Distance today = 49.80 km; Total distance = 3122.82 km; Location = Glamis – 33 00.900′ N, 115 00.291′ W; Start time = 0850, Finish time = 1602

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/155841586

After yesterday’s tough run, I was looking forward to an easier day, and that’s how it turned out. It was much cooler and I had a tailwind. It was predominantly flat, although the profile shows I was gradually climbing.

The highlight was undoubtedly the Imperial Sand Dunes. This is a stretch of dunes about 10 km wide that look like pictures of the Sahara Desert. The locals spend a lot of time on them over the weekends in dune buggies. You’ll see what I mean if you look at the photos and the video. And on that count, Carmel has discovered a program which takes the bumpy running motion out of the videos, so you won’t get so giddy watching it now.

At the 36 km mark I reached the site where Todor and Joe were conducting their experiments in the dunes (see yesterday’s blog for more explanation). As agreed, they’d left a gallon of water next to their car. I whistled hello and they both came up to talk with me. I continued on for a bit until they came past in the car, having finished their day in the sand. Todor got out (he’s the Australian) and ran with me for four km, to the town (if you can call it that) of Glamis, where Joe picked him up. It was great to have a bit of company for a while – I haven’t had any for quite some time now.

Glamis itself was interesting. It consists of a huge storage yard for RVs and  caravans, and a wild west style saloon. The bar was closed today – I think it only opens on the weekends for dune buggy enthusiasts. I can certainly say that Glamis is not glamourous.

I then continued on for a few more kilometres before the support crew picked me up. All in all, a pretty regular day at the office, if your office is among spectacular desert sand dunes.