“Go to crazy places — you’ll meet crazy people,” says the ever-smiling Italian Dino Bonelli, one of my tent companions and running partners. He’s talking about me, himself and the other 75 or so competitors. The place in question is somewhere in the middle of the desert in Oman. We’re halfway through a six-day race from the village of Bidiyah to the Arabian Sea: 165km (102 miles) across soft sand in heat close to 40C and carrying all our provisions on our backs. It’s hard to deny that it’s a little crazy.
「瘋狂的地方——就能碰到瘋狂的人。」始終面帶笑容的義大利人迪諾•博內利(Dino Bonelli)說。他是我的帳蓬宿友與長跑搭檔。他指的「瘋子」是我與他以及其他約75名參賽者,所說的「瘋狂地方」就是位於阿曼沙漠腹地。從Bidiyah村到阿拉伯海(Arabian Sea)總共6天、全程爲165公里(約102英里)的賽程,我們已跑完了一半,而且是在揹負所有個人物資、在近40攝氏度的高溫下穿越鬆軟的沙漠。不能否認,這實屬瘋狂。