SamanthaGash

I think China's Gobi Desert was the hardest for me. The terrain for the long 110km stage was very monotonous and as it reached 7pm at night, the clouds parted and it got incredibly hot - just when you thought you would have a rest from the heat..

When I did the Simpson desert I saw a few dingoes who were stalking me from behind.

In Antarctica plenty of penguins - who we had to give way to.

Gosh good question. Sometimes you are in a bit of a daze crossing the finish line after several days of racing. Other times you are completely in the present and the feeling of bliss and happiness is overwhelming.

There are many runners and sometimes I too have experienced the feeling of emptiness after completing a race. I think this is because you have focused on that goal for so long, it is hard to know where to put that focus afterwards.

I have now learnt to relish the time of recovery and reflection after a big race.

Ahh that is such a lovely thing to say. I think Jen (filmmaker) did an incredible job truly portraying what happened out there.

To be honest I really tuned the camera out - for the exception of the one on one interviews when we weren't "racing". Jen and the cameraman Sevan became good friends to all of the four runners in the doco, that seeing them became an outlet to express our pain, happiness, anxiety with during the race.

You would hardly believe but my feet were really reasonable in all of the races except for Atacama - when I wore the wrong shoes for the technical salt flats.

When I ran for 3 and a half days straight across the Simpson Desert, my feet were very swollen.. Incredibly swollen - but I still didn't have any blisters.. Very lucky (recommend the combination of Injinji socks and Brooks shoes)