Macho!) Yesterday she came in quite a while after me. Still 3KMs to go. We are motivating us mutually by overtaking. She runs with a walkman, what a shame. Damn she is so fast. I fight with myself if I let her go or not. It doesn't matter there are still nearly 200kms ..but a woman???NO WAY. I stick to her and we reach the end of the dunes, the finish is further away than a km. I let her go. She is faster than me. But 500ms later the macho is back, no don't let her go now. I close up and what does she do? She is accelerating, we are both running faster and faster, no one wants to come in second and I am not a gentleman this time, I take one step ahead of her, although we have the same timing. Good. I am exhausted and lean over the table at the tea to relax, HR 155. Now the tea. I look to the right and Marco Bundi has arrived just before me. Today I finish around the 117th but stay on the 81st overall rank. Waow, can I hold this?
My Suunto says 34Km and I can already see the CP. But where are the balloons? At 35 km I understand, it is just another CP. Another 7km s to go and I have already dropped off my water and increased the speed! What a mistake. Antonio and Marc arrive as well and I continue. Run, don't walk! Every km/h brings me faster to the end if I manage to stay within my 140BPM. It works for today. Rocks again, they pinch like needles across the shoes and finally dunes again. I stick to an English lady with a rasta haircut. She isn't that thin so I should manage to beat her. (Macho!) Yesterday she came in quite a while after me. Still 3KMs to go. We are motivating us mutually by overtaking. She runs with a walkman, what a shame. Damn she is so fast. I fight with myself if I let her go or not. It doesn't matter there are still nearly 200kms ..but a woman???NO WAY. I stick to her and we reach the end of the dunes, the finish is further away than a km. I let her go. She is faster than me. But 500ms later the macho is back, no don't let her go now. I close up and what does she do? She is accelerating, we are both running faster and faster, no one wants to come in second and I am not a gentleman this time, I take one step ahead of her, although we have the same timing. Good. I am exhausted and lean over the table at the tea to relax, HR 155. Now the tea. I look to the right and Marco Bundi has arrived just before me. Today I finish around the 117th but stay on the 81st overall rank. Waow, can I hold this?
4:50.58 h,TE 2.7, 63 Mol and 3094Kcal avg HR 136, 81-162 HR, 277 m ascent, 302 m descent Max 729m.
Again I'm picking up my 4.5l of waters, incredible how heavy they are. I decide to first take a rest. 30Mins with my IPOD and Frank Duval help me to relax and to come down again. After my rest I drink a sponsor and eat one of the Oat packages. Really nothing I need to buy again. Now the mandatory rite is celebrated: take off the socks and wash the feet. I am so happy, there is no sign of a blister, some fine, powder like sand and beautiful feet if this could only stay like this. The 2 2nd toes are hurting but are not black or blue. I take another 30'break and then get up to see where the others are. After a few minutes at the finish line I can see Martin coming,
the sandstorm is back again and one of the white tents from the organization is blown away, their paper flying through the desert, even the metal bars that are limiting the finishing line are blown away.
After 15' the wind calms down, we're heading to the tent and are preparing our dinner. This time I light my fire under the tent, it is interesting by the way to see that the water boils much faster than at home- in fact a logical thing given that there are 20-30 degrees more over here. Tonight the menu is hachis parmentier, Delicious. Finally Gerardo comes in and our tent is complete. Konrad stumbled during the race and his hands are bleeding, Martin has blisters on the heel and Marc has them on the side of the feet. I feel great!
the sandstorm is back again and one of the white tents from the organization is blown away, their paper flying through the desert, even the metal bars that are limiting the finishing line are blown away.
After 15' the wind calms down, we're heading to the tent and are preparing our dinner. This time I light my fire under the tent, it is interesting by the way to see that the water boils much faster than at home- in fact a logical thing given that there are 20-30 degrees more over here. Tonight the menu is hachis parmentier, Delicious. Finally Gerardo comes in and our tent is complete. Konrad stumbled during the race and his hands are bleeding, Martin has blisters on the heel and Marc has them on the side of the feet. I feel great!
5.4.2011 Day 3
My back is hurting a bit, a mix of the backpack and the fact that I dropped of my mattress tonight. Otherwise I am in topform, there is a slight feeling of soarness in my upper legs. The breakfast was good, a cacao muesli. The outside temperature has dropped and I am happy that I took the Tyvek dress with me, it perfectly shields against the wind while we are waiting. The Tyvek version from Raidlight that Martin has bought is of the same bad quality as the backpacks and he is not the only one to have a version with an unvoluntary opening between the legs. It's time to carefully pack my backpack, move the food for the day into the front pocket and put up some sunblocker. There is definetly too much of it in my bag, a third or less would have been sufficient. I decide to change the glasses of my sunglasses and to use yellow. There is no sign that the sun would shine today.
We are all aligning at the starting line and what we feared yesterday became reality: Volker Hoss' has abandoned due to knee problems. If he doesn't make it with 9 years of experience then how wil we make it?
The only good thing in this is that the German TV team now puts much more focus on me. The race starts again and I have everything under control. My heartrate stays below 140 BPM. An incredible panorama, I should stop much more often to take photos- as I arrive at the CP1 the TV team is already waiting for me. Right after we are entering a small village with a dwell and some young woman standing around. I take some 100ms to get a better picture and then I'm heading back for the stone desert. I mainly walk on my heels as I feel a pain under the front of my foot. Let's concentrate even more and not run on a spiky stone, one blister can be the end or I could twist my ankles.
It starts to be hellish hot, the clouds have disappeared. The way leads up the hill to an enormous dune. Photostop it is too beautiful. Red sand and an endless view. This is frightening because you do not even see the next CP despite our position. And down the dunes, stone desert again , dunes again. All of a sudden there are some camels besides the track. A few kms later they are even on our way. Out of the dunes, stone desert again. CP3 reached. Only 7KMs left but there is a hill crossing in front of us. The Moroccan girl Madi is in front of me, it is steep, as the end of the Jungfrau but here I cannot run anymore I climb up and use my hands as I do not want to fall down. In the middle of the ascent are my friends from the German TV they film and..their accu ends as they want to follow me. The ascent is brutal and I nearly lose control and fall down. Luckily I catch myself. As I will learn in the evening there were several people who didn't have my luck and who got badly injured, leading to abandon. Finally I arrive at the top, exhausted and the lonely cameraman catches me. A nice surprise. This adds to motivation. Running down the hill is very very difficult. Arriving at the bottom I'm nearly exhausted. So exhausted that I do not even step aside but pee right on the track. 6Kms ago I already ate my nuts and raisins and drank a Sponsor, a wise decision.
Again there are dunes and I is really hard to run all along. As soon a the dunes start again I walk for the climbing section-others even go on all 4 so I do not feel ashamed. At least the sand is tender to my feet. A look on the picture of my beloved 3, I do not feel as tired as they look like.
Finally I can see the black tents in between the dunes, so do 3 French guys and overtake me. This time I decide not to follow their rhythm, tomorrow is another day and the longest I ever ran. Maybe I don't follow because it's not a girl?Who knows, in fact I ask myself the question. Although I'm running to not lose too much time on them. As I approach the tents I feel tired and a bad feeling creeps up my back- my footpod cannot be that wrong this cannot be the finishing line. Closer to the tents I see white tents, tables, chairs- am I dreaming? It looks like this must be a desert camp for some tourists that will be brought by Jeeps and it is not our camp.
But where the hell is it? Again dunes dunes dunes and I'm happy that I took all the water, right now I'd like to eat something real, why not a fondue? Catching up the french guys that's what I tell them, they must think that Swiss people are crazy. Finally the camp is ahead of us, likely approx. 2kms. Now I accelerate, yes really run. I'm coming in and am overtaking Marc, a guy from the Geneva team 500ms before the end. We great each other and my flag makes him laugh. Hopp Schwyz!
Incredible but true I've successfully mastered the 3rd day and kept to my target, sprinting each day into the finish.
What a pleasure to get the tea. Again catching up the 4.5l of water and then to the tent. Taking of the shoes, putting down the mattress earphones in Duval on and 15' recovery. Now let's have a look at the feet, in the end they do hurt on the front ---Yesssss no blister I am safe for the big day tomorrow. This is party time and I eat one of my Landjaeger. Another 20' of rest and then I decide to prepare dinner. Pates Milanaise, as good as if my wife was cooking. Could she hear me now she'd hit me. Marc, Antonio and eventually Konrad are already there, Denise comes ten minutes after me. What an outstanding performance of the Swiss team. Let's go to the finish to welcome Martin. He's also doing fine and I help him to carry his water to the tent.
Behind no. 63 is Michael Gilgen and Marc Berchtold. Mike shows me his feet. How much must he suffer? I call him the camel from now on because his footprint must look like the one of a camel, a very deep rift on both feet spans from the big toe to the middle of the foot. He reassures me that last year it was worse. Now I understand why he abandoned. Francis arrives as well now and he takes his shoes off: a water corpse's feet must look like this. They are white and all toes are open, not to speak about the blisters below.
The next thing I do is to open the backpack and to take out everything, preparing my pack for the next, the ultimate challenge. Now the commissary comes and brings us the emails. Every line is welcome and we read out most of the content loud. Everyone is proud that people think about us around the planet. Antonio has a guy who calls himself Spartacus who says he follows him because he wore the same starting number a year ago and he wishes him good luck. Even if it sounds crazy but stuff like this helps to build up our self confidence, we do not want to deceive the people who stayed at home.
19.10h Gerardo finally arrives. We are so happy that all of us are there. He goes directly to the red cross and still managed to be within the time limit. We're proud of him and happy. To abandon is not an option for any of us.
5:19h, TE 2.7,63 ml, 3107 Kcal, avg 130, 88-149, ascent 473m, 510m descent
