The call was made, it sounded like  a festival horn.  We all kind of guessed what it meant but if we weren't sure the marshals were doing the rounds ushering us to the start line.  All kitted up and ready to go, we walked across to what can only be described as big bouncy castle arch start line. We first had to move over to where some ribbon was and gather.  Number 32.  This was for the aerial photo from the helicopter, a spectacular vision each year but a little over indulgence I feel from the organiser Patrick.  It did look good though!

We moved over towards the start line expecting another Patrick speech, and yes we weren't disappointed.  We had a mini speech since he had done one the night before explaining a lot of things about the race.  This time it was just to cover a few key points, especially about the bag de kaka and then the birthday shout outs for everyone.  This was all wonderful but I really just wanted to get on with it now.  The music was blaring out, every song you could think of relating to heat and the desert, such as 'Two tribes go to war', 'On a horse with no name' and then the big one 'highway to hell!'  Patrick loves this song its the signature song of the race.

The countdown was done and we were off!  I love remembering how everyone looks at the start, all fresh, energetic, laughing and joking, talking to everyone, then compare it to the end of a race or the last day in a multi-stage its the opposite.  Quiet, looking rough, broken, probably mumbling a few profanities and looking ready to drop. The start to each day was the least enjoyable for me as so many people all around you hustling and bustling, pushing in front with no regard for others.  It was like a rat race till the first checkpoint then suddenly it just spreads out.  Mainly because people taking breaks and resting before carrying on.  The start of the first stage, everyone was off like a shot.  Short easy introduction day they said, a mere 18 miles taster they said.  Well trust me, this was not easy, a taster yes!  It gave us an insight to what the week had in store for us.  A few little hills, a few long drawn out dunes, a few long salt plains to cross and that was me feeling sick on the first day.  One poor chap I passed with the medics looked very ill, it turned out he'd suffered a heart attack.  There were others too suffering quite badly and this first easy day was turning out to be a test, it weeding out the ones that shouldn't be there.

This was one of the first long sessions across the dunes.  We had just ascended a tough climb and heading across to the plains.  This sand was so hard to get any purchase from, I found it slowed me right down.  You could feel the pace change as soon as you got back on to the hard ground, it was easier on the body and you were off again.  The dunes were like running in treacle, a long slog, the poles helped though and were a life saver in the end.  The pool running that I did in training really helped.  I knew the feeling instantly, as soon as we hit the soft deep sand and the legs suddenly had to work much harder I just said to myself 'we know what this is like, we've done this in the pool' so would just work through it knowing it would end at some point and then I could get going again.

As we crossed the plains the views were just amazing.  With the mountains in the background and all around you I loved it.  The ground was now a harder more compact sand with lots of loose stones on top. It literally looked like the sea bed if you took all the water away that's the best way to describe it.  We were now working through the hottest part of the day 1pm-4pm, and oh boy did we know about it.  With it being a short-ish stage today many runners would be finishing shortly and able to rest up  Not for me I was going to get longer acclimatisation time, value for money all those wonderful excuses for being a tad slow!  I spent the day trying to understand how my body coped with the heat, learning about the salt tablets and trying to guage my water in take.  As I found out this was going to be a steep learning curve and one that was probably going to take most of the week to get right.  My plan was to use the first three days to learn as much as I could then use that information to get through the long day.

Once I finally got to the point where we had made a climb up some dunes you were given a view that would rival any in the world.  This view didn't have mountains, didn't have dunes, wasn't the prettiest but you could see the bivaouc in the distance and it just looked amazing!  The best view ever after you'd slogged your guts out for the day.  This suddenly put a spring in my step as I'm sure it did for everyone else.  You could tell everyone suddenly put a bit extra into there effort and pushed on to get across the line.  After a mini sprint finish at the end I was greeted with a hot cup of sweet tea, this was amazing loved it.  I headed on to the next queue and tent, got my water card clipped and received my next allocation.  The worst part of the day now, carry your water and head across camp back to your tent.  Aaarrrgghh as if you hadn't done enough lol!  What a feeling though when you get back to your tent, all the boys were back and Lynton was visiting so I got a little cheer and then I collapsed on to the carpet whilst trying to get out of my straight jacket of a backpack ha ha!  Time to rest, thank goodness, day 1 done.........