Race Report: Gobi March 2012

"We travel on the road to adventure, a desert highway straight to the heart of the sun.  Like lovers and heroes and the restless part of everyone, we're only home when we're on the run. . . on the run." - Dreamline by Rush

Race:  Gobi March 2012, conducted by Racing The Planet Limited, based in Hong Kong


Dates:  10 June - 17 June, 2012

Brief details of course: Little over 240km across 6 days in the Gobi Desert.  Race start at Gazi village and ended at Kashgary (The Old City), followed by a 15km run to the finish line on Day 6.  Entire race is self supported.  My backpack weighed in at 13kg at start (due to all the food I was carrying with me) and reduced to about 7kg at end Day 5.

Timezone:  GMT +7hrs

Stage Details:

Stage 1/Day 1:  Gazi Village - Tashpushka: c33km

Stage 2/Day 2:  Tashpushka - Langerville: c39km

Stage 3/Day 3: Langerville - Heaven’s Gate: c36km

Stage 4/Day 4: Heaven’s Gate - Kongsu Village: c41km

Stage 5/Day 5: Kongsu Village - Kashgary: c76km

Stage 6/Day 6: Kashgary - Finish: c15km

I personally thought the course was very well crafted.  Day 1 introduced us to the Gobi.  Day 2 extended that - we sort of got to know the terrain better over a longer distance PLUS we were introduced to an undulating terrain, albeit of low height.  Day 3 had us tackle longer distances that comprised higher ups and downs.  Day 4 comprised more of the same  terrain of day 3 - steeper and sharper undulations, followed by a river crossing and open roads/fields.  Stage 5 consisted highly rocky terrain with a few undulations for nearly 40km followed by flat terrain.  Tough course and capable of testing us to the hilt.  At least, it did me!

Daily race starts were at 8:00 AM except Stage 5 which started at 10 AM.

Average day time temperatures varied between 32-36 degrees C, with a high of 39C on one day.

Terrain: Primarily rocky/stony surface.  Sparse surface vegetation. On stages 3 and 4, the course comprised hillocks with surface elevation ranging between 30-70 metres and inclines between 45-60 degrees.  Fair degree of river bed crossings (which meant lots of fist size rocks/pebbles of varying shapes).  The course also passed through a few farm fields and villages, as well as a couple of stretches of asphalt road.  Stage 4 and Stage 5 had us cross some low lying rivers as well, a chance to get our feet wet and cool them off briefly. I believed the terrain was tougher than that of the Atacama.  The Atacama had a lot of variety - sand, salt, dunes, rocks, donkey trails, mud roads, et al.  The Gobi just seemed to be about rocks and very little else.

Overall, I completed the race in 49h23m, better than my Atacama times of  56h.  I also managed to complete Stage 5 in 15h30m, about 4 hours better than the Atacama long march of near same distance.  I placed 109th overall.

Gear:  Primarily, the same gear I used in the Atacama which you can find in this link here.  The biggest change was in my nutrition.  I took MTR's Ready To Eat food packs and lots of noodles and soups in favour of the expedition foods and cliff bars for primary nutrition.   Also, nutrition during the day was GU's Roctane.

Race highlights:  Days 1 went by well.  My feet took quite a while getting used to the highly rocky terrain, which appeared to be a constant feature on a daily basis.  I buddied up with various people through the entire course and we sort of became proxy pace setters for the other during the days.

On Day 2, we started off 8 AM from Tashpushka. The stage to CheckPoint 1 was alright.  7.3km on a good track and not much elevation gain.  Made it comfortably to CP and then moved on.  Nothing much to report here. CP1-2 was like a multiple up/down course - climbing anywhere between 3-15 metres at a steep 50-60 degree elevation and descending; and rinsing and repeating this 10-15 times - I just lost count.  I took 2h30m to get to CP2, an average speed of 4km an hour. I buddied up with Sara from Australia for this course and through the rest of the day.  CP2-3 started off ok for the first 6km and there was a fair bit of sun outside.  The last 3-4 km was miserable and I died in the arse several times.  It was through a (dry) river bed and the rocks, gravel, pebbles and such just kept hurting the soles of my feet upto a point where I was almost close to hobbling.  Luckily, I checked when I reached camp - no blisters and no sores.  We made good time, ~2hrs.   CP3-4 was peaceful - ~9km of asphalt road followed by 2 km of a dirt track into camp.  Sara and I had Nigel for company here and we completed this in 2h10m, I think.  We ran across the fin line together and posed for the pictures :)

On Day 3, the most brutal part of the day was between CP1 and 3.  The first half of this was a gravelly road followed by ascending and descending steep hillocks, one after the other.  The heights were ~10-20 metres, sometimes higher, but with an incline of 60 odd degrees, going and coming. We went through roughly 3-4 km of such terrain before reaching CP2.  CP2-3 was on a track and river bed with just rocks and huge pieces of gravel.  Not very nice on the feet ;).  By the time I got to CP3, I was fairly exhausted.  The sun was also out fairly well and pretty much drained the juice out of me.  CP3 to Camp was a winding uphill dirt track with a sharp incline.  I realised that we ascended 1000m during the day’s run, with a 450m elevation gain in the last 8km leg alone.  Essentially, I just kept plodding on and was quite thankful to hear the Camp drums.  I buddied up with Johnathan Raymond, a Britisher for the most part this day.

We started off Stage 4 with a 7km uphill climb to Heaven's Gate.  The last 1 km to HG was on ladders and we also encountered a steep incline upward. The view was spectacular but I did not stop much. Came down to CP1.  CP1-2 and part of CP2-3 was quite bad.  Several 30-50 metre steep hills that we had to cross across a 14km distance, comprising dirt and animal tracks.  The incline at certain places was almost 60-70 degrees.  We had to tread extremely carefully coming down since the path was at best a feet wide in certain places and was a sheer 50-70 metre drop down.  CP3 to finish was a straight walk through a river crossing, an open road, some fields and finally past a quarry.  I came down with ITB syndrome during Stage 4.  This meant I had to walk/hobble for the latter part of the course, using painkillers for the most part.

Stage 5 was absolute bad (rocky) terrain for the first 40 odd km. It just comprised stones and gravel underfoot as well as a couple of undulations.  My feet were brutalised on the undersoles and sides and I lost sensation in my calves.  It comprised seven check points varying between 8.5 and 10.5km.  We started off at 10 AM on the day, after a 2 hour bus ride to get to the start line.  I buddied up with John again and we agreed to complete Stage 5 together.  The strategy was to ensure we got to CP3 with adequate time to spare.  We were extremely comfortable time-wise all the way to CP5.  I kept rubbing pain balm at each checkpoint and dosing myself with painkillers every 4 hours, since ITB syndrome was acting up BADLY on my right leg.  We stopped at CP5 at 7.45pm for a quick meal and rather than rest there, decided to move on.  It was a straight 30km run from there to Camp Kashgary which John and I completed in about 5h30m.  Overall, I finished the Stage in 15h34m, getting into camp a little past 1.30 AM.

The closing run of 15km to the final finish line was quite relaxed.  I kept my tent mate, Tim company.  He’s a fantastic runner but came down with blisters, poor man.  We pallied up and crossed the finish line together. 

Personally, this race has given me a greater sense of satisfaction than the Atacama, I see a marked improvement in my recklessness ;).  More importantly, my fitness levels have improved tremendously.  I was also able to identify my weak spots on a daily basis much quicker and take spot-on decisions immediately.  Overall, no major injuries or blisters.

Huge thanks to:

My wife and family, friends in India and overseas for your support and comments on the blog.  They just inspired me to keep going.

The core RTP crew - Mary, Sam, Alina, Riitta, the volunteers including Kris, Christoph, Mark, Jesse, Gobinda, Ralph and Marianna, the medical team headed by Dr. MArk Ellis, for making this experience pleasurable and safe for all of us.

My tentmates at T4, Gao Chang - Jagdeep Kairon, Mo Foustok, Virginie Goethals, Mark Richardson, Manoj Varma, Arvind Sirohi, Isabel Dufour, Tim Allen and Tom Hill - you guys rocked.  Thanks for all the support back at camp.

All my friends, old and new - Brad, Johnathan, Francisco, George, Nigel, Luba, Shinya san, Sarah, Geoff, Ryan, Mallette, Nick, Etsuji san, Jacob, Peter, Yousef, Pam, Gary, Paul, Arthur - thanks for the encouragement, both on the course and off it.  It’s been a privilege getting to know you and running with you.

Thanks again and until the next adventure. . . 

S