The marathon day. 42 km to run, having completed 71 km only hours before.
I did the best to tape of my feet in the morning and knocked back 4 nurofen plus to try and numb the pain a bit. I also made sure I had some painkillers to hand for during the race so that I could keeping topping my body up with pain relief.
As soon as the stage got underway I knew that the day would be difficult. Due to where the blisters were located on my right foot, I had started to alter my running style to relieve the pressure on this area. Within 15 minutes though, this different style was causing the right calf to cramp up as it was being over used as I was running on the ball of my right foot. It was a simple case of the better of two evils: I�d rather run with the sore calf than make the blisters worse.
After I�d been going for about half an hour and had found an even pace, the pain from the blisters and my calf started to ease off and were replaced with a feeling of numbness. As usual I was running with Russ, but at CP1 at 10.5km, I could tell that he was having a rough time of it as he declared �I�ve got numb nuts�. This was unusual for Russ as his particular strength was maintaining a steady pace for a long period of time. Leaving CP1 I pushed on with what I felt to be a comfortable pace and for the first time in the event, left Russ behind.
As CP2 came up at 22km, I felt surprisingly good � my pace was even and I felt like I could keep going forever. The remaining distance didn�t daunt me in the slightest and I remember thinking to myself that if only I felt this confident during London I�d be ok. In between CPs3 and the stage finish the scenery became more interesting with the occasional oasis and interesting rock formations to stimulate the mind. The wind had also died down a bit from the previous day, although it must still have been a headwind of about 20mph that we were running into.
The last few miles into the bivvy site were over a very flat area of ground dotted with bushes and palm trees and with about 2 miles to go, I could catch glimpses of the organiser�s white tents through the vegetation. However, as had become typical during the race, my sense of fair play when it came to drafting was again put to the test as an Italian I overtook tucked himself in behind me and just happily sat there shielded from the wind as we made our way to the finish. With about 200 metres to go, the bloke even had the cheek to gesture that he should now move to the front, at which point I made my feelings clear to him on the matter and made a dash for home. He would never have been able to keep up with me in a million years.
I wouldn�t have taken that attitude if the guy had wanted to tag onto me for a while, recover and then share some of this work. Indeed, Russ and me had deliberately not left Jerome during Stage 4 because we knew he was in a bad way and was relying on us to shelter him a bit. It was only in the final couple of miles of that stage that we decided to go it alone. I suppose it�s just like cycling � everyone should take their turn at doing some work and it�s just the etiquette of the sport that you do so. Out here in the desert, it sometimes felt like it was every man for himself.
As I walked back to Heinz 57, it really became noticeable how the weather conditions had rapidly improved. As I ditched my gear inside the tent there was not a breath of wind, and for once, the air was clean and could be breathed in deeply. As I lay in the tent waiting for the others to return, it almost felt like luxury: we didn�t have to cower from the wind, but instead could mill around, chat to other runners and generally just look forward to the last stage.
Later on that day, AOI decided to treat us and each competitor was given a can of coke. Mmm it tasted good after all of the tepid water and electrolyte drinks we had been on for the past few days.
The evening was rounded off by sleeping with my head outside of the tent looking up at an absolutely awesome night sky, watching dozens of shooting stars. In 24 hrs time, we would be back in civilisation and so I made the most of soaking up the atmosphere around the camp. You could almost reach out and touch the air of expectancy and excitement.
Summary of Stage 5
Distance 42km
Position 73rd
Time 4hrs 20mins