DREAM....STRUGGLE......VICTORY.....

Part 1, The Dream.
It was 02:30 I had been on the go now since the race started for over 17 hours. I was dog tired and still in pain of that there was no doubt, but as Steve waived me off from checkpoint 5 with the instruction “Just stay to the left on the coastal road now... and push on... only 18k to go, well done mate!” my spirits lifted, and I sighed with relief. My bruised and blistered feet would get a little bit of respite as I felt the hard stable surface of the compacted salt road at the edge of Namibia's infamous Skelton Coast for the first time.
A little snicker and a smile crossed my face, as I replayed the last couple of minutes in my mind.

I had been focused on the light signal from checkpoint five for at least 4km, and it never seemed to get any closer, but as I rounded the sharp bend around what appeared to be a rocky outcrop, I activated the Garmin GPS which indicated 2.4km to CP5 and a straight arrow that aligned perfectly with the only visible point of light in the inky darkness at ground level off in the distance ahead of me.
The ground seemed to be sloping slightly down hill, and I took this as the best time to try and force my blisters to burst and decided to up the pace and run into CP5.
You will only appreciate this if you have done it, but when a blister bursts under pressure from running on it there is a very satisfying pop, and an instant release of pressure and pain and I never cease to laugh every time I do it. These sod’s however, weren’t going to give up easily though, and they had been developing nicely over the last 20 miles. I had one on the ball of my right foot, and an elongated one on my left foot that seemed to extend from the ball to half way down the arch of my right foot, that I had stubbed repeatedly, and I felt the skin tear as the blister spread with each swearword that followed the clumsy foot plant and the stab of pain form the viciously stony ground.

Unknown to me Steve had been tracking my progress for quite some time, and had decided that there was plenty of time for him to stay snug and warm in his sleeping bag at CP5 before I got too close. I imagined him shifting his focus and attention back to the inside of his eyelids, and then a shocked expression on his face as he heard my rapidly approaching foot falls. I laughed took a drink from my freshly filled water bottles and got my head down and pushed on as he suggested. I bet he was back in his bag before I was out of sight, mind you I didn’t blame him it was colder now, but I knew in reality he had been on the go just as long as me, and he was alert, actively following events via the constant updates from the two way radios in the patrol vehicles.

I wasn’t so smug a couple of km’s further when I was confronted by a massive grey seal lumbering along the left hand verge of the coastal road I was running along, rapidly keeping pace with me and looking like it was going to attack if I didn’t allow it to cross back over to the Cape Cross side of the road and the Seal Colony from where it must have come. My mind was racing faster than my elevated heart rate, I was in trouble, and I couldn’t out run it... I was Knackered, and didn’t fancy a fight with old fishy face anyway... was my Namibian Extreme Ultra Marathon race going to end here surely not, not like this, I decided to stop and face it head on... it had all started so well.....

So what can I tell you about Across The Divide’s Namibian Desert 24hr Desert Ultra Marathon? Well, it runs from the heart of the Namibian desert to the Infamous and desolate Skeleton coast.
All Ultra Marathons are challenging events, of that there is no doubt. Extreme Ultra Marathons however fall into a league of their very own, and you can quite literally be taking your life into your own hands to complete them, but anyone can complete them if they have a couple of vital qualities.
First of all they need the desire, the ambition or as I like to call it the Dream, of tackling and succeeding in an extreme event.
Secondly they need to have an inner drive and focus to put in the correct quantity and quality of training, the planning and preparation that is needed to increase their odds of success. Not just when the weather is nice and the sun is shining, but when it is cold wet and miserable, during the dark winter nights, when the easiest thing in the world would be just to put it off till tomorrow, because it’s just not nice outside. I call this the Struggle. A place where you spend a lot of time during an Extreme Ultra!
Finally they need determination to persist. That “Never give in attitude” that will not accept coming short of the distance. This is where you visit the darkest places, where the battle is in your mind, but where; when you win… you know, I mean really know, the taste of Victory.

That’s what all your training and efforts prior to an event should prepare you with. That point of reference for what is to come.

When you line up on the start line you never know what the race or mother nature holds in store for you, The purpose of all your training, planning and preparation has been to get you to this point in time, feeling fit, mentally prepared and enjoying that little “tickle of adrenaline” as you step up to the start line ready to go the distance.

Much of the capability to succeed in completing these distances is without doubt physical fitness and stamina, but 80% of the battle to succeed takes place in the final 20% of the distance, and here you dig deep and fight the fight mentally, calling on all your reserves and referencing the pain and fatigue against how far you pushed yourself during training. This is not the time to realize or admit that you didn’t do enough in training.

When you complete any new distance in training or competing in events, it becomes a point of reference for what you can achieve next. Add to that the privilege of competing over these distances in some of the most extreme environments in the world, and they become personal milestones that allow you to re-define who you are as an individual and what you are capable of achieving, and allow you an in-depth insight into your psyche that you will never achieve without the adversity.
continued below....