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| Day, Time, Date | Activity Data / Participant’s Quote |
|---|---|
| Day 1 – 15:00 02 March 2021 to 23:11 02 March 2021 |
The participant started faster than planned alternating between approximately 2 km of running (5-5:30 min/km) and 1 km of active walking (8.4 min/km) for the first 25 km. The participant said: “At the beginning I was taking a high sugar sport nutrition, but not as structured as I should have been, and I started to experience stomach pain”. The rest of this first shift (5h30min) was interrupted by seven episodes of diarrhoea. The participant took the decision to walk the remainder of the planned 30 km at a pace of 9 min/km. During the break, his pre-planned sport nutrition diet was replaced by plain rice and noodles and some chicken to reduce his abdominal pain and diarrhea. The second shift started with walking for 10 km and then he switched between episodes of intermittent walking and running before finishing with walking for the last 10 km. “I felt mentally frustrated not having followed my racing strategy and dietary plan properly.” |
| Day 2 – 03:09 03 March 2021 to 21:37 03 March 2021 |
The participant could only sleep 30 minutes during his second resting period of 4 hours. He started off on his next shift walking at a pace of 9 min/km for the first 20 km. The subsequent 3 hours altered between running at 5 min/km for 1 km and walking at 9 min/km for 2 km, before finishing by walking for 10 km at 9.3 min/km. “I felt good running during the majority of the shift, but it broke me [physically] for the second one and most probably the rest of the challenge”. After eating rice and chicken noodles, the second block was mostly walking at 9.3 min/km. “My body started to get sore. It started to become mentally difficult as it was misty and pitch black and I could hardly see. I also had no concept of whether I was going uphill or downhill. After a difficult 3 hours, I asked someone from the support team to walk with me as I was mentally struggling.” |
| Day 3 – 22:12 04 March 2021 to 10:37 05 March 2021 |
The participant could only sleep 90 minutes during his resting time and walked almost for the entire 8-hour shift at 9.4 min/km. “I felt that my body was not following me”. After about 36 kms, the participant had to stop due to shin splints, cramps in the legs, and pain in his hip flexors. He received a leg massage from a sport physiotherapist. After a 95-minute break, he ran another 8.68 km at a pace of 10.4 min/km. “I started to realize that I would need to expand my blocks as I was progressing very slow, and I started to physically and mentally break”. The shift started 45 mins before the planned time, and he maintained a pace of 9.4 min/km for about 2 hours. This was followed by a 25-minute break. The same sequence was carried over for the rest of the shift. During this shift, the participant was inactive for about one hour. |
| Day 4 – 18:01 05 March 2021 to 10:03 06 March 2021 |
The shift was postponed by 2 hours due to authorization issues to walk on the side of the highway. He eventually started at 18:00 instead. It resulted in a rest time of almost 7h30 min. The first 50 mins were walked at a pace of 10 min/km after which a first 10-minute break was taken. “My shin splints and hip flexors were very painful, and every step was a challenge”. He restarted at the same pace and continued for about 95 minutes before taking a 30-minute break. He terminated the shift after 5h46min. “I got a short mental boost as I arrived in Abu Dhabi city, but it also meant much busier roads”. After a 35-minute break, the participant started his second shift of the day that lasted 9h40min during which he was active for 7h50. The first 25 km were walked at a 10.4 min/km pace, followed by a 45-minute break. The rest of the shift altered walking at 11 min/km with short break every few kms. “I realized that I was not even halfway through the challenge and my body was completely broken, doubting that I could finish as my body would get worse with the days. Mentally, it was certainly my darkest day”. |
| Day 5 – 13:58 06 March 2021 to 10:33 07 March 2021 |
“Physically, with my shin splints, nothing could have been worse. If the rest of my body seemed to have adapted, my shin splints needed more rest. However, I had a massive mental boost as I arrived in Dubai”. The participant walked for 9h12min at 11 min/km within a 10h44min shift. Apart from a 50-minute break, he took 7 small breaks (between 2 to 10 mins each) along the way. After a 2-hour rest only to catch up with time, he started his second shift at a stable speed of 11.1 min/km and took 2 breaks of 15 minutes each. “At the end of the day, the challenge was back on track. I also knew that I would see my wife, which gave me an additional boost.” |
| Day 6 – 14:14 07 March 2021 to 12:45 08 March 2021 |
For safety reasons – i.e., heavy traffic and construction work on the side of the road - the participant had to continue the journey on smaller roads than originally planned. It included crossing, walking up and down pavements, roundabouts and navigating between cars. As a result, the participant was constrained to stop 25 times in this shift. “Physically, it was the hardest as my body was used to straight, obstacle-free roads”. After 6 hours at an 11 min/km pace, he stopped for 40 minutes. “My body completely broke and I could not move”. A physiotherapist performed dry needling on his hip flexors and calves. He continued his shift for one hour. After more dry needling during rest time (i.e., 3h40min), the participant set off on an 8h40min shift during which he was active for 7h50min. For the first time, he changed direction (i.e., until now he was walking toward the North and changed direction to the East). He was also faced with having to walk uphill for the entire shift – 175 m elevation gain. However, he was also less interrupted by road crossings and traffic lights. In total he walked 40 km at 11.4 min/km. “When I finished my shift, my support team started to worry as I was not coherent in what I was saying, and they had never seen me like this”. |
| Day 7 – 14:26 08 March 2021 to 12:47 09 March 2021 |
The participant had 80 km to complete within the remaining 25 hours. “The beginning was hard as I had to walk on the side of a truck road, being buffeted by lorries [passing vehicles creating strong winds] and I felt in much worse physical state at this time. I also knew I would have to walk uphill all along”. After about 3 hours, the participant took a 40-minute break. He restarted at the same pace of 11.2 min/km and stopped after 2h30min due to an episode of vomiting. He decided to take his rest shift to recover. After 3h11min of resting, he started his last shift that consisted of completing 51.5 km. He completed the rest of the ascent (258 m) at a pace of 11.1 min/km for about 3h30 hours. “When I reached the top, I had to lie down for 10 minutes as I was completely broken”. In total he stayed inactive for 50 minutes and then started his descent towards the finish line at a pace of 11 min/km. “I was limping and could almost not walk anymore but I knew by this point, no matter what happened, I was going to do this”. The last 10 km were pain free as “the adrenalin kept me going and I was focused on getting to the sea”. About two hours and fifteen minutes before the deadline, the participant crossed the finish line and set the Guinness World Record for the Fastest Crossing of the UAE on Foot. |