Previously on Racing Namibia...
So yesterday you all did amazingly well.
It was really hot. In the sun I recorded 43 degrees celsius.
It's likely to be at least as hot, if not hotter today.
I'm in Namibia running the Namib Desert race
part of the Racing the Planet 4 desert series.
Usually by about the third or fourth day you start to feel stronger.
We're now on Stage 3 of the race as we run 250 km over seven days across the desert
while carrying all of our own food and supplies for the week on our backs.
It's the morning of Stage 3
and it feels like all the runners are starting to really get into a groove.
Everybody seems to be ready a little bit sooner than usual
working through their morning routines, taping their feet, lubing their toes
having breakfast, repacking our bags
and now on day 3, our packs are finally getting a little bit lighter
a little bit easier to pack
everything's starting to come together
and hopefully people are finding their rhythm
provided they didn't go out too hard in the first two days.
My legs are a little bit stiff
my adductors are a little bit fired up
but overall, I feel pretty good.
I've been getting 10 hours of sleep per night pretty easily
going to bed at 8 o'clock and waking up maybe just before 6
plus a little bit of a nap in the afternoon.
But today's gonna be a little bit of a longer stage, closer to 45 km
and I believe mostly uphill, climbing up through a riverbed.
Max, did you sleep well?
Like an absolute baby, you would not believe it.
I need to make up 15 minutes today.
I have to find 15 minutes on my competitors.
I've been doing 5:30. I need to do 5:15 or less today.
That's my plan.
Congratulations to all of you.
Every single person is still in the race and finished strong, well within cut-offs.
Yesterday uh the top 3 - so the leader was Radmir from Russia
who finished the stage in 3 hours 49 mins.
And second and third was joint, it was Ben and Rob
Ben Darme and Rob Ripley
10 minutes behind Radmir.
Today is the first day that you're going to see the very, very poisonous plants of this desert.
Please don't touch them and certainly don't drink the liquid that comes out of them.
They are extremely poisonous.
So if I can just say, don't touch any plants today
and if you're taking a toilet break on the course, go behind the plants
but avoid touching them or getting too close to them.
Leaving the dunes at Camp 3 behind, we'll continue further inland
through an area called the Moon Valley where temperatures will begin to soar.
We'll climb out of the river through a canyon up to Camp 4
which sits on a plateau.
You can see everyone playing a bit of a game
kind of zig-zagging back and forth
basically just trying to find the hardest packed ground.
It might seem inefficient but the energy you waste going back and forth
you definitely make up by not running in the soft sand.
Beautiful light this morning.
Hey guys.
Okay, thanks guys.
Finally, a bit of climbing.
Look at this!
Gorgeous!
Thank you.
Well, I'm just over halfway through at about 23 km
and I'm feeling good.
The legs are moving well.
It's getting pretty warm but I do feel like I'm starting to kind of acclimate to the heat
finally here on day 3.
It's a beautiful course again running through this dried river valley.
Apparently, there was a flash flood through here pretty recently
so everything's nice and packed down.
We're right around 32k and I kind of feel like I put my head in the oven.
But the next aid station's coming up
and we've only got about maybe 12 or 13k left
so I just gotta hang in there.
Okay, through the last aid station.
I got both bottles filled up.
12k to the finish.
Oh, there's a runner up there.
Maybe somebody's having a hard time.
Yeah, that's Radmir who finished first yesterday.
It sounds like the heat just got to him.
Thank you.
Nice work Rob.
Nice work Ben.
Nice work! Way to rally!
Nice job.
I'm pretty happy with how my day went.
I didn't run particularly hard but I did run pretty much every step
but most importantly, I ran my own race.
I was in sixth position for most of the day
and then basically just started kind of passing people when they were walking.
I finished in third.
I think i'm still sitting in fourth overall but that's okay.
I've got a very comfortable lead on fifth.
My body's feeling actually better today than it was yesterday
and my feet are in perfect condition.
So I think I'm set up for success over the next couple of days.
It was so hard and it was so hot.
I'm one of the paramedics here, one of the head paramedics.
We provide medical services at events like this.
So with events not taking place
and some of the events being cancelled that we've been counting on
it has effected us really bad.
Racing the Planet was the first event after the lockdown
so we really appreciate how they gave us this chance.
With them making use of our services
Racing the Planet really helped us.
For eight days it's been hectic but we love what we do.
Awfully long as they say.
Geez, carnage!
What heat!
Nice job guys.
Nice job, nice job man.
Thank you.
On the next episode of Racing Namibia...
The temperature we got yesterday was 47 degrees in the sun.
Again, a reminder that the shade makes such a difference.
Yesterday, you had the chance to get some.
Today you won't have so much of a chance of shade.