Welcome to hell, or something like it....

So you really think you want to run what has been called "one of the toughest foot races on the planet"?
What are you crazy?
Don't worry you are not alone. People have been questioning my sanity since I began running these things called ultra marathons.
First I have never run a marathon.
I started this nonsense about seven years ago after my wife Beth force me to join the gym with her. She'd decided she was going to compete in an triathlon before she turned 40.
I started by running on a treadmill. I would not go near the muscle-heads using the weight piles.
I ran my first race that summer. It was the 5-km race portion of the 30-km Around the Bay Road Race here in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. As I waited for my race, I remember watching the 30-km runners line up and saying out loud "Who the Hell would want to do something for three hours straight, especially run!" (Things we say always come back to bite us in the arse!).
I had heard about the Marathon Des Sable race in the desert and had been intrigued by this race. The thought of running with all my belongings on my back seemed like a natural extension of my interest in back packing. I had seen a special on the race and a Hamilton area runner named Monica Scholz was featured.
Two years later, the paper I work at (The Hamilton Spectator) did a feature on women in extreme sports and Monica was interviewed. I volunteered to do the photos for the article. The result has been a lasting friendship and a further push into ultra marathons (I was already training for my first 50-mile race at the Sulphur Springs Trail Race).
In 2004 I ran that 50-miler (and another later that same year amongst other races). In 2005 I ran the 100-mile race at Sulphur Springs and an iron distance triathlon. In 2006 it would be 4 100-mile races.
That same year I crewed for Monica in her first place female finish. The year was incredibly hot with high temperatures near 130 degrees F and 25-per-cent humidity. You could taste the moisture in the air--if you could breath at all.
For 2007 my wife Beth would be at it again. She said I should enter. It was a case of do it now or never......and so the entry went in and here starts our story.....