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I'm safely back home in Zürich, working on my next challenge: recovering from the MDS! I've got a nice collection of blisters and overuse injuries to heal, plus I need to work through the all-common post-race blues that always seems to greet the end to a big event that is...

For our week in the desert an ABC News crew followed our group of U.S., Canadian, and Australian athletes through the highs, lows, and overall adventure. The cameras were around so much that it started to feel like a reality show -- and you just knew that when you were feeling your worst, you'd see a camera nearby to capture the moment! We saw so much of the news crew during the race (including out on the race course) that they started to feel like part of our team.Today (Thursday, April...

They aired the Marathon des Sables coverage on ABC in the U.S. on Wednesday night! We didn't hear about it until too late, but the info is on the ABC website:The story:A Marathon With a DifferenceVideo segments from ABC:http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4714647 http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4712226 http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4712090And some pictures from the ABC crew in the desert:ABC News Joins the MdSCheers,Becky

Stages 1-3: How could we have underestimated this challenge?

To give you a seat right next to the action for the first few stages of the MDS, I've created a video with tunes, photos, and daily pre- and post-stage audio updates. The soundtrack has special meaning for MDS 2008 competitors as it's a tune we were treated to each morning in those final anxious moments before the stage started. The sights, sounds, emotion, and commentary in these videos captures what it's like to be there perhaps better than words alone ever will, so please sit back, relax...

Before I can tell the story of the Long Stage, I think we need to spend a few minutes revisiting my mindset when I signed up for this adventure a year ago, my expectations going into it, and my background (or lack thereof!) as a competitive athlete. Where to start ... how about backwards? For readers who may not know me well, I'll share a highly condensed version of my background:1995 and prior: overweight, sedentary, unhealthy, entirely nonathletic1996: Signed up for an Ironman as a...

Thanks so much to all who have visited my site and shared your support for this great adventure -- before, during, and after the journey! Through video, audio, and writing, this blog site captured what it was like to prepare for and compete in what many call the world's toughest footrace, the Marathon des Sables. It also captured a wonderful charity initiative for ING Chances for Children. For future site visitors, I've organized a Road Book to help you find what you may be interested in...

It's the last day and I awake on fumes, feeling completely exhausted before even trying to squirm out of my sleeping bag. For the fifth day in a row, pain erupts from my knee the moment I make even the slightest movement. I laugh at the insanity, the sheer madness of this race. The Berbers leave our tent in tact this morning, as the final stage starts with a ceremonial run straight the Bivouac. I take some final photos of our home for the past week – feeling a bit sad that Tent 77 comes...

I awake the morning of the rest day after a particularly rough night of sleep. I'm feeling very dehydrated, extremely hungry, and hung-over. Pain shoots through my knee every time I move my body. On all the other mornings I've felt tired, but not awful. This morning, my mind is happy, but my body is feeling awful. I need water and food to speed up today's recovery. I'm still a bit shell-shocked over yesterday's epic experience. My body tells me that it was real, but I still can't comprehend...

Morning comes much too soon and I awake hearing the Berbers quickly call instructions out to each other and then walk straight through our tent, taking it right off of us as we try to hide in our sleeping bags comfortable in our dreams of sleeping in a real bed and of hurting a bit less. My knee throbs the moment I roll over to avoid being stepped on by a Berber who seems to be in a great race himself (to pull down as many tents as possible while people are trying to grab their last moments...

Within moments of the start I find myself in a small cluster of a dozen or so runners at the front of the race. Several runners are taking "flyers", where they push the pace hard for a couple minutes to enjoy being at the head of the race,...

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