Race day 1

Michelle here again! Ian was hoping to email me his blog posts to keep everyone updated but no word from him yet, so it's me again I'm afraid. The good news is He made it round today's 33.8km stage and in an amazing time of 4 hours 45 mins which puts him in 191st place on the leader board.

The Race started at 9am (10am UK time) and temperatures were 29.7C at 10am and 35.8C at midday.  Today was apparently the warm up with 38.5km scheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully Ian is not too thirsty and all his weekend training sessions in the desert will pay off. By my estimations it will take him around 5.5 hrs tomorrow which means he should be reaching the finish line around 3.30 UK time. If you are near your pc put the live webcam on and see if you can spot him (race number 415). That's all from me tonight, hopefully will have something from Ian by tomorrow.The press release on the website gives info about the race leaders and a few more stats. A British woman is second overall in the ladies race - go girl!! There is also detailed information regarding the terrain / route covered - http://www.darbaroud.com/uk/html/mds/27mds/press-release/uk_27mds_press-release_2.php.

Ian's email has appeared out of the spam filter:

Great tent buddies, much banter; all military or ex. Kit weighed 12kg all in and should have plenty food. Started stage 1 at 9am after a lot of waiting around, not sure about temp but it was 45c by end. Ran all 14k to first, and most of leg 2, made a lot of places up through good route selection, but lost most of them back to faster runners. Final leg was much slower owing to cramps, though lots of salt tabs and electrolytes taken. Came in on 4h 47 with Dave S; thinking we were midfield, but transpired we were more like 165! Amazed, but will have to slow tomorrow. Iain G is placed in the thirties on 3h 31 - legendary!
Bivvy 2 is a dust bowl and currently V windy, wont admin properly until it calms. Morale is high now I know my placing, but the rest of the week is daunting. Much food, rest and stretching tonight.
Apologies for failure to get my tracker working; am sure it is user error. Keep the sponsor money flowing; resend please!