What can one do just to survive?

This week I continued reading in Surviving the Extremes and finally came to an understanding of the title. While reading the dessert chapter at first I was a little confused because this chapter did not include the doctor but was about another marathon runner.

In the dessert chapter a marathon runner starts off as a healthy runner along with the other runners. The runner who the author chose to write about was a man who was a road traffic officer during the week and trained often for this marathon. It was finally his day to shine and show his talent that he had worked on. Days after the marathon started the runner loses the group and is off to survive on his own.

He manages to survive off the food and water he had packed in his aid kit for a few days when no rescue helicopter was in reach. Days later the food and water supply began to run out and the suns rays were getting to the marathon runner. He was unsure of what to do he went hungry for a few days but still had a source of water to keep himself hydrated.

Water began to run out and he was desperate he knew if he did not get water he would die instantly under the sharp sun rays. As time goes on the runner is forced to drink a bats blood to keep himself alive this was a great example of what people can do to survive under the extreme conditions. Reading further I came to find that the runner went as far as drinking his own urine to keep his body from becoming dehydrated. These were great examples in the book that came to show what people can do to survive under extreme conditions in different environments. These passages were very visual and I was able to picture them due to the descriptions given by the author almost as if I were struggling along with the marathon runner.