TOTALLY OT....
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:43 pm 
 

What!? My blood was 30-40% Corona during the whole time I was stationed in the Mojave. It's quite possible I would have died without it. Although, Dos Equis was pretty good too. But I would have to agree, the English work malt like no others.


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Post Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:10 pm 
 

Come to think of it...I don't know what they were parading for/against either.   :?   Seriously, what was that all about?

About the beer:

  We Northwesterners don't usually like the rest of the country to know this, but we enjoy not only the nation's finest weather, clean beaches, Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing and Wizards of the Coast...we also have the nation's best microbrews and the nation's best coffee.   :lol:   (Of course, after drinking all that coffee we probably need the most beer.)

  Even our Latin American protesters (against what?) were polite and happy...although this is also Washington, so the march took place downtown, during rush hour.   :?

Mark   8)


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Post Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 1:41 am 
 

MShipley88 wrote:Come to think of it...I don't know what they were parading for/against either.   :?   Seriously, what was that all about?

About the beer:

  We Northwesterners don't usually like the rest of the country to know this, but we enjoy not only the nation's finest weather, clean beaches, Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing and Wizards of the Coast...we also have the nation's best microbrews and the nation's best coffee.   :lol:   (Of course, after drinking all that coffee we probably need the most beer.)

  Even our Latin American protesters (against what?) were polite and happy...although this is also Washington, so the march took place downtown, during rush hour.   :?

Mark   8)


You crazy North westerners....I plan to retire to a beach where I can actually wear a bathing suit and not a raincoat!  But then again I hate rain, so a NW life will never be for me.  And the thought of maybe NOT finding an authentic Tex Mex restaurant within a 15 min drive gives me the shakes and wake me up at night with a cold sweat....

Mike B.

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Post Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 9:19 am 
 

We just had the Government do the 2-step all over our Industrial Relation laws, so there's bound to be plenty of parades/rallies/strikes happening down here in the near future as the unions scramble to retain any control they have.

I still think there's nothing better than ripping the top off a Blonde  8O (and yes I AM referring to a beer brewed down here!) :lol:  8)

  

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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:48 am 
 

wow! this has gone even more off-topic than the off-topic already was :)

well folks, this is my first post in over a week or so. am back now and not in great shape.

basically without going into too much detail (as i dont really feel like talking about it right now), i picked up a groin strain in the 1st 10km on day 1. i was climbing up a steep hill (loose rocks), foot slipped and voila. very painful and i knew that was it almost right away. not being one to give in so easily tho, i did the remining 18km to finish day 1 - in a LOT of pain.

i rested overnight, tho i did consider stopping then, but started day 2. i got to the 1st checkpoint ok (short walking strides) and just after there, was some sand-dunes, where my foot slipped again, and i did the same thing again. this time it REALLY did hurt and i could barely walk then - the pain was so intense. even still, i managed about another 10km from there and was in visible distance of checkpoint 2, where i sadly had to stop. if i had tried to go any further, the chance of permanent damage was becoming a bigger possibility and under the circumstances, i felt i had justified myself more than enough.

it wasnt the ending i wanted, but i only stopped due to matters beyond my control.

am absolutely gutted, but i guess thats the way it goes eh? anyway, i am going to do it again.

so there we go.

prb for the wrong reasons, but the group of us had the most amazing adventure getting back from there to the UK. you really wouldnt believe me if i told you - it was that surreal, you could prb make a module out of it!

thats all for now,

Al


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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:01 am 
 

Heya! :) Good to know you made it back in one piece, Al (and get the thread properly back OT ;)).

Yeah, I'd spotted the results, but they were lagged on the website and didn't want to forward without knowing what had happened.
Strained groin... darn... :(

Hoping for better climatic conditions in 2008, then?

  

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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:06 am 
 

Welcome back Al,

Sad to read these bad news but I hope you will be able to do the Marathon des Sables next year.

I have seen some pictures / reports on french TV.

Well, highly impressive!

  

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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 9:08 am 
 

Good to have you back, Al, and to know that you are fine.  You certainly did the right thing by stopping and not risking permanent injury.  There can always be a next time and we'll all pull for you again.   :D

  

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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 9:59 am 
 

hey peeps, yeah am ok sorta, still very dejected, but hey it wasnt my fault so...

yes i have my application forms, and am going to do it again anyway. 2007 is full unfortunately, so its gonna be 2008. which isnt a bad thing as it gives me plenty of time to sort myself out mentally, as well as physically and then its back into training. going to be following a traithlon program this time, so should be interesting to see how it turns out.

the heat and the conditions, funnily, didnt affect me that much. mentally, i was very strong and very prepared and i just got on with it. the highest temp was on day 2, which was 42C. the humidity was between 16-18% more than the norm. the highest, again on day 2, was 24% (take no notice of the site - i was there). this meant that whenever your body got hot from exertion and the heat, it didnt cool down due to the exceptionally high humidity. there was one case where an irish lad went down with hypothermia - caused by this freak weather.

well i have my appointment now to go and get my feet sorted out and then hopefully start training again for next time.

apparently, on the darbaroud website (i didnt know until last night), there are some video clips and i am on one of them very briefly from day 1, which is kinda cool.

i was apparently on dutch tv too - my aunt lives there and called and told me mum.

still doesnt make it feel any better having to pull out tho.

oh well.

thanks for the words of support tho folks - very kind.

Al


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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:51 am 
 

Hey, Allan!

   Good to have you back.  Pulling out was not what you wanted, but remember....billions of people did not have the ability or the guts to even try what you tried.

   You'll do it next time.

Mark   8)


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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:03 am 
 

Al, you might want to try this. Next time you feel the urge to run, head down to the local pub, find a big ugly chap, and pay him a few bucks to beat the piss out of you. Save a lot of time and effort.
Hats off to you, Al. Whether or not you finished is irrelevant, what matters is you tried. Look at it this way. You did a hell of a lot better than the vast majority of the human race could!


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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:25 am 
 

killjoy32 wrote:the highest temp was on day 2, which was 42C. the humidity was between 16-18% more than the norm. the highest, again on day 2, was 24% (take no notice of the site - i was there). this meant that whenever your body got hot from exertion and the heat, it didnt cool down due to the exceptionally high humidity. there was one case where an irish lad went down with hypothermia - caused by this freak weather.


Freaky...never would have thought the humidity could affect a person like that but I guess the rules are different in the desert.  I couldn't have done it.  It was 101 F and 97% humidity here in Dallas yesterday and I thought I was going to melt.  It caught everyone off guard since the normal temp for this time of year is around 70 F.  Since apparently the energy companies didnt allocate enough electricity for this time of the year and everyone cranked up their air conditioners, there wasnt enough electricity to go around and we had rolling blackouts/brownouts throughout the entire state for about 5 hours.  Someone needs to be fired for that I tell ya.  :evil:

Oh yeah, glad you are back Al.

  

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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:29 am 
 

Deadlord39 wrote:Al, you might want to try this. Next time you feel the urge to run, head down to the local pub, find a big ugly chap, and pay him a few bucks to beat the piss out of you. Save a lot of time and effort.
Hats off to you, Al. Whether or not you finished is irrelevant, what matters is you tried. Look at it this way. You did a hell of a lot better than the vast majority of the human race could!


heh :) i guess youre right, but its like this:

you are building up your D&D collections right and you stop 3 items short of having a complete collection. would that satisfy you? you know you would just have to complete the job, and in a way, its kinda like that with me over this.

the moroccans sold some pretty bizarre stuff out there, lemme tell you. for one second, i even thought one would come up to me and try and sell me some D&D books :D

now THAT would have been funny :)

Alan


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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:30 am 
 

Kingofpain89 wrote:Oh yeah, glad you are back Al.


:D very funny :D

Al


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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 1:58 pm 
 

killjoy32 wrote:the heat and the conditions, funnily, didnt affect me that much. mentally, i was very strong and very prepared and i just got on with it. the highest temp was on day 2, which was 42C. the humidity was between 16-18% more than the norm. the highest, again on day 2, was 24% (take no notice of the site - i was there). this meant that whenever your body got hot from exertion and the heat, it didnt cool down due to the exceptionally high humidity. there was one case where an irish lad went down with hypothermia - caused by this freak weather.

Air-ambulanced out to Marseille, IIRC... :?

Heh. I suffered badly enough from the 17 miles along the beach/dunes, yesterday. And that was with a gentle tailwind much of the way and 8-10 degree temperatures. Definitely NO sandstorms, apart from a brief ground-level one at a river crossing... :)
Not even the distance of your 'warm up' stage, besides the difference in climate, terrain and 1,000 foot hills that were casually 'dropped in' along your course. No thanks! :P

killjoy32 wrote:Apparently, on the darbaroud website (i didnt know until last night), there are some video clips and i am on one of them very briefly from day 1, which is kinda cool.

Ah; I missed that (or were you hiding behind the mass-camel send-off?).
Had a good search through all the still pics, to no avail.

killjoy32 wrote:still doesnt make it feel any better having to pull out tho.

Not the sort of injury that's easy to avoid, so fingers crossed next time around!

  

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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 2:44 pm 
 

faro wrote:
killjoy32 wrote:Apparently, on the darbaroud website (i didnt know until last night), there are some video clips and i am on one of them very briefly from day 1, which is kinda cool.

Ah; I missed that (or were you hiding behind the mass-camel send-off?).
Had a good search through all the still pics, to no avail.

killjoy32 wrote:still doesnt make it feel any better having to pull out tho.

Not the sort of injury that's easy to avoid, so fingers crossed next time around!


if you go to here:

http://www.darbaroud.com/uk/html/mds/21 ... _0409.php#

make sure the clips are on stage 1. you will see a clip of a guy on the top left and then one below it which is showing a row of ppl one behind the other etc. well i am on that one. you have to watch very carefully as you only see me very quickly. i am still amazed someone actually spotted me! i am number 635 in the white top.

i am just gonna put some pics oh photobucket for y'all to see.

Al


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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 3:01 pm 
 

just so it wont bog down ppl's downloading if they dont wanna see the pics, i will just post the links to see ok:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b6/ki ... resize.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b6/ki ... resize.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b6/ki ... resize.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b6/ki ... resize.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b6/ki ... resize.jpg

(the last one is where i pulled my groin - right at the bottom of it so i had to climb that mother still!! )

there were more hills like that too, but gives you a good idea.

i have loads of other pics forthcoming so will pop em on as soon as ...

Al


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Post Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 3:12 pm 
 

At a quick glance, it looks like #674 in the first picture has an enlarged copy of Your Paladin Has Benn Stolen By Druids hanging off him.


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