My first stopover was Chile, where I was to do my second desert crossing, with my friend Jocelyn: self-supported foot race, with a 8kg backpack containing food, clothes, sleeping bag and survival kit to run 250km (150 miles) in 6 stages and 7 days. The race had about 80 competitors on the starting block.The fun facts about the desert that we were about to run:
- The Atacama Desert is 15 million years old and 50 times more arid than California’s Death Valley
- Some of the oldest mummies found on earth come from the Atacama, dating as far back as 9000 years
- The entire race will be held at least one mile (1600m) above sea level and cover the distance required to make a horizontal crossing of the country of Chile (250 kilometers)
- The day time temperatures expected are 32 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) while night time temperatures may be below freezing
- The Atacama Desert has the most lunar-like landscape on Earth and is frequently used by NASA to test its Mars rover vehicles.
Both Jocelyn and I ran to support a charity dear to our hearts, as we had visited them during a trip to Baiwan, and we were moved by the kindness of the team and by the children: Sunbeam's Children's Foundation. Once again to all of you, thank you for your amazing donations. It means a lot to have so much support!
Read the full race report from Sunbeam.
Event details are on the organizer's website: Racing The Planet, if ever you're crazy enough to want to run across deserts... ... Believe me, whatever fitness level you're at, it hurts!!!
Full picture set on Flickr.
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