Marathon Des Sables
To The Finish
David Campbell / 10.05.2005
Tom and I stayed together for this stage.
The Koreans had set off ahead of the pack, as they were moving so slowly. I guess that also meant that they received the encouragement that they deserved as all of the runners passed them along the stony track. The terrain was tough for a last day, lots of rocks to twist the feet and put pressure in odd places. I had fared well after my earlier scare ... thank you doctor, you did a great job on me! But for Tom it was agony.
Before setting off I had noticed blood in my faeces, which did concern me a little, but there wasn’t too much so figured I’d wait and see if it got worse. I think that Tom was concerned with taking Voltorol after what the doctors had said. He had been taking it for a number of days now and decided to do the thing without painkillers…I wasn’t so brave!
The last checkpoint was momentous, looking down at the card that they stamp when you receive water and when you pass through the control points, there was one left … the finish!
As we kept going, the number of children asking for sweets increased, again my stench must have seen us right, also I think that they can pick out the ones that have stuff to give away and target them straight away!
As we entered the outskirts of the Tazzarine, the realisation that we were within spitting distance of the end began to dawn on us, waves of emotion kept welling up, only to be quashed by the head telling us that we weren’t there yet!
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