It’s just over 4 weeks since I finished The Sahara Race (Namibia) and in 12 days’’ time I’ll be starting The Gobi March in China.

I’ve been doing mostly short 10k training runs since Namibia and nothing over 15k, so I’m not sure how The Gobi March is going to go for me. It’s been tough deciding whether to recover from the last race or train for the next one, so I’ve ended up doing both, or neither, depending on how you look at it.

My journey to get to the next race will be an interesting one. I’ll fly out of Singapore just after midnight on 16th June, to Shanghai and then on to Urumqui in Xinjiang Province. I’ll then take a train to Hami and finally a 3 to 4 hour drive into The Tien Shan Mountains, and the start of the 250km Gobi Desert Race on the morning of 19th June. The race will likely be a fair bit tougher than my recent one in The Namib Desert, as it will be a combination of cold mountains for the first half, followed by hot, sandy desert for the second. The need for cold weather gear and additional food will almost certainly push my backpack weight over 10kg this time and with steep up and down hill terrane, my pace is going to be a lot slower.

The race will start at 2,500 meters elevation, and climb close to 3,000 meters by Day 2. With about 25% less oxygen available at that altitude and some steep hill sections, the start of this race will be a challenge. The longest stage of the race will again be on Day 5, with an 80km section through the sands of The Black Gobi.

Oh yes and I’ll be running with new (bigger size) shoes this time, so hopefully no, or at least not as many blisters, for me on this run!!!

Allen

8 June 2016