| Race Report: 4 Deserts Sahara Race Written By: Inia Raumati Stage 5: Insight into the long march. First 10km :this is kinda easy, feel good, geeze theses chicks are running fast, wow I’m running fast, why am I running 6 minute km’s in this sand when I have 60 odd km’s to go, better slow down, shit better speed up another chick just past me, why do I feel so good? |  |
20km who’s idea of a joke is all this deep sand? I’m sure I can walk faster than I’m running, wait, that guy is walking faster than I’m running, shit this French dude is strong, “what you do for work bro”? doesn’t really speak English except for butcher and All Blacks, there goes number 67, will run with him today, but god this sand is deep. 30km, awesome dunes, I’ll just take a picture, shit my camera is in my pack, hope the helicopter over top is shooting, about time they put some climbs in this race, I’m good at hills reminds me of home. You wouldn’t want to fall down the backside of that dune, it would be a shit of a climb back up, still got 67 in my sights am sick of seeing him every day, life doesn’t get any better than this, cool aid station at the bottom of the dune, my French mates knee is not so good, slipped him a couple of paracetamol earlier, told the medics, he’s all good, tough little bugger. 40km how am I still running? Why am I still running, good this terrain feels better nice and solid under foot, passing a couple of guys, probably need to slow down, nah lets crank it “rip, shit or bust”. 50km shit wish I’d slowed down earlier, may have to run walk now, getting sick of emptying my shoes of sand, 67’s gone, running alone again for the past couple of hours, some of those paw prints in the sand are massive! And fresh, crossing over the earlier runners tracks, that’s something bigger than a jackal, wouldn’t be much of a meal for them anyway, could use the horn from that dead carcass as a weapon I guess, where are all the other runners? That rock looks interesting, shall I pick it up, too late, don’t they have diamonds here? I swear I won’t do another race, Patagonia looks interesting, man there’s a lot of animal tracks, where’s that stupid pink flag, my feet hurt, harden up, jackal, getting really sick of these nuun tabs, no more snacks, my guts ain’t feeling too good, at least it takes my mind off my feet. 60km Down to the beach again, is that seaweed or a snake, seaweed, shot my feet really hurt now, hey someone up ahead, gonna run you down bro, man he aint getting any closer is he running or walking? He’s walking and he’s struggling with the dunes, got you, man he looks how I feel, “keep it up bro”, wish I had a can of coke, some chocolate would be good, I need a couple paracetamol my feet are really hurting, thought I was going to walk, why ain’t I walking? There’s another guy, awesome, gotta try and stay in the top 20, man I’m too old for this shit, lucky the weather has been relatively cool, must drink but it tastes awful, shit a dude just blew past, where the hell did he come from! Can’t keep up he’s gone, still got 4 more km till the next check post, wait it’s here, sure that distance is wrong, “how far till the next aid station”? “what it’s the finish next”? where did all the km’s go, better get moving. Shit more soft sand, not moving well, staggering a bit, you think I could do this for a living, quit medicine perhaps, nah, no one would sponsor a mad maori like me, those other guys are sponsored, oh shit face plant, not good, don’t feel well, am definitely walking now, man this sand is deep, geeze those seals smell bad, can’t see any sight of the end, this is just going on and on, sure they got the distances mixed up. Bloody hell is that someone behind? Time to dig it in, move old man, should be only 2 km to go, if they are gonna catch me, they have to earn it. What happened to the finish? Lights! Awesome they are getting closer, shit it’s only a vehicle, keep moving, not dark yet, gonna be dark soon, harden up bro, move. Is that the finish? Shit I think it is, there’s a camera man, he would be too lazy to walk far from camp surely, don’t take a photo of me bro, get one of that jackal 2 meters to your left, dude hadn’t even seen it. Lights, flags, god dam cow bell, it’s the finish line, gotta go gotta go, done. Man Patagonia looks good.
