I finished the Long March! It was such tough day, but I enjoyed (almost) all of it. I was really nervous going way beyond the distance I’d run before, and the day dawned clear and cold – a good sign for the morning, but indicative of a hot day ahead.

Our backpacks should have been as light as they’d been all week thanks to the food that had been disappearing, but the first stage was a long one, so the minimum requirement was to carry 2.5l of water which mitigated that. The first leg included 10km through more salt flats, but they were not as consistently unrunable as the day before. Wet feet early in the salt marsh led to easier donkey tracks to follow, and the first checkpoint arrived in under two hours. I had been expecting a lot of walking through that section but the speed was good, although less walking means less left in the legs, so I was a little concerned. I came through the checkpoint in fourth, but with another big group trailing just behind.

I could still see second and third in front of me, and was using them to pace through the next sandy but flat section. I realised I was catching them and pushed on to join them. Ronan and I were run/walking while Hiroyuki ran steadily, and we passed through check point two pretty much together. After that the heat kicked up as Ronan dropped his speed and Hiroyuki paced me through to checkpoint 3, where the terrain went more vertical. We climbed gradually but relentlessly through some difficult terrain – only possible to run at times but given the climb that wasn’t a problem. Not running meant Hiroyuki dropped back, and as I approached a massive steep dune realised I was in second place. The dune required getting onto all fours for the last few hundred metres, and felt like it took an hour to climb (but was probably only half that). Over the top and the wind hit. Like a gale. Across a strangely beautiful plateau, and down another steep dune I was into checkpoint four. The wind was so strong that the sun shelter had been lowered and tied to the truck to secure it. I wanted shade but wasn’t crawling underneath it. I left feeling sorry for the team there, as that spot was neither calm, relaxing nor beautiful. But I still had around 40km to go.

The next section was more what I had previously thought of as desert terrain. And it was into a howling headwind. There were sand storms sweeping over the plain that you could see coming for a minute or two before they arrived (one of which I got on video) and occasional mini sand cyclones, one of which I had to sprint to avoid. The wind made the flat feel like an uphill so I decided to walk and eat as much as I could, with the goal of saving my legs as much as possible. My Kenyan friend, Munir, and Hiroyuki were running into the wind though, and slowly reeled me in. I shook their hands and wished them luck for the rest of the race as they went past, but realise they were only pulling away slowly so decided to run/walk in behind them, which I did through to checkpoint 5, an overnight or hot water checkpoint (depending on your need for sleep or hot food). As they both stopped, I was already fuelled, so topped up my water and ran on. The course wound around for the next section through was seemed like a river bed, which meant some headwind and some side wind and occasionally some tail wind. I ran when I could and walked hard if not, but never saw Hiroyuki and Munir behind me.

Up through a long road climb, and then a gentle descent, I realised I had made a big break as I could see a long way back. A really hard climb up a salt covered road led into a plateau called the Valley of the Moon. It is a lunar landscape that was filled with busloads of tourists looking confused as I toddled past. One recognised the flag on my shoulder and I got some NZ based encouragement (in Spanish). For the last 15km it was mostly downhill or flat, and mostly with a tailwind. This meant I could use what was left in my legs and run, which felt great.

I made it into camp without even stopping at the last checkpoint, in 10 hours and 43 minutes, before it got dark so my headtorch stayed in my bag. After using far too many wet wipes to remove the layers of dirt, sand and dust, and getting into some warm clothes, I celebrated having finished by eating the rest of my Doritos crumbs and some rehydrated bacon mash. It was so good.

As others finished there was a small group sitting around the fire, being entertained by one of our local crew on the guitar. It was really cool, but eventually I had to try to get some sleep but the sore legs, the beat of the drum welcoming finishers in, and arrivals into our tent made that a little bit tough.

This morning I was up early (as is usual – at least here) and had breakfast in front of the fire as more people arrived in from a long night. We welcomed the last two home at around 9am, 25 hours after we had set off, with everyone giving them a big noisy welcome.

Today is a day of rest and relaxation in the wind and the sun. I’ve managed a small walk with one of the other kiwis, and have just enough food to get me through to the start of our last stage in the morning – 12.9km into San Pedro.

Looking forward to the finish and some proper food!

Many thanks again for all the messages – it is really great to read them all.

S.  

The clouds that kept the temperature relatively sane on Stage 3 were gone today, which meant it was a cold start and a really hot day. Being the longest stage so far meant so much more time out in the sun and heat, so I am glad to be back in camp with the temperature starting to drop now as the wind comes in.

The cold start was great as we ascended over 300m in the first 10km. The front group stayed together for longer than usual as the fast guys conserved their energy, but with all that climbing (and some fun dunes to slide down) the gaps grew and everyone slotted into their own pace, which left me fifth. I was really enjoying the climbing, the views and the cold (thanks to training in winter in NZ!) and everything seemed like it was set for a good day. My stomach was settled, backpack sorted, and shoulders and legs both felt good. After the big climb we shot down a super steep dune, which was awesome fun. Coming down there I made it into fourth, before we entered a river section with loads of crossings and a 20+m waterfall. Unfortunately it came as a surprise so I didn’t have time to switch my phone on for a photo.

I made it into third at the checkpoint through the river section, despite a wee fall, but after running through a small village called Toconao we hit the open desert, where I quickly returned to fourth. From there it was a long lonely plod, until getting to checkpoint 2, where a welcome coke was on offer that I managed to get halfway through before deciding that not vomiting was the better part of valour.

Into the salt flats that this stage was named after, although “flat” is about as misleading as it gets. 5km of trudging through the most variable terrain – some like the moon, some like heavy snow, a lot like coral (that shredded a lot of people’s shoes and gaiters – which are the shower caps on my shoes that Jack was wondering about, to keep sand and rocks out of your shoes). That was tough going but it got a little easier once we found a donkey track. I was totally out of the running mindset until Jim came up behind me, and he dragged me along behind him (or for a while him behind me) through the heat and some amazing open desert, until we arrived at two tiny lakes. Some people dive in, but I only stopped for a photo before trying to catch Jim again. Eventually he got sick of me tailing him and we ran and chatted together until the finish (with a bit more running than we wanted, to hold off Thomas who was charging on the flat).

A very pleasing fourth equal today, and I just have to hope I’ve got a bit left for the Long March tomorrow. It will be long, hot and hard. And I’ve never run anything liken that distance so I am very nervous! Fingers crossed!

Si.

According to my tour guide on Friday, the Atacama gets 300 days per year without clouds, so they celebrate clouds here. So waking up to a cloudy day on day three was good news, not just because it offered some relief from the relentless sun.

The stage today was only a little longer, but a lot harder terrain than we’d had on the first two days. It was our first real taste of the salt flats which were largely unrunable (at least for me) being so uneven and so unreliable underfoot. It felt like every prime-numbered step the ground would collapse underneath your foot, and at times I found leg buried half way up my shin, pleased I hadn’t been going fast enough to break my ankle.

My plan was to take it easier today, with two big days to come, and the salt flats helped to an extent, slowing things down. I also had issues with my pack in the first 10km today. I’d set it up to be better for my shoulders, but somehow ended up with a buckle jamming into the centre of my back. I stopped three times trying to sort it, and eventually undid it completely which seemed to work. Obviously it wasn’t essential. I was feeling a bit low and slow without pushing myself as much, which compounded to slow me down even more.

Things picked up in the second half and I slowly started reeling people in, despite the terrain being very tough with lots of sand, loose rocks, and at the end one canyon after another. We had only 330m of climbing today, but 220m of that was in the last 12km, in numerous small doses. The red navy seal who was hunting me down yesterday was one of the ten or so people I caught in the last half, managing to hold on for 7^th today.

Tomorrow will be another long day trying to take it easy, and save something in the legs for the Long March on day five. My legs feel better today than after finishing stage two, so that is encouraging. The wind has come in late today, and is apparently going to feature the rest of the week. Hopefully as a tail wind!

It was great to receive some more messages today – many thanks!

S.

“Head towards the llamas, and then veer left.” Those were the instructions we got after most of the first twenty of us in the race had spent over 20 minutes searching in vain for the course markers about 15km into today’s first stage. A local shepherd had decided he didn’t like the flags so had removed them, leaving us stranded and one poor local marshall on a motorbike to try to communicate the course (and show us the way) as runners streamed into the unmarked zone. He did really well in the circumstances but it left most people losing some time, and many thinking they were completely lost in the desert, which was the experience of the group of eleven or so that I ended up in. Miraculously, after trying unsuccessfully to call for help, the next check point (at 21km) appeared and we were saved.

It was with a mixture of relief and annoyance that I set off for the remaining 14km, but channelled that into a really strong finish, running with a new Keynan friend from Singapore for a super-surprising joint 4^th in the stage. We shall see how much I pay for that strong finish in the coming days.

It was awesome to finally get started today, especially after a minus one degree start, which turned into a 35+ deg day. Such an amazing landscape in the Rainbow Valley – I wish I took more pictures!

Must go as the cyber tent is closing – thanks for my messages!

S.

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.