Mark Gillett – Junglemoon Images

Click a pic to engage slideshow.

Well, if you followed us at the Yukon Quest and loved that then follow us at the Marathon des Sables in April.

This mountain of a race takes part in the Sahara Desert from 7th April. You will need to add me as a friend on Facebook, “Like” the MDS page and “Friend” the UK MDS page It’s best to do all three.

The race is 250 Km through the Sahara and runners carry all their own gear and food for 7 days.. It is run over 6 stages looking a little like this… Day 1 – 28km, day 2 – 35km, day 3 – 38km, day 4/5 – a huge 80km, day 6 – 42km and day 7 – 21km.. So pretty damn tough.

Runners will battle temperatures of up to 50 degrees, blisters and soreness like never before, total exhaustion and inevitably some will drop out… They cover sand dunes that go for ever, mountains and valley salt flats on a daily basis. This years race will be as exciting as ever so go to those FB sites and follow it through here…

We will for the first time be filming it with GoPro and mobile cams and uploading to the social networks as we go along… Images will also be uploaded to the official site on a daily basis…  I will upload blogs for the English-speaking runners and supporters and other reports can be seen on the official site www.darbaroud.com and the Facebook pages mentioned earlier… There is no shortage of information coming out of the desert from the 7th April. No excuse not know what happening deep in the Sahara.

Search this site for older articles from previous years to get a flavour.. It’s the toughest footrace on earth.

Images of Dawson and our time in the City….

We are now into our last day in Dawson City and I find myself not wanting to move on. Its a beautiful town at the base of Midnight Dome on the Yukon river. This time of year the river is frozen over and bridges to the community on the other bank but come spring the bridge disappears and only with a long drive can you get you to the other side… The town is made up of traditional western style buildings and walking the streets brings back memories of series like The Virginian and High Chaparelle. Its the most gorgeous city and not one to spend only a few days in.

Our hotel, the El Dorado is typical with a large bar, simple dining and pool tables at the back. There is also the Downtown and for eating the best lace in town must be the Drunken Goat whee the food is just perfect.

Its now -20 degrees and in a few months the river will flow again, the paddle steamer will fill with tourists and the hills will be a lush green with hikers and walkers roaming the paths.. I want to come back and see the spectacle of the river breaking and spring taking hold but know I won’t have time this year. Perhaps next.

Now my mind is back on the Yukon Quest and getting our images out for the organisation and the videos made to help promote the race. A race that is now well and truly in my blood.

Well, here I am at 7 am.

Sleep was between 3 and 5am and now I am trying to force my body into action each time a musher approaches.. Not easy, I can assure you.

Its relatively quiet in the press room with only a handful whereas last night it was heaving with press, cameramen, radio people as well as tourists who have come to watch..

The quest seeps into my blood more each day. Having run endurance I understand their need to complete this. Their thirst for finishing, thirst for winning and their desire to push themselves to the limits of human endurance. The hardest part is the mental. They will be feeling exhausted and elated at the same time. Physically drained yet energised with the power of their achievement. Their minds will be playing games. “Why?” “What for?” “Never again” and usually only minutes after finishing in Whitehorse they will be talking of their next race….. But what makes these guys special is that they also need to care for their team . 12-14 dogs that need feeding, sleep and looking after. This make this event far tougher than met I have witnessed….

We have another week or so on the journey to Whitehorse and who knows who will take the prize. What is clear is that all are winners.

The relatively little known Yukon Quest is one of the most powerful events I have witnessed.

I am here in the Yukon, Dawson City to be precise, and have travelled from Kuwait to London then Fairbanks to get here… Our (photography team) remit? to cover the Yukon Quest providing top notch images and GoPro video of the competitors……

I have been sucked in to this race already and cannot believe the performance of the mushers.. Tough, focussed, and basically the hardest human beings I have met.

They set off from Fairbanks on a 1000 mile quest to reach Whitehorse sledding with their teams throughout the beautiful but hostile wilderness of the Alaskan and Yukon Arctic. There are checkpoints and food along the way but many of them elect to sleep out, care for their dogs and keep moving rather than succumb to the warmth of a cabin for a few hours… With temperatures usually below -20c and often to -40c or colder this is an unbelievable race to witness.

I am now in Dawson City the half way point and where the teams must break for 36 hours before the final leg to Whitehorse. We are currently GoProing up the city, the start line and anything that moves.. Our first production can be seen on the previous post so check that awesome piece of work edited by Tom Barber…. Images above…. and on my Facebook and the Yukon Quest Facebook….

We have a new EyeforLife coming up in January from 19th to 21st… Contact me for details or go to www.eyeforlife.net and book now

New course, new material and all very exciting.

It was great to be back in a studio yesterday even if only for 15 mins with a crazy bunch! A few Christmas shoots coming, I think….

Well, I have just completed another EyeforLife and it was a great pleasure to meet so many new photographers… Also the workshop at the Kuwait Journalist Association was brilliant too.

View the images on Facebook and checkout our new vid with some info on me! http://eyeforlife.net/markgillett/

RT @markgillett538: RT @Aymstrong: Eye For Life Video about Mark Gillett (@markgillett538) is uploaded. Check it out http://eyeforlife.net/markgillett/...

This is a quote from a student I recently wrote to complimenting his photography. I did not send him the email looking for this reply, I sent it because I noticed. I noticed how good this young man was becoming as a photographer. I wrote it because I thought he should know. Read the rest of this entry »

My daughter started surfing this holiday. She completed her first 15 hours of practice and the improvement was huge.

Working with people as I have for 30 year, I have learnt to recognise many factors in the way people perform. I have had arguments with parents about their children when they believe that their talent will get them through, I have seen some highly skilled individuals rely on their attributes and receive praise only to end up failing and not understanding why. And I have seen child prodigies who, by the time they reach 18, are no different from their peers.

I have, however, Read the rest of this entry »

Eye for Life workshop registration is well under way…  Our season starts in October when I will be in Kuwait with AYMSTRONG. The two key workshops are Eye for Life and the Next Right Answer. The latter being for those who wish to embark on a programme of study with coaching over 8 months. This is an exciting new development for us and one that will keep your interest throughout the year with workshops, assignments, critique and group meetings.

We also offer the one day workshops which can be found on the same link on the right of the page so please drop by EyeforLife and see what we do.

In short, we “do” our dreams and work with you in “doing” yours.

Learn to look at your world from a different perspective. Take an EyeforLife course.

Exciting times ahead with EyeForLife…. We have our new courses starting in October. Checkout the website http://eyeforlife.net/ for all the latest info. In late November we will run a trip to South Africa on safari, this is not to be missed. All details are on the site too, or just email me or Yousef.

We will also take online participants if getting to a course is not possible.. Obviously the Safari is not possible online, well, not yet anyway.

Back to breakfast now!

I was in an interesting thread the other day and the topic moved to freedom. Or perceived freedom.

The protests in Kuwait were at the centre of the topic and I just mentioned how I felt the freedoms they had in Kuwait were greater than they believed and that the life in the West under ‘democracy’ was not as ‘clean and fresh’ as they believed.

The protests were peaceful and for their constitutional rights.

I would just like to point out than Read the rest of this entry »

I have now been presenting the Eye for Life course for a year in Kuwait. It has been constantly developing and improving and the post on the AYMSTRONG blog sums up what its all about. Read it here http://bit.ly/e1iFgB and come back and trail through a few post on my blog…. Your “eye for life” is critical for your future…

The next Eye for Life courses are being planned for May. If you would like information, please contact me or Yousef at AYMSTRONG for details.

Mark

One of around 15 performance athletes who enter the MdS each year.. Mohamed Ahansel

In my last post I talked about words and how we can use them positively for ourselves.

This post is about one of my bugbears. It is another use (or misuse) of words but often for financial gain and persuading people you are a better coach or sportsman than you are and assuming most people do not know better.

When it comes to business and sport it really irks me that so many use terms or latch on to words that they do not know the real meaning of but can gain from using them commercially, often just buzzwords for a year or so………but still monopolised for as long as possible…

When I first started playing tennis Read the rest of this entry »

A group of youths who needed to repair their picture...They trekked 150 km across the Sinai

The last few posts have created quite a few questions which I always like…..  James Cracknell’s article, beliefs, limiting beliefs, motivation and what is your chronic injury…? These are all inextricably linked to the title of todays post; Joining The Dots.

I spoke with Carlyle of Prohab Performance yesterday who asked what this weeks posts were about…  I responded with “why?” His reply was “I asked my clients how they would know if life was a success? The answers were obviously very mixed but the overriding observation was the a lack of clarity.

If we take look at someone like James Cracknell who seems to have all his ducks in a row and most would say leads a successful happy life; he has just had a huge life experience that has knocked one or more of those ducks down. Shaken his success, maybe his belief too. His accident in America where he was knocked of his bike during another endurance attempt will make him evaluate seriously. Before, all was good with his tv career blossoming, work was fun, exciting and so on. He was shaping his role as super endurance hero but this came with a price. Read the rest of this entry »

More to come…..