Hello all,

Well the time you've all been waiting for has finally arrived. The organisation convoy left Genoa on Saturday and is making its way down through Tunisia and into Libya and will then spend the end of the week setting things up for our arrival.

Our charter flight is scheduled to leave on Saturday 19th February at 11am with check-in 8.30am-9.30am. For those flying into Paris that morning, let's hope that your flight is not delayed as we would hate to leave without you! We are expected to be back in Paris the following Sunday around 1.30pm. The departure terminal has not yet been confirmed…

I have booked a room at the Formule 1 hotel close to the airport and I expect to arrive there late afternoon. For those who are interested, we usually meet up milling around the hotel lobby and then go to "Hippopotamus" steak house around the corner for dinner around 8pm.

We should be arriving in Libya on Saturday afternoon where we shall be picked up for the short transfer to the camp to get settled in. There will be a race briefing on Sunday and an administrative/kit check on Monday (after which your running pack is quarantined). The race start is at midnight on Monday with a cut-off time during the night of Thursday to Friday.

As hopefully you will have realised by now, it is a 215km (or more…) self-supported foot race with GPS navigation (a road book but no markers) with checkpoints (water stops) every 20-25km and a 75 hour cut-off time. It is an amazing adventure in some truly stunning landscapes but you need to remember to eat and drink regularly and above all pace yourself as it is a very long way in difficult terrain. Also, although it almost never rains in the Akakus, days can be very hot and nights can be very cold so be sure to bring some warm clothing including something to take on the race itself.

The race camp itself is quite a rudimentary collection of 2 person huts and military-style tents. The toilet and shower facilities are clean but very basic (i.e. bucket of water to flush, warmish sulphur-smelling water from a thermal well). The town (Ghat) is interesting to visit but has no amenities whatsoever (it makes the MDS finish look like Manhattan) so do not expect to be able to buy anything on site except for basic groceries and souvenirs.

For your friends, family and fans, they will be able to track your progress on www.libyanchallenge.com. There will also be a blog and a way of sending you short messages of support :-)

I look forward to meeting you in Paris

Best wishes,

Laurent Locke

Libyan Challenge UK representative

www.libyanchallenge.com