Thurs 9th October

Thursday 9^th October

After an arduous flight (5 films watched) and a relaxing few days on the beach, with a dash of Kayaking thrown in I met up with the other runners and support crew for more of the same followed by an overnight boat trip to into the jungle. (Life's tough out here!)

We became acquainted with each other and sleeping in hammocks. The distance for each stage was confirmed.

Stage 1 – 20.5km
Stage 2 – 24.9km
Stage 3 – 43.8km
Stage 4 – 18.2km
Stage 5 – 90.4km ( aka 'a tiddler')
Stage 6 – 32.0km
Total – 230km

We had our welcome talk during which Jungle Jim introduced us to all the snakes, spiders, scorpions, ants, stingrays, electric eels and razor sharp regetation. I would summarise as follows. DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING

The actual race starts 6:30am local time ( 5 hours behind GMT) but since we're talking Brazil time it could be anytime after noon.  

The graphical representation of stage 1 looks rather like a sectional bed of nails as in described by the organizers as follows

"A Short  sharp shock to the system.  The  orientation of the elevation is insane. This stage could wipe you out totally if you don't take it east. Expect dehydration, pain in your quads and beginnings of trashed feet"

Remember you can send me messages via the organizers website www.junglemarathon,.com and my race number is 19, which are handed out each afternoon.

I will be thinking of you all while I have my early evening swim in the river.

Cheers
John