After 3 weeks in Russia I was very ready to cross the border into Mongolia, we had to go through passport control in Russia and I confused them a little as I had to use both my passports, you see I had my Russian visa in my British passport and Mongolian visa in my New Zealand passport….. I was questioned and re-questioned about why I had 2 passports and told I was the first person to ever cross the border with 2 passports ! There we go a good old Kiwi creating another bit of history!

We said goodbye to our Russian drivers and meet the tour company Nomadic Expeditions and our Mongolian driver called Hoge and tour guide called Darima, they would accompany us through our time in Mongolia. Even though the border crossing from Russia to Mongolia was literally 400 metres I noticed a wonderful sense calmness on entering Mongolia, the vibe was just so different from Russia, perhaps it was the fact that 94% of the Mongolians are Buddhist, it was that sense of calmness and happiness that I really needed after 3 challenging weeks in Russia and Siberia.

Another country meant another van, but this van was half the size of our previous vans, and with three tall men, myself, our tour guide and driver plus all our luggage it really was a mission to get us all in. We managed some how and thank goodness we only had 4 days in it because we would have all gone completely mad with the amount of hours we have to spend in these vans, especially after our sweaty runs!

Mongolia really is a fascinating country that consists of 1566000sq.km and an altitude 1580m above sea level. Of the 4million Mongols only a little more than 2,7million live in Mongolia, the rest live in Russia, China, Inner Mongolia ( an autonomous region of the people’s Republic of China largely settled by ethnic Chinese.

It is the land of extremes and known as ‘The land of the Blue Sky’ it’s a sunny country enjoying 250 sunny days a year., summer temperatures reach as high as 40c in the Gobi and 33c in the capital city Ulaanbaatar, while in winter the average temperature in most of the country is below the freezing point at -26C.

Mongolia is dotted with about 4000 Lakes, the most famous being Lake Hobsgol also known as the ‘dark blue pearl of Mongolia’- the fishing in these Lakes is meant to be one of the best.

Some of the wildlife include the Snow bear, the Gobi bear, the wild camel, wild mountain sheep and horse, and I must say I encountered some of this wildlife on one of my runs towards the Gobi Desert, it was day 57 of this Blue Planet Run and I had run over 900km when I started my 10miles.

The pilot van inched closely behind me providing my light with their headlights when I started my run late a night. I asked them to stop every 5km to give me some water, all the athletes have different request as to when they want their water. In the scorching day heat of Russia it was good to have water every 2km, but running at night where it was a little cooler I felt between 5km and 10km was sufficient. They also assured me they would guard me from the wild animals that roam around, I was scared stiff I might be attack by a Gobi Bear or a Wild Camel!

I didn’t encounter any Gobi bears, but I had the most memorable midnight run towards the Gobi, I encountered wild horses, a desert dog and a couple of spiders, I dodged what looked like miniature Kangaroos, they are called ‘Jurboas’ in Mongolia, the sky was lit up with a billion stars and I have never seen the milky way shine like it did that night and to top it all off the Tran Siberian Express roared by. On finishing our shift at 3am we drove 2hours and arrived in the Gobi desert where we went to sleep in tents as the sun was rising - yep it was quite an experience.

Unfortunately with the heat of the Gobi sun the tents started to feel like a sauna at about 10am, so I only got about 3 hours sleep, nothing unusual I suppose, but what was unusual were my big swollen eyes and OH MY GOSH they were sore and I looked absolutely hideous.

I hid in my tent wondering what to do with them and I couldn’t even disguise them with my blue eyeliner. I reckon I picked up an infection from 2 nights in a terrible Russian hotel I stayed in just before we crossed the border into Mongolia. My room reeked of stale smoke, there seemed to be no air circulating, the only thing circulating were the millions of fly’s in my room. I spent most of the first night up all night trying to swat them with a tea towel, this was actually meant to be our bath towel! In Russia a tea towel is your bath towel, just as well I am not that big, not sure how the guys managed though as it would have only been big enough to fit around their big toes!

My room faced the public toilet and if anyone knows anything about public toilets in Russia they know its not good to be in 100 yards of them! I was sure this was where I picked up my eye infection and the fact that I only got 2hours sleep on the second night as the had a disco booming from the restaurant just down the corridor from me. The music was so loud there would have been no way any of them could have had a decent conversation, so with their cigarettes and bottles of vodka they decided to congregate outside my window and have their conversations!!!!! I lay there and all I could do was laugh away to myself about how ridiculous it all was, it was either laughing or tearing my hair out with frustration!

So I put my sunglasses on and emerged from the safety of my tent into the heat and harsh sunlight of the Gobi. It was our day off but unfortunately and as normal our days off usually consist of long drives to the next destination, and this long drive was going to be another new experience. For 7 hours we drove across the desert, no roads and it was so rough we hardly spent any time in our seats…….I hate to think why my chiropractor back home would of thought of my poor spine after that experience, the dust from the desert really started to irritate my eyes, I tried putting Chamomile teabags over them and that helped a little.

Finally we arrived at our hotel, not the best but better than the Russian ones, it was 8pm at night and after getting only 3 hours the previous night I was exhausted, it was going to be another interesting night. Taeko the Japanese runner was my roommate but she had to get up at 2am to start the 3am shift, as quiet as she was I ended up being wide awake till 4am when I finally dropped back off to sleep. Then at 5am I was woken by loud footsteps in my room and a bright light shinning through from the corridor - I couldn’t quite work out what was going on…..two ladies were opening the curtains and making one hell of racquet, in a daze I turned to them and told them to get out or at least turn off the bloody light and PULL THE CURTAINS!. I then realized that they were changing the sheets on Taeko’s bed for the next runner Laurel from Yellow team who had just arrived in from the 3am -9am shift. By the time I got back off to sleep it was 6am and we had to be on the road again at 8am. MAMAMIA……. So feeling shattered, run-down and with sore eyes I felt a bit sorry for myself and during those ‘sorry” times I have to give my mum a call, she is a wonderful reassurance for me and always put things into perspective, we ended up having a good laugh about it all and I realized that those testing situations we are all put in, the ones where we are taken outside our comfort zones are going to be the ones we learn from, the ones in which we grow as people and the ones we will remember for life and draw on again when the going gets tough! …….