It’s late already and with a 4:30am wake up for a 5:30 am volunteers it’s been a long day so I do feel in a bit of a daze.  The tough nights with pouring rains, and temps ranging from frigid cold to blazing heat has definitely pummeled a bit.   It wouldn’t be fair to write only a little as it was an extremely full day to share including working checkpoint 3 (which steadied itself up and down the mountain in several spots as we worked through massive mud and trucks that could not go “go”!).  So consider this a work in progress so “home” knows I’m good.  Another extraordinary day ending with an eagle at camp with the option to put on the heavy glove and have him on your arm wings truly spectacular as they spread out.  Truly breathtaking……

Great news is that I will be joining in tomorrow’s 10k to the finish line at a most beautiful monastery.  Tomorrow brings much joy all around, and a 6-hour bus ride back to the hotel.  I may not be able to update in a while, but I most certainly will!

Sending love to home – I miss you guys, a lot!!!  And thanks for the blog comments and emails from DCINY and ATC and friends!  I’m hoping that everyone is doing well….sending love all around.

(ADDING IN TO COMPLETE THE DAY, as promised, BELOW!)

THURSDAY – adding in a few notes to below…..a truly full and robust volunteer day with an early wake up and what was supposed to be time at Checkpoint 3 to spend getting to better know Jo and the other volunteers.  Looks like the Mongolian trolls had other plans for us……

But first – wrapping up our Rest Day and the skies opening up with torrents of rain and wind….a forced R&R time, nap time, and the jokes continue…. The white noise on the tent was beautiful to just listen to as Amy and I nodded off, intermittently jumping up to tend to zippers on window flaps to make sure that we stayed dry inside.  We were promised all seasons (and then some) in one day, and that was delivered.  Linds came in to join us when the rain let up a bit – she had been trapped at the Cyber tent by the downpour. 

Now let me just say that Linds is one of the most easy going sunny optimistic people I have met in a very long time.  No matter what’s up she smiles, says YEP, and goes forward. When the 5 of us stared at the tent the first night trying to figure out how in the world we were going to fit all 6 of us in there she popped in at the conclusion and asked “what’s the plan guys?” – we told her and just as described – “Yep, sounds great!”.  Anyone else would be scratching their heads as to how in the world they would now be #6.  Well fast track to our meditative white noise tent #11 Gobi Desert……she comes in — SHREEK.  A HUGE puddle of water in her slice of real estate, soaking her clothes that had just been rinsed and dried earlier that day, and the kiss of death – a portion of her sleeping bag soaking wet.  There was definitely a stunned silence and then out of nowhere an eruption and one simple word: MOTHERFUCKER came out of Linds’ mouth.  Now let’s just say that was the ONLY one I heard from her ALL week.  Once released from the core of her soul, we moved in to solution mode, as all good RTP’ers do (remember, these are lifeboat people!) — thank god for my mini washcloths (add water and poof) – somehow my clicking on amazon resulted in gigantic ones and the water was mopped up, and the sleeping bag and clothes moved to the hot water tent to roast from the tent top hanging over the gigantic kettles of water and licking flames.  Hey, you do what you have to do!  Linds ended up in her Bivvy bag as a work around and with our laughter, I grabbed this photo for her to send home saying “all is well!”– looking like she’s in a body bag…..if you’ve never seen someone in a bivvy bag, that’s what it looks like.  Morose I know, but she swore it was warm as anything  and kept her going until her sleeping bag returned dry and “smoky” flavored the next day!  And as expected, her sunny disposition continued strong to the very finish, and several missed connections home at the end of the race (TWO airport sleep overs Linds?  WHAT??)

Those trolls kept at it though….. (I joked earlier that random runners would appear in front/behind of me that I had no idea was there! Like they were just dropped on the trail.  It was especially apparent when as I was near the end and climbing the FUCK ME mountain described earlier, all of a sudden OUT OF NOWHERE, one of the Japanese group “Happy” showed up with a wig on – no idea where she came from, saw her for a brief time and then POOF she was gone.  Perhaps my long daze hallucinations started early?) 

Checkpoint 3 – “Little Switzerland” – and that it is.  Beautiful up in the mountains, but oh to get there.  The mud, the mud the mud!  I will try and upload the video and/or photos of the trek to the top – unfortunately (and long story short) these incredible trucks that you see in all the photos could NOT make it up the mountain – so it was us volunteers making our way up by foot, down, sideways – one plan, and then the next and then the next.  A true example of how you always need to stay fluid, recalibrating and trying new solutions quickly and often until you lock in to success.  The concern was that the lead runners would get to CP3 and we wouldn’t be there – no water, no doctor, nada.  God bless Carlos and Jo who pushed ahead and made solutions happen quickly – it was an honor to witness.  At one point we had 3 different CP3’s running at the same time just so everyone could be supported with water and the stuck truck at one point, another tent higher up, and then finally our minimalist camp at the actual CP3 point with just us, 2 bottles of water, and a LOT of cheering!  With all of our movement on the muddy trail by foot, I was thrilled that #1: I didn’t fall face down in the mud and #2: it was a day full of activity, movement and finally RUNNERS coming through.  The thrill of seeing runners coming up the hill, especially the back of the packers, lights me up.  Yelling, whooping, hollering – connecting.  What a perspective – taking this incredible experience and seeing it from new dimensions, nevermind the opportunity to study the front runners’ gait, nutrition, everyone’s methods at the checkpoint.  Wildly beneficial to soak it all in and I learned so much.  And I must share a volunteer quote (sorry, I don’t know who to attribute it to, but it was said in jest, which as you probably get from my writing, I adore.  She apparently said “I love it when things go wrong!”.  It was shared with me BEFORE all of this happened, and perhaps I parroted it one too many times and the universe decided to flick the whip.  Sorry Jo – I didn’t mean to intice mayhem and challenge in any way!

And oh the EAGLES – flying right at our sight line.  So majestic with huge wing spans.  And nothing like seeing the remains of dinner being let go from high in the sky to plop in to the trees below.  As for the swarms of flies – as soon as I shared with runners that they truly were to be called Assholes (in whatever language they wished) there was much laughter.

Of course, at day’s end when it was time to make it back to camp cars once again were challenged by the mud to the point where the truck behind us lost the front of his sideboard, hanging/dragging on the ground.  Our aim had been to choose another ger and family and stop to donate a battery and other items.  We came up to one with 8 kids ranging from age 7 or so up to a young man/James Dean type who pulled up on his motorbike, leather coat and boots, and apparently left in charge of the family while their parents went to UB to vote (national elections over 3 days).  Of course, as I witnessed everywhere, there were smiles and help to fix the falling off car part.  Our driver coyly stated to us in English: THEY get a Battery!  And that we did – with much joy to all of them, I think especially for the “treats” of jewelry, candy and so on.  What fun to connect like this.

The day ended with a market stop.  Fascinating to see all the different foods and have no idea what’s inside!  After watching everyone eat noodles all week I had to partake and did my best to choose a bowl.  I haven’t written much about my own status, but a horrible dry cough has afflicted me all week, so my hope was that a bone broth ramen soup would do some magic.  And that it did – I was feeling badly eating it back at camp later as others looked at me hungrily wondering where I found such contraband UNTIL several birthday sheet cakes came out to celebrate the many bdays we had with the group.  Amazing to see cake going down quickly and icing on everyone’s faces.  Topped with a bonfire it was quite a day.