Day 1 Done and Dusted

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It was a very colourful and cheerful array of people as we gathered before we were bused out to camp one, an hours travel from town. Aaaaaah another snooze, racking up the rest before kick off.Grabbing a bed space blowing up air matt, meeting our tenties, all great fun, Six of our tent, 4 japanese, 2 poms had competed in the Sahara race together. Two girls, 7 men , packed a lot more loosely than I EXPECTED, certainly no place for any delicacies. Some great singing and dancing was put on by the locals on the desert floor, outstanding entertainment and it was there that it hit me, WOW, i'm here, lucky I had my shades on as I started to have a little blubber to myself. It must have all just caught up on me, and it is fantastic to be here! Freeze dried meal, popped the sleeping pill, earplugs in, gently out by 102 am rudely awakened by a gurgling tummy, f**k this doesn't feel good, bolted out of bed, torch, wipes and didn't really make it to the squat hole. Oh no, 1st day, no change of clothes threw out a couple days of wipes, these bits and pieces kept me awake for the rest or the morning. Am including all this to show the ins and outs and concerns of a gentleman athlete, the things that can make or break a day. Mine was not starting well Managed to get myself tidied up enough by breakfast of which I forced down a monster freeze dried porridge, amazing what you can do when you are convinced its doing good. That and gallons of hot water, a visit to med tent and allo appeared settled by race start. A great melee of colour, racers, excitement packs and merriment until the gun went off then it was down to business, which for the day was a mixture of walk/shuffle, remembering that this was day 1. It was glorious to be out there, the weather most of the day was overcast, which was excellent as we spent a lot of time in river canyons which would have been unbearable in the heat. It dawned on me after the 2nd stage that I was feeling really good and really needed to do all the training some justice. That and a wee Japanese girl, one of our tenties, that I had passed earlier, went whizzing past... so upped the shuffle rate in pursuit, turbo shuffle on the down hills. Never caught her but she provided great inspiration, if I can keep her at least in view for the race it could be a great lifter, again being mindful of the distance ahead I finally came in about 50 ,7 hours for 42.75, feeling good, and keen to continue, there were of course many moments of, Im sure theres a lot more fun to be had elsewhere. The one set of clothing is getting a sun bath, and I am looking forward to a Chicken Tikkita freeze dry and a beautiful nights sleep. Stage 1 over. Lets do it all again tomorrow. whoohooo

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Comments

[linda]

well done.
after your bad start you did very well, might just be nerves that makes your your tummy go funny. love reading your comments, although the photos weren't that clear.

[Hamish]

Go Boney...following your every step..will spread the word to NZ team to follow also. Going viral in China dude..:)

[Trudy]

Well done Bo
Well done Bo, keep it up, go hard :-)

[Selina Cook]

So proud of you!
It's amazing to feel the emotion of you actually running in the desert while JP and I and all our crew sit looking at the waves thinking "how the hell is he going". Cracked a deutz for you and after afew decided yes he is mad but really we are all jealous as we don't have the power to do it! Keep going and stay stong!