Dear Ones,

Made it through the march and I can’t describe the the feeling. A bit beat up. Blisters and a strained muscle behind the knee. But spirits are soaring. Several times brought to tears. Last night the scenery was other worldly. Through the valley of The Moon it looked like snow on one side of the valley and snow on the ground because of the salt and sand dunes on the other side with a red sunset through some clouds.

Today in camp it’s the walking wounded. We look like zombies as we shuffle around except for the leaders. The leading man is a special forces in his country, Serbia, he has worked with our seals.

Im so looking forward to crossing the finish line tomorrow. Beers, salad, and more bears.

My matt broke three days ago so I am getting the full experience J Thank every one of you. I have read every single word and could not mentally make it without all of you.

Love you all,

patrick

To all You loved ones,

I wish I could explain today. Guess the best way is to describe a moment when Michael the camera man asked me to turn around, I did and all the snow covered volcanoes stood majestically far above miles of desert. He asked me to describe it and I started crying. It was the most difficult run I have ever done and the best one.

One last long march tomorrow.

Your support is the gas in my tank.

Well well well,

Today the gloves had to come off and it was a bit of a fist fight. However I have never seen or experienced such amazing terrain.

Unbelievable crust humps of all sizes. Sometimes you sink to the ankle, sometimes the crust stands a foot tall in any shape but walkable. And I stumble along landing on the remnants of a bush as spikey as chopsticks. Sand dunes, soft sand, rocks with sand underneath, very little runnable  except for the elites. Even they had a struggle today.

Then there is the beauty of being out, alone, going in but being amazed at where you are, bonking, pushing on, being excited, the wonder of being alone in the middle of know where another planet, Thinking of all of you thinking of my next step.

Love and peace to all of you.

Wish I could wright more but I need to try and fix a leaky pad.

Well,

Today was another incredible stage. We started in a canyon and crossed a river back and forth many times. The water was cold and the canyon shady. Another highlight was climbing uo to ridge at about 10,000 ft and followed the ridge for several k’s. then down the largest sand dune I have ever been on and then running down. See the website because there may be a clip of going down the dune.

There are too many of you for me to personally thank. I love all of your blogs please keep them coming. This stage was harder and longer (felt like 4 miles longer than stage 1). T tomorrow looks to be out in the sun and longer yet. I may need to pull back and go a little  slower. Hey no shame in that!

Im tired but feel like this is doable. Every day many problems to solve and adjustments to make. What a privilege to be out here. Big thanks to pamela for supporting me and of course to hill and Steph my support crew!

Deep Bows,

patrick

Hi All,

Day one in the books. It was spectacular! Lots of varied terrain, slot canyons, wide open rock flats, some single track but mostly no trail. We had one snafoo with route finding as apparently some sheep herders decided to remove the marking flags. So many of us had a hard time finding our way.

Ever wonder what its like running through the desert when its wicked hot? Well its like running through  wicked hot desert. I felt pretty good today and the long uphills suited my power hiking skills. Tomorrow has a lot of water in iy and apparently its cold as it comes down from the Andes.

One of the Japanese men in my tent started and finished in a costume as an eggplant. Not sure if he ran the whole way in it?

Love to all!

Editor's Note:  A local shepherd took one kilometer of course markers on Stage 1, and several competitors either stopped or went slightly off course until the situation was corrected.  

Hi all,

In camp one. Feels good to finally be doing something. I don’t recommend having butterflies for 4 days. Dinner done. Its chilly here but I think ill sleep well as I woke at 3:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. The runners are fabulous! So fun so many nationalities.

Much love for everyone.

I leave in 9 days! I can’t atand how excited I am. Sadly though I will have to leave my faithful and ever true training buddy. Scout is a Boston Terrior and tough as nails. He was injured a year ago , paralyzed and had to learn to walk again after spinal surgery. Before the accident he could easily do 15 miles with me. Of course he crushed the vets prediction of recovery time. In less than 6 months he was back to running ( a little foot drop) with me and yes, he can do 15 miles with me now. 

Ill deeply miss him when I’m gone but I will recall every training run we have done and all the races he helped crew with my daughter and her wife. My family will be at the finish line and Scout in my heart!

see you all soon!

I’m new to the universe that is ultra running! However, I have done some endurance events and learned a thing or two.

In the 24 hour, World’s Toughest Mudder Championship (my first and probably last Mudder) I learned that if you jump off a 38 foot cliff into water you had better have your legs tucked together tight upon impact. I almost drowned trying to swim to the shore, as I couldn’t breathe. In Ironman California I learned it is critical to practice the swim to run transition at least once or twice before you show up. My lower back seized up so bad my wife had to go out and buy a bottle of painkillers for me. This brought me to the run where I spent the next 5 hours jumping into the bushes every few miles as other parts of my body were running much faster than my legs.

Probably the best lesson I got was when I trained a year and then went to do a SEALFIT crucible in Sand Diego California. SEALFIT offers crucible events to civilian’s run by retired SEAL Commander Mark Devine. It sounded like the hardest thing I had ever heard of, so why not? The tricky part of training for this is that there are only two required evolutions; the rest is anybody’s guess. What I did not prepare for is doing burpees soaking wet, covered in sand, after a 10-mile ruck. Oh, I forgot to mention that we were not allowed to use our hands for the burppes. They had to be in our pockets at all times. It was very humbling as my teammates had to wait for me with every burpee. When we could no longer walk we crawled.

I’m not really an accomplished ultra runner. I’ve done about 5, none greater than 50miles. What I do know is that the Atacama will challenge me with lots of stuff I didn’t plan or train for. That’s why I’m going! Looking forward to meeting you all.