Check point 5 to finish. The salt road

We left check point five elated after a quick stop to take on our last load of water. We were lifted by the thought that we had nearly finished. It was a mistake. The last 12 miles of the Namibia Ultra Marathon were our darkest hours.
Twelve miles, it doesn’t sound much, but with more than 60 already in your legs those 12 were by far the hardest few thousand steps I have ever taken. By now the pain of my blisters had numbed but the muscles of my legs had begun to turn to iron.
But the biggest battle was in my head. You pray that every corner you approach will be the last knowing in your heart of hearts you have many more to go. You pray you can stop with every step knowing with every step that you can’t.
The salt road runs along the south of the Skeleton Coast bordered by mountains and salt plains. By now our powers of endurance were waning. Lack of sleep and the sheer exhaustion in our bodies began to sap our minds and at times we both suffered from hallucinations and on occasion we both felt nauseous and ready to drop.
We felt the end would never come. Pete’s watch became our ruler because we knew if we kept going at pace we would make it.
Eventually out of the early morning light came a white race van with a race marshal. “Three miles to go,” he told us. We were nearly there.
It is impossible to describe how far or how hard those three miles felt. Your body and your mind are at such a low that even when we could see the finish it seemed a million miles away. The last ten steps and there was a ripple of applause and some loud cheers from our fellow finishers and race supporters.
We had finished the Namibia desert Ultra Marathon within the 24 hour time limit. In fact we had 19 minutes to spare!
We shook hands and hugged each other. We sat in camping chairs in a dusty camp site on the Skeleton Coast and were given a cup of tea. We had done it. We had actually done it.