Day 2 - news from the desert

With Victoria, another Army officer at the start of the second stage

The good news is i have received emails from him (the bad news is i am still in control of the blog!). The messages sent via the official website http://www.darbaroud.com/ are getting through and i saw him cross the finish line on the live webcam today which was great. I have to say he looked in good shape. Tomorrow's stage is 35km so should take him around 5.5 hrs, depending on the start time (8.30 today) he should hopefully be crossing the line around 15.00 - 15.30hrs - I would recommend watching the webcam even for just a few minutes the picture quality is surprisingly good and you can get a real sense of the effort required.

I am handing over the blog reins to Julie (Ian's Mum) tomorrow as I am on-call. Keep the messages of support and sponsorship coming, it is really helping Ian to keep going.

Dave Spencer in front to the right, this was about the last I saw of him!

Michelle

Ian's email follows:

"Day 2 - 38k 5h 42m. 237th today - 213 overall

I was actually 192 yesterday, but who cares! All position ambition is gone; just want to finish. Thinking about the long stage is stomach churning, will be same as today followed by half M of dunes, then another 30k. 

Today was quite flat and I ran to the second CP, but kept my heart rate average down to about 148 compared to 162 yesterday. May have gone faster than the walk I stuck to in the second half, but thought Dave S was behind me! He must have sneaked past me at a CP somewhere! His kit was in the tent when I got back, he was at Doc's. Had a lie down to relax, but shat myself while trying to fart; according to reports from the med tent - I was by no means the only one. Doing well on fluids, breathing through my Buff to stop my throat from drying out seems to help a lot.

Tomorrow is 35k and looking like nasty terrain. Expect to drop into the high 200s, but not too fussed. Miss you all x"

Michelle's snap from the race webcam - I must have been shaking!