Cross a desert on foot.

“For the first hour of day 1 I felt so strong and just loved every single minute of running. After CP1 I could feel this pain in my left leg - it started at my foot and shot up all the way to my glutes. I did not know what to do, because this pain was new to me. I tried to run with Amanda, but I got to a point where I could not even walk. She walked with me for a bit, and then I just said please go, I'm holding you back. And so my Day 1 in the Wadi Rum was full of pain and full of tears! [...] so the 2 of us did the shuffle, desert style...slow, but steady. And I've never been so happy to see the finish line of day 1! When we got to camp, half of the tents weren't up yet and it was raining and it was cold. We found space in one of the tents and tried to get warm.”

“The first 20.8km were sheer hell - 3km by road - 8km in a river canyon where I got soaking wet upto my knees and at times, thighs - one km on a 4x4 track (and this was just upto checkpoint 1). The next 9.6 km saw us climb up and up and up. Great scenery but I wasn't in a frame of mind to appreciate. The incline was really steep, at times almost 45-60 degrees. The route to CP2 ended with a tumble down through an endless sand dune, which sloped at an incline of 60-70 degrees (almost vertical, if you ask me). As a reward, I received my first blister of the race, which was quickly treated at CP2 and after a brief rest, I set out for CP3.”