Today in the Southern Gobi Desert of Mongolia I experienced the toughest run I've had thus far. It was hot with a stiff headwind and the bright sun. I had lots of hill climbing and a rough start. After driving two hours on the desert roads the night before to our hotel and then three hours this morning to the start of the run, I was feeling a bit like a blended yogurt. I popped out of the van and started to run in the direction instructed. About a mile into it, just as my legs were feeling like they might loosen up, the pilot van appeared and told me to jump in. We were on the wrong road. The desert roads are unmarked and especially in this part of the Gobi run every which way and then. When we first left San Shand this morning the "highway" was barely a track through dirt. At the point where I started to run, they soon discovered I was supposed to be on the opposite side of the railway tracks according to the GPS. So the pilot van drove me back, over the tracks and up the other side to the approximate parallel point of where I had been on the other side of the tracks. The van was air conditioned and the driver in a hurry to get back on schedule. After our two accidents, I was braced and nervous. My legs tightened up even moreso than before and never recovered. I took water every two and a half miles, even walked one uphill, and whined to the day pilot asking where I might find a downhill. "Right over this hump" he replied. Alas, after five miles of climbing I don't think I got even a mile before it started to climb again. Jason was running in the desert behind me and every once in a while I would look back and envision him as my guardian spirit. This part of the desert was extremely barren, not much on the floor to look at and nothing but endless horizon and gravel and at my feet. I did see alot of bones. All the carcasses were dried up. No real life to speak of. The run took me forever.

After my leg the scenery again started to change. It became more beach like with dunes formed up against fences erected to keep sand off the tracks. When we left San Shand this morning and drove out into the desert it reminded me of driving to the beach in Seaside Park, New Jersey, a road right into the sand with dunes. Later in the day I had more of these comparisons and also to the canyon lands of the American West, only without the height. We are still at approximately 4,000 feet in altitude.

More desert flowers appeared. In some places there were small scrub bushes like polka dots on the sand. We also came across small oases of trees, not large but somewhat shade producing, and lots of camels. We stopped at a small family farm on the route and Emmanuel and Shiri were given the opportunity to ride one of their camels, a smelly one with terrible breath.

Water is life. Pass it on!