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

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!

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

now THAT would have been funny

Alan

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!

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!

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

Deadlord39 wrote: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.

lol thats the roadbook that you get chummer, so you dont get lost

Alan

killjoy32 wrote: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

Hiya Al, good to have you back.   Sorry to hear that things didn't go as you planned, but at least you are home in one piece(for the most part).  Man looking at thos pictures cretainly put that marathon in a whole new light for me, I figured you at least be running on a concrete roadway or something. I knew that you were going to be running through the desert, but geez I had no clue you would be running through the middle of the desert.   I am sure that once you have time to reflect upon it all you will realize that even though you weren't able to finish the whole race that you still did try it, which is a hell of a lot more than most people can say.

MShipley88 wrote:What was the purpose of the bags on your legs?  Protection from the sun?  Protection from scratches?

Mark  

mark

they are hand-made gaiters.

they are basically to protect your feet from sand getting in. if it gets in - your feet get totally trashed. if you walk down the street when its hot, your feet get sweaty. across the sand, in 40+C temps and sand going in your shoes while youre running/walking 30 miles, the effect can be rather drastic....thats why you wear them.

there are many different types. some have them actually stitched onto  your running shoes!

Al

faro wrote:So when's that 'Escape from Dune' module coming out then?
i.e. How did y'all get back, Al...?

thats what they put near the end of day 4, so that you can see where the finish is, as most are likely still out there in the dark.

sadly i didnt get far and my mate did that one in 11.5 hours (walked the whole way) - they shortened the stage the to bar weather conditions making it dangerous for the competitors (chopped off 15km and two really difficult parts of the stage).

i will be writing up the adventure on how we got home soon. just not got my head onto it yet. still pretty down about having to drop out  

Al