So…… That’s it.. All done and dusted… And what an awesome experience/adventure we all had. I won’t bother putting a trip report up here, I think Chris’ blog updates and the awesome photos tell the story… However, I will put a couple of things on here.

Firstly, I want to link you to one of the other runners post race thoughts… What a write up and he says it all pretty well.. Navigate here http://www.4deserts.com/blogs/comptetior_blog_new.php?pid=OTQy&blog=21 and read Ian’s second blog entitled ‘Till the next time…’

Who won the Prize Pot & Sponsorship update!!! Oh, the excitement… Well, thanks to all of you we managed to raise a whopping £6190.34 inc gift aid for Cancer Research UK… A massive thank you goes out to everyone of you.. And now, on to the prize pot winner or winners….

Well, we always said that the winner would be the person who picked the time slot for when the team didn’t finish and due to the unfortunate events of Chris being quite ill, the team didn’t finish Stage 5. So the winner of the entire prize pot is Ian Furlong. Well done Ian. However, we also felt that as two of us did finish, the person who bought the time slot at 41hrs, 47mins, 42 seconds which was where Rich and I finished also deserved a prize.. So, we managed to get a laptop donated to us by Geek Squad UK www.geeksquad.co.uk so we’d also like to congratulate Andy Wilkinson on his prize..

Two questions left…

Would we do it again? I can’t talk for the other two, but I would (and I’m pretty sure they would)…

Do I recommend it to you? Yes!!!

Alan and Rich crossing the finish line after Day 6, and 250km running across the desert behind them. Chris followed shortly after, competing the final stage despite having to pull out of the penultimate stage after suffering from a bout of vomiting, unable to take on fluids and any food – an extremely tough yet ultimately sensible and necessary decision given the conditions the team were racing in. Alan and Rich finished in joint 23rd place, a fantastic achievement given the exterienced international athletes that surrounded them. Rich also become the youngest people to have completed the crossing. A huge well done guys!

Not long after I sent yesterday’s update Alan and Rich appeared at the finish line. In spite of covering just 15km in the first 3 1/2 hours before I withdrew they had an absolutely blinding run from there onwards and covered 73km in less than 12 hours. People continued to arrive throughout the night and the final finishers crossed the line about half an hour ago.

Today we don’t have a lot to do apart from eating, drinking and chatting. Although that may summon up images of a pleasant lunch in a restaurant it’s worth bearing in mind that we’re actually in a tent in the desert, haven’t washed for 7 days, and all the food we have is freeze dried or in PowerBar form. The tent is starting to become rather… fragrant, so the afternoon breeze will be extremely welcome to get some air circulating.

I also seem to have lost a bit of weight, which isn’t surprising given I’ve walked/run 175km and have only taken in about 2700kcal each day. My hips definitely seem a bit more prominent than before, and any trace of stomach flab has disappeared. Although some would consider this an encouraging start to their 4th decade, I’m intending to reverse it before we head home!

While I’m not too tired or rushed for time, I thought I’d share a few highlights and lowlights.

The Highlights:

1. The atmosphere on the start line each day
2. The views of Licancabur during the day, and the stars at night
3. Crossing the finish line (4/5 times for me, sadly) to the sound of drums and the cheering of volunteers.
4. The other competitors: an all round fantastic bunch of people, and extremely supportive both on the course and at the overnight camps

The Lowlights:

1. Expedition Foods breakfasts: great when tried during training, not so great after 7 straight days.
2. The smell of my running top.
3. The smell of the toilets: it seems freeze-dried food isn’t great for anyone’s digestive system…

We’re still in good spirits and looking forward to getting back to San Pedro tomorrow. Allegedly there’ll be beer and pizza at the finish. Can’t wait!

While Alan and Rich are part-way through stage 5, I find myself at the overnight camp quite a lot earlier than expected. Just before the start of this morning’s stage I was wretching and throwing up. We debated whether I should start, but given the cool conditions it seemed worth pressing on to checkpoint 1 to see if I improved on the way. Unfortunately I didn’t, and struggled to keep down any food. On arrival there I was given some antacid and anti-sickness medication, but this didn’t seem to help, and I lay on the floor of the checkpoint wondering what to do. Had it been another 10km I’d have considered pushing it, but with 58km left to go and the temperature rising it was looking like an unwise option. Attempts to give me IV fluids didn’t work out (Clare: it turns out my veins aren’t always so easy to canulate!) so that really left me with the choice of withdrawing or trying to push on slowly in the hope I improved. Stopping at a checkpoint rather than passing out in the desert seemed a sensible move. Once again Alan and Rich did everything they could to support and encourage me, but it just didn’t seem to be my day.

I guess I’ll never know whether this was the right call or whether I should have powered through. It didn’t feel like the easy option: it felt like I was letting the team down after we’d all worked so hard, but I can’t hide the fact that I also felt a sense of relief.

Thank you so much to everyone who has sent messages of support and commented on our blog: I’m sorry I won’t be able to deliver the result we were all hoping for. Thank you in particular to former Chief Scout Peter Duncan for his comments – it’s great to see him still taking an interest in HSX – and also to Rowland for delivering the great news that the Real King of Spain is back on what has otherwise been a rather subdued day.

I’m hoping to cheer Alan and Rich over the line later this evening ahead of tomorrow’s rest day. I should be OK to run the final 16km on Saturday so at least we’ll cross the line together, albeit with me as something of a spectator.

I’ve spotted a picture of Alan and Rich crossing the finish line of ‘The Long March”. The guys look very pleased to have made it, looks like it took a lot out of them. A little worrying that Chris is not in shot. Keep an eye on the website for more info, and cross your fingers that the team are still all on track.

~~UPDATE~~
Results have been updated, and unfortunatley it looks like Chris has pulled out somewhere in stage 5. I’m sure it’s nothing serious, as there is no way the others would have continued without him other unless they were happy he would be okay. My guess is that Chris’ problems from stage 4 came back in full force on the killer 76km stage and the others left him a a mid-stage check point.

On the brightside, Rich and Alan completed the mammoth leg in just 11h58, placing 17th for the stage! I bet they realised they were close to a sub 12 hour stage and really pused on in the latter stages – hence why they look so tired in the photo below. The pair have now rocketed up the leaderboard back to 23rd overall and top placed team with a 5 hour cushion on the next placed team.

Now an easy rest day and a “short” ~20km jog to the finish line tomorrow. Let’s hope Chris recovers well and the whole team completes the race together. Great work guys.

Another challenging day. I went through a bit of a low patch between 10km and 20km but Alan and Rich carried me through and we crossed the line together, although not as quickly as we’d have liked. No idea where we are in the team standings, but I was happy enough just to finish.

Tonight’s campsite seems a bit on the windy side, so I reckon we have a 50-50 chance of making it through the night without the tent collapsing. They’re not particularly well anchored…

Tomorrow is the 74km “long march” which we’re not looking forward to. The idea of doing the same distance we have today with another 30km tagged on doesn’t really appeal, but once that’s finished we get a rest day before the final short stint to San Pedro.

If anything it looks like we’ve got a bit too much food, so no worries on that front.

Thank you to Russ for answering our question about the Japanese celebrity. Much appreciated!

Full blog on the official site here

The guys remain in 23rd after another 7 hour day. The distance and the climate seem to be taking their toll on the field, as it looks like around 17 people have pulled out already.

We’ve had another good day. Not quite as strong during the race as stages 1 and 2, but we all felt pretty good at the end so can hopefully keep up the pace tomorrow. Feet and legs are in reasonable shape although my rucksack straps are starting to take their toll on my shoulders.

A Japanese film crew are filming a documentary about the race, and allegedly we have a Japanese celebrity taking part although so far we’ve failed to establish who it is or what they’re famous for. Hiroshi (or anyone with Google and a lot of time!): can you shed any light on this?

Hope all is going well for those in Barcelona. 3 days in, I can confirm that this is a piece of piss compared to winter testing. The tent is only marginally less comfortable than the Granollers, and I’m getting 9, yes NINE, hours of sleep!

For the benefit of Tom and everyone else from HSX, we agree that this isn’t as hard as advanced training!

I hope you’re all enjoying the photos and videos on the race website. We can’t see them from here, but I’ve just had a look over the shoulder of  the event photographer and his shots look stunning. I think they give a pretty good  impression of the terrain and scenery we’ve been running through.

So, onwards to the infamous salt flats of stage 4…

A long second day, taking the guys over 7 hours to complete around 41km – but teamHSX are the top placed team! Will their competitive edge get the better on them and tempt them to push too hard? Let’s just hope their steady approach continues to work for them.

We’ve now ticked off the 41.8km of stage 2. It seemed much harder going than yesterday, but looking at our finishing position it seems to have been a similar story for everyone. Amazingly, we’re still the first placed team, although this really isn’t part of our game plan: we’re not here to win!

We’ve had another delightful freeze dried dinner. Tonight it was 800kcal of chicken korma followed by a well-earned cup of tea while watching the spectacular sunset. Once that’s disappeared we’ll no doubt be treated to another awesome view of the stars.

Thank you very much to Alex for his concise summary of Licancabur volcano, and thank you to everyone else who has sent us messages of support. We really do appreciate it.

Tomorrow it’s another 40km. Bring it on!

If you’d like to drop the team a message, you can do so here. I’m sure it will give them a big boost, just as tiredness starts to kick in and the finish line still seems a long way to go.

teamHSX seem to have had a great start, sitting in 25th place. 5h11min. Keep it steady guys

Latest Race Results Here

Photos from http://www.4deserts.com/

TeamHSX are making the final preparations for race day! Join me in wishing Alan, Chris and Richard the best of luck for the next week and hope that they all survive the dessert to complete the Atacama Challenge! Attached are some photos I found of the 4dessert website! Please encourage everyone you know to sponsor their challenge through the Just Giving site.