I am finally back in internet territory minus 4 kgs of weight, the skin on my feet and nine toenails. Funnily enough the only toenail to survive is the 4^th on the left side – the wedding ring toe!! Is this an omen – a pact I made with the devil when I was delirious in the desert or something else more sinister?

This is my final Atacama blog and I would like to thank all who have followed the race and especially all those who have contributed to the most worthy cause in the world – the Scott Kirkbride melanoma Research Centre (SKMRC).

The following is a summary of my thoughts on the race. Firstly, the reason for doing the race was the combination of supporting SKMRC in Melanoma research as well as connecting emotionally, physically and psychologically with my sons Patrick and James by doing an extremely difficult event.

I took into the race a chondral graft on my left knee which was implanted in 2011. Although the graft had grown to fill the defect I had, the area was still quite painful if I was to weight bear over the site. For example, I was unable to take enough weight on the left knee to climb up and down stairs (or the equivalent in rocky hills and sand hills) but I could walk on flat ground and slopes up to 10 degrees without walking poles. If the ground was uneven such as the coral like salt flats I needed the poles – this prevented me suddenly needing to take the weight on the bad knee when getting off balance. Protecting the graft made doing the race a very arduous task which involved hours of intense concentration (with my head constantly bent forward to look at the ground contour in front of me) and made it very slow (no running). The problem with being slow is that it meant more time out in the sun with the associated dehydration and heat stroke problems. Also going slow and using poles meant that the way my feet came in contact with ground was different than normal and hence toenail loss and severe blisters occurred.

Fortunately I was able to prevent dehydration with a combination of force feeding myself with water (constant drinking small volumes), two Endurolyte salt capsules per hour (traditionally I couldn’t tolerate electrolyte solutions) and glucose in the form of jellybeans and jelly babies. Beef jerky was excellent at staving off nausea during the race and also gave a good protein load to prevent muscle breakdown. At the end of each day I used 2 minute noodles and chicken stock to bring the salt reserves up. On the other hand, from the foot point of view, despite retaping my feet and toes, the blister and toenail problems still occurred. Retrospectively, the answer to this is to do more running, less walking and don’t use poles.

Overall the Atacama race was not as difficult as the Kimberley Racing The Planet race in 2010 in which over 40% of the competitors didn’t finish. The Atacama did have more varied and spectacular terrain and certain legs of it did smash the competitors. Around 30 of the 165 starters didn’t finish and there were a number of starters who wouldn’t have finished apart from the fact that they were collected on a bus 14 hours into the 5^th day when a lightning storm struck. All those collected from the course were automatically given the status that they had ‘finished’ without having to go back and complete the course.  I was the last person to complete the course without being picked up during the lightning storm--- I thought at the time it was eerie being out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night with ‘nothing and no one’ to be seen anywhere.

But alas it’s all over now and it will take 3 weeks for the skin to repair, 3 weeks for the weight to come back on, a year for the toenails to regrow and an eternity for saneness to return. Will I do another race? I should have an answer by the time the toenails have grown back.

Once again thanks to one and all for your support and if you haven’t donated to SKMRC it is never too late.

Cheers ----- Jamie

Tooth and nailed it through last night with Billy after 16 hrs on the long 75 km day. We were smashed on the third section with salt flats that looked like and behaved like reef with coral on it.My feet which were already smacked up were kicked in the guts while they down. Aaand then they decided to put the biggest sandhill in the history of the world in, to climb up at the end of that leg ----3 pm --36 degrees --- only halfway through day 5.The next 35 km I hobbled like the Hunchback of N-D.I was caught in a rainstorm as I was approaching the final leg. Lightening flashing everywhere -- no one in sight ( 10 at night ) ---  I was alone!!I Later found out that the only other person on the raod was Garry--- I was looking at the lightning in the distance of a couple of Km away but Garry was actually getting his hair singed in the distance and running for his life. He did the last section in recordtime. Mean while, whilst I was strolling in the rain Billy and a number of competitors had beeen stopped from going on . When I got to the last checkpoint Billy and 20 others were waiting --- I came home with him. I was walking on slabs of meat. .We were the last competitors to be allowed to  finish --- the rest of tthe competetors were pulled from the race because the the lightning danger. A number of the ones pulled from the race becauseof the lightning wouldnt have finished so were very lucky --- all were granted automatic finishes.

 That was the Scotty kirkbride day and dedicated to Scotty, his family, and the Research Centre. We havenot been able to see the results of fundraising in the last 2 weeks but I trust the total is expanding on a regular basis. I do have a lot of generous friends you know!!!! -as does Garry ,Jimmy amd Billy.--

 Looking forward to the final secion of 9 km tomorrow.

Jimmy and Raggi have had a great time together and generally stuck together. They did extremely well. In fact the guys in our 10 man tent killed the pig. Alex was 7th on the big day , Richard 8th, Mike 16th and Steve 17th. Mike and Steve were an item. They were great characters. A good tent mob.

Will reblog soon.

Unfortunately the Cybertent is always packed and I missed doin an email at the end of stage 4.

Huge day today with 42 km of greatly varieng terraine -- from salt flats in which feet sunk into dirt 6 inches, tufts of dead bush that cut your legs, sandhills up snd down, rocky hills that cut your feet apart with shearing force, mud that stuck to everything, desert , large number of steep climb that smashed everyone at the end of the race. The scenery was superb. Todays race I dedicate to Karil --- wonderfully wild, totally unpredictable, beautifull scenery. The long day(if I make it that far) will be dedicated to Scott Kirkbride).

7 of the 10 toenails are starting to drop off and blisters on toes and heals despite pretaping.It will be interesting how they fare tomorrow.

Man f the match on day 1 was Patrick for giving the luxury bed of the tent to Billy. Billy had a bad night the night before with a combination of a loud sqeeky chhep sleeping mat and sleeping bag, gatting up all night ).Day 2 Billy got man of the match for learning from the previous night and being quiet and giving me his poles when I broke mine. Raggi and Jame Jame have not only performed well in the race they have been hughly helpful around the camp and very polite. Jimmy has learnt a lot about hydration and plannig one of these races. Garry has performed very well in the race as well.

Tomorrow is another day of 40 km so we will have to be onour toes and give each other support.

We had interviews with the RTP  press and video interview -- should be on the site.

Look forward to reading some bols from all you out there.

finished the day a victor again but busted one of my walking poles which will compromise the rest of the race --- hopefully not too much. The scenery was superb today with the biggest sand hills in the world and most beautiful mountains .The salt flats wer increditfooting gave way with every step. Blisters moderate not too bad , hydrationing gallons of water, tomn not too bad drinuters   hopeless computer they jump all over  the place. Tent shutting  Jimmy and Raggi did well, all of us still in the race. Bye

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