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We spent 36 hours at camp, checking gear, having our medical records checked (your doctor has to sign to say that running 150 miles in temperatures exceeding 40C will not be harmful!), making final gear and food selections, and being fed and entertained.  Most runners concentrate on reducing their pack weight to the absolute minimum, with 6-10 kgs being an unofficial target.  This includes the pack itself, sleeping bag and mat, cooking equipment, food for a week, electrolytes, spare clothes, compulsory survival equipment (including the scarily-named 'venom pump and rescue flare), medical kit, and the ever-present phones, blackberries, iPods etc.

 I was clearly part of the minority who decided that I wasn't going to be hungry and that, as I often go hiking with a heavy pack, I was happy with a pack that, with water, weighed just over 15kg.  I certainly didn't expect to be running the whole way, so I figured a little extra weight wouldn't make a lot of difference.

 On the first race day, at 09.30 in the morning, and with press and medical helicopters swooping around, and camels, 4x4s and race officials everywhere (there are 450 doctors, safety crew, officials, etc for 1,014 competitors), we set off on the 18 mile stage.  Almost everyone gets carried away on the first day.  All the plans to go slowly, to save yourself for the rest of the week, seem to disappear in the desire not to be left at the back.  My plan was to go quite fast the first day, with the aim of a achieving some sort of rapid acclimatisation program.  My organised sessions in the Exeter University heat chamber had come to nothing so I was concerned about how I'd cope in the heat, but it wasn't so bad that first day, with a breeze most of the time.

When I'd looked at the results of previous MDS's, I couldn't understand why the average speeds were so slow.  Surely you could just walk the course and finish well up the rankings.  Well I soon found out why.  The route is designed to be interesting and tough, so many hours were spent climbing mountain trails, trudging through thick sand, and queuing on paths blocked by competitors in front.  In this respect, the MDS really started, for all but the elite runners, on the 2^nd day.

Day 2 was hot. Very hot.  The sort of hot you do not go out in.  Of course it didn't start out that way, first thing in the morning.  Then it's really quite nice.  A good holiday sort of temperature.  A nice 20 minute walk and then a dip in the pool sort of heat.  Except day 2 is 7 hour toil across scalding salt flats, with a lovely hour-long 25 degree hill to climb (ropes needed in places) at the hottest time of the day.

 Day 3 was entirely different.  For a start it was much hotter.  About 50C. That's about the temperature of the water in my hot water tank at home. And of course the stage was longer than the day before.  In the middle of the afternoon I'd be confident in thinking that a high proportion of the competitors were doubting whether they'd finish that day, let along the rest of the week.

Diary