Day 1: Discouraging first day.

We made the two hour drive from Santiago to the town of Concon and the start of our running journey this morning Ray and I were joined by i2P's executive director Bob Cox who has quietly hoped to join us for the entire expedition.

Because of our journey to the start we didn't begin our run until 10:30am. The temperature was already climbing into high 20s and because this section of route was all on pavement, it felt much warmer.

Training preparation in Canada for hot weather expedition was not ideal but unavoidable. The heat started to take its toll from the get-go and by kilometre 20 I was already fighting the onset of sunstroke. Bob was feeling worse, struggling with a chest infection as well as the heat and would abandon a few kilometers later.Ray, a veteran of some of the most challenging desert running races in the world, was , amazingly, unfazed by the temperatures.

At kilometre 41 Ray and I stopped for lunch and a cool down. My symptoms of heat exhaustion hadn't got any better but fortunately hadn't got any worse.

When we returned to the road for our final 29-km effort to round out our 70-km day things started to feel better. The wind had picked up and the temperature was starting to drop. Our pace was good. The day held promise after a tough start and my spirits were building but it wasn't long until they were dashed again.

At kilometer 45 I experienced a sharp stabbing pain and popping sensation in the arch of my right foot and dropped to the pavement. This was the end of the day for me, for us.

Both Ray and Dr Greg Wells were quick to diagnose the injury as a Plantar Fascia problem. The only question now is the severity of the injury.

At the moment of this writing, the foot is very painful to walk on. We wait until morning to make a final decision. If it's blue and swollen I will have torn the tendon and/or pulled a a piece of bone off the heal at the insertion point. If so, this will require a trip to the hospital for further examination.

If there is only pain and little or no swelling there may be a chance to continue if I'm willing to aggressively tape and adjust to the discomfort.

This is the first injury I've ever experienced on an expedition and I find it humbling and immensely frustrating especially since it's only day 1. All I can do now is wait and see what happens by morning.