Back in 2007 during the JFK 50 in Maryland I ended up running next to a girl
who had some unusual patches on her sleeve.
When I asked her about them she told me they were from a multi-day race
she had done in the Gobi
Desert that year. I didn’t stay with her long but when I got
home I looked up the race and was intrigued.
I previously had no idea that there were running stage races and
certainly thought that no one in their right mind would run with a weeks’ worth
of food on their backs. Turns out the
Tour de France is not the only stage race out there and that, in fact, no one
in their right mind would run with a weeks’ worth of food on their back.
The race is set up more as a survivalist adventure race than
a typical ultra-marathon. It’s roughly
150 miles in total with 6 stages over 7 days.
You are responsible for carrying all your gear for the week with the
exception of a tent and water. You do
have to have the capacity to carry 2 liters of water on you when you leave the checkpoints,
which are spaced about 6 to 10 miles apart, due to temperatures that this year were
expected to reach the 120’s. Most
competitors had a bag full of freeze-dried meals and ramen noodles. Throw in a sleeping pad, sleeping bag, first
aid kit, extra socks and a few luxury items like soap or food you actually like
to eat and most packs came out to be around 20 to 25 lbs. The heaviest I heard of was something over
40lbs from someone who carried canned food.
The lightest was less than 10 pounds from the Chinese competitors who
were cheating and getting food and supplies from the Chinese media who were
following the race. My pack checked in
at about 25 or 26 pounds (the measurements were in kilograms and they weren’t
exact) but it felt like it was closer to 50 on the first day.
About 160 of us met at the Yin Du Hotel in Urumqi, China,
home of the hardest beds ever to grace a 5 star hotel. (They were so hard I seriously considered
getting out the sleeping pad I was carrying for the race.) Despite the lousy beds, the morning of June
26th saw us all boarding buses to head out to the first camp. Everyone was nervous but spirits were
high. The first camp was in a little
village near the Tien Shan mountains. The scenery was fantastic and despite my
worst fears the temperature was actually really cool, probably down into the
50’s that night. The next morning we
broke camp and headed out for what we were told would be an easy 20 miles with
some rolling hills in the last half.
They neglected to mention that we were starting out at around 7000 feet
and would be getting to over 9000 along the course. They also neglected to mention that by
rolling hills they meant impossibly steep cliffs covered with spiky plants that
pretty much everyone got to experience up close. (In case you haven’t noticed “they” are evil
liars.) None the less, the day started
out with an easy 6 miles on a rough road with beautiful mountains on either
side and some sonic booms thanks to the Chinese air force to keep it
interesting. After the first checkpoint there
were some more flats along a stream with lots of grazing cows who stared at us
like we were crazy (maybe I’m just remembering it that way now). Immediately upon leaving the second checkpoint
we went up the steepest hill I’ve ever gone up without using a rope. It was pretty demoralizing because we’d get
to the top of these impossibly steep hills only to see the flags we were
following leading down an equally steep hill and then back up another one. The hills flattened out a bit after a while,
but got a lot longer--and just to top it off, we were at around 9000 feet at
this point. But thanks to all the hills
being covered with heather (along with the stinging nettles) the whole second
half of the stage smelled wonderful—though this wasn’t enough to brighten my
mood. I had slept very badly the first
night in camp and then between the altitude, the much-harder-than-expected
terrain and the pain in my shoulders from the backpack I was not having a good
day. I was really having doubts about my
ability to finish this race if I was in for 3 more days like this one, followed
by a 62-mile stage 5. After 5 and a half
hours I finally made it to the second camp where I immediately set about eating
as much food as I possibly could because my shoulders hurt and I desperately
needed to lighten my pack. I threw down
as much freeze dried food as I could stomach, commiserated with my tent mates
and other competitors for a while and then it was time for bed. Thankfully I had thought to bring some Advil
PM with me and none of my tent mates wanted to stay up late so by 9 PM I was
blissfully sleeping off the first day’s torture.
Despite a really cold night I slept great and was feeling
much better about stage 2. I had decided
that my race plan needed some major revising so I planned to walk all of the
stage. We started off on more of the
hills we had finished on the day before so not running wasn’t much of a
difficulty. That lasted for about 7 or 8
miles until we got to a little village that consisted of several mud brick
houses and nothing else. After that checkpoint
we made our way along some flat trails to a mostly dry riverbed. It looked like it might have at one point
been a really big river but was now just a stream. We crossed the riverbed and up the other side
to a road which we followed to the second checkpoint. At the second checkpoint they said it would
be about 10K to the end and camp. That
would be the only time all week they underestimated a distance. And so I quickly found myself back at camp
and preparing some more freeze-dried food.
Unfortunately this was where the freeze-dried stuff started getting hard
to eat. Either because of the GI issues
I was developing or because I was already sick of them I had a lot of trouble
forcing down my dinner that evening. But
I was in much better spirits at this point, despite the still-painful shoulders
and the developing GI issues.
 |
| The Uighur house we stayed in. |
Stage 3 had us back in the riverbed for an ankle spraining 6
miles of water crossings and even some actual trees. After checkpoint 1 we were on the road again
for another 10K and I decided that since I had finally found a pack adjustment
that didn’t hurt, it was time to try running again. It’s amazing how much quicker the miles go
when you’re running as opposed to walking.
And seeing as I had trained for this race by running it felt pretty good
to get out there and jog. After the
second checkpoint we were up onto some actual rolling hills of very loose dirt
which went up until the middle of the stage and was downhill for the last
part. The camp after stage 3 was in a
Uighur (pronounced “wee-ger”) village where we stayed in people’s homes. I was still on the floor on my camping gear,
but it was something different. This
camp had a nice cool stream next to it where everyone got to clean up a bit and
ice down their feet. My tent mate, Denvy
Lo from Hong Kong (who actually ended up being
the first woman to finish despite never having run even a marathon before),
spent pretty much the entire afternoon there.
We were told that we would have to be up well before dawn the next morning
(3AM) so I ate some freeze-dried shepherd’s pie, which felt like I had
swallowed a bowling ball, and then it was off to bed by 8. Unfortunately sleeping in the village was not
better than the tents--I had flies buzzing around my head and it never really
cooled down. Then at around 9 or 10 the
townspeople started coming out (they wisely stayed indoors and out of the sun
when it was hot during the day then came out when it was cool… the exact
opposite of what we did) and making lots of noise. Needless to say 3AM came a lot sooner than I
would have liked. But come it did, so we
got up, boarded the buses and headed out for the start of stage 4.
Stage 4 started at 6 AM and temperatures were forecast to be
well over 100 by midday. With that in
mind I tried to run as much as I could before it got hot and thankfully the
course accommodated me. The first 10K
was on a road so I was able to run that at a decent pace (about 9:30
miles). After checkpoint 1 I was still
able to keep up a good pace until I had to stop and take care of my first
blister. Once that was taken care of I
motored along until I got to some very steep hills of loose sand. After that it was slow going to the second checkpoint.
From checkpoint 2 to the finish was
about 11K, or so we were told. It sure
seemed like it was longer than that but it’s possible that’s because so much of
the time was spent in a boiling hot box canyon that claimed quite a few
racers. Several people climbed into any
shade they could find to rest and one dropped from heat stroke. Thankfully I was able to get through all that
and finish before noon so I missed the real heat of the day. Six hours after starting I found myself at a
strange tourist attraction at the base of the Flaming Mountain where we would
be camping. Many people slept in a
museum but the bulk of us camped outside because it was really hot
indoors. Before we got to sleep though
it was an anxious afternoon of waiting for the last of the competitors to
finish. Several of the volunteers and
medical staff had to hike up the mountain to bring water the people who were
stuck there and suffering. Nick, the
competitor who had heat stroke, had to be taken out on a camel because there
was no vehicle access (sadly, he died from complications a couple days after
arriving at the Urumqi
hospital). At the end of the day there
were quite a few people who dropped out but most made it in safely. Thankfully it was a great night sleeping
outside, probably the most comfortable night of the entire race—and it was a
good thing too, because the next stage was 62 miles in what was forecast to be
120 degree heat.
We were told that stage 5 would start at 6 AM so everyone
was up bright and early only to be told that it would really start at 8
AM. So after an extra hour of sleep I
was up and ready to get started. I had
lightened my pack as much as I possibly could and after what happened the
previous day I planned to take it really easy because all I cared about was
finishing, no matter how long it took me.
We started off with a few river crossings, because nothing makes 62
miles easier to cover on foot than wet shoes and socks. I took some time at the first checkpoint to
change my socks and clean out my shoes before setting out for a long walk
through a nice little town. The great
part about the town was that pretty much every kid (and there were a lot of
kids) had learned to say “hello” in English.
So we walked for about 4 or 5 miles through this town, pelted from all
sides by repeated hellos from half-naked children. At the second checkpoint I picked up Sam, a
Brit living in Hong Kong who is one of the
organizers of the race and who would be my companion for the remainder of that
very long day. Mercifully the weather
went easy on us and we had cloud cover for most of the day. If it hadn’t been for that I can’t imagine
what it would have been like for the 30 or so miles after checkpoint 2. There is really no way to describe how
desolate salt flats are. It was just
endless miles of nothing but the occasional scrubby bush and little pools of water so salty that they
actually had huge salt crystals growing in them. The only wildlife we saw was a monstrous
camel spider. It was seriously about 8
inches long and its body was as big as a cell phone. Camel
spiders are also really aggressive so it kept coming after me and I kept
jumping up and down in what I will call an attempt to scare it away but what
was in fact just sheer terror. I’m so
glad I didn’t see that anywhere near my tent or sleeping bag.
So we walked, and walked some more. And then we kept walking. Eventually Sam and I picked up Colin, another
Brit (but one who actually lived in England, unlike most of the Brits
in the race). And Sam, Colin and I
walked. We just kept going checkpoint to
checkpoint. Between checkpoint 5 and 6
the sun came out and it got really hot which caused my feet to start really
blistering. At checkpoint 6 we stopped
for a while so that Colin and I could get our blisters taken care of. Lots of other people had stopped there as
well, including many of the people who were leading the race. When we got there they were lying down
getting IV fluids. We left checkpoint 6
just as the sun was setting in a most spectacular fashion and made our way to checkpoint
7 where there was hot water for us to make dinner with. When I say that we left checkpoint 6 as the
sun was setting, it may sound like it was about 8 in the evening… but not
quite. It was actually about a quarter ‘til
11 at that point, so we didn’t get to checkpoint 7 and “dinner” until about 1
in the morning. I tried to sleep a bit
at that point but made the mistake of lying down next to the medical tent where
a couple of people who had been getting IVs at the previous checkpoint were
again receiving medical attention. The
dry heaving and incoherent babbling made it impossible to sleep. So at about 3:30 I woke up Sam and Colin and
we got back on the road around 4. At
this point there was almost no talking; we just kept walking down a long road
and through some grapevines to the final checkpoint before the finish. There I was finally able to lie down and
sleep for about 10 minutes, which made a world of difference—between those last
two checkpoints I could have walked in front of a bus I was so out of it. But after that little bit of sleep I felt a
lot better mentally. My feet still hurt
more than they have ever hurt in my life.
They felt like I had been on them for 24 hours straight… because I
had. I was determined though, and we had
another 10K to go, of which about 5K was on sand dunes. So off we went. Unfortunately at this point we were very near
a town and many of the town’s children had come by and taken the flags we had
been following so we didn’t really know where to go. According to the race organizers they had
marked that section of the course about a dozen times but despite that almost
everyone who went through had trouble finding the way. Right before we got to the sand dunes we
found someone who was in the process of marking the course again and he
explained in great and accurate detail exactly where and how far we were
going. I wanted to hug him for finally
giving me some accurate information.
Unfortunately what he said was to go over the sand dunes. Now, sand dunes are really pretty… if you
haven’t just walked 59 miles and have to cross them to get to the finish. But we had and we did, so the sand dunes were
torture--it’s impossible to get footing and it’s also impossible to keep the
sand out of your shoes unless you have proper gaiters… which I didn’t. By the time we made it to camp I was
exhausted, hungry, and my feet were screaming at me, but I had made it through
and essentially finished the race.
The rest day was not at all restful. I finished stage 5 at 10 AM the day after I
started and it was already getting pretty hot in camp. I tried to sleep a bit but woke up sweating
like crazy and hyperventilating so I got up and sat around for the rest of the
day trying to drink as much water as I could, which was torturous because the
water was so hot and it was so hot outside—we’d finally gotten the 120 degree
temps we were promised. Another problem
with sand dunes besides the footing is the lack of shade. So I sat with a bunch of other people in the
cyber tent which provided shade but no walls to block the breeze so it was the
coolest place in camp. Sadly that only
meant it was 110 instead of 120. Around
6 or 7 it finally started to cool down and I was able to eat some real, though
still freeze-dried food. They even had a
birthday cake for the people whose birthdays were during the week. I wasn’t interested in cake or anything else at
that point other than sleep. So sleep I
did. I guess a lot of people stayed up
for a while chatting and taking pictures but after not getting any sleep the
night before I was too exhausted to participate.
 |
| My tent mates. |
The next morning we got up early so they could bus us to the
start again. It was just a short bus
ride this time since they were just taking us to the town where we were going
to finish. The last stage was only about
6K so most of us ran all of it just so we could be done and get to the food and
cold drinks. One thing I’ve learned
about China
is that they aren’t big on cold drinks so I was horribly disappointed when I
was handed a warm Coke at the finish.
The food also left a lot to be desired but as it was not freeze-dried it
tasted fantastic. The beer was slightly
cooler than the coke but not by much. I
even went to a local shop and bought some ice cream. Then we all boarded the buses for the 4 and a
half hour drive back to Urumqi
where showers and proper toilets were waiting for us. I’m not sure I’ve even taken such a wonderful
shower as the one I took that day after 7 days of sweat and sand and dirt in
the desert. It really makes you
appreciate a little thing like being clean.
I’m not sure if this sort of race is really for me. It was more about how extreme can they make
it than just being a long run and I was hoping for something more like just a
long run. Still, I’m glad I did it and
really glad I finished. I would hate to
have dropped out and to now feel like I had to try again. Ultimately, I had the itch to do this race
for a few years and now it’s been scratched and I doubt it will come back. I met a lot of really great people and had a
great experience but I think I’m done with deserts. It was so hot that even when you were resting
you couldn’t rest. Although they are holding a similar race in Nepal
next year, and it’s not supposed to be so hot there…
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