Stage Two

It's now Monday night and I have spent most of this afternoon watching the (sporadic) webcam coverage at the close of Stage Two.  Based on how Steve did yesterday I figured out the earliest time he might complete this stage and also the latest, just to be certain I extended my planned vigil by 20 minutes at each end thus giving me a three hour window to catch his face and reassure myself about his safety.  Like I said earlier, the coverage was sporadic, often freezing or simply dropping out completely.  By around 5:30pm I must have seen around a hundred runners and still no sign of him so I checked the resultats temporaires only to find that he had already come in (#415 this time) right in the middle of my window again with a pretty good time.  Talk about mixed emotions, so relieved to discover that he was back safe but really peeved that I had missed him.
Apropos emotions, do the participants recognize the torment and turmoil that we, the families, go through?  It's almost as brutal on us as it must be for them but let's face it, it's all in a worthy cause, BTW let's not lose track of that - you are welcome to donate, just click on the 'Donate Here' box and remember that every penny, nickel and dime goes direct to the the clean water program.
I have been dragging out this post in the hope that I might hear something from the Dude before I wrap it up but it looks like either they have no facility or he's too bushed to do anything; judging by the state of some of the runners on the webcam today I can't say I am surprised.
So far he has run 33.8km yesterday and another 38.5km today, tomorrow there is Stage Three a 35km 'run' over what looks like some pretty rough terrain, I noticed that quite a few runners had something like ski poles to aid them in negotiating the hills and dunes plus a lot of them had what I can only describe as 'overshoes', I guess that's to prevent incursion of sand - let's hope he has gained some experience in the early stages because I believe it can only get harder as they get towards the end.
I'm sure that like me you all wish him well, I believe that if this run depended on just goodwill, he would finish it a day early; truthfully, I really don't know where he gets his drive from.
Just checked my inbox again - nada/zip/zilch - hopefully I'll have something firm tomorrow, stay tuned folks - back in 24 hours.

Spencer