Today I officially finished the 2009 Atacama Crossing, completing the last 5-6 miles in a little over an hour.  I am now sitting in the hotel enjoying a coke, clean once again after a much needed shower!

The final stage took us over a couple of miles of rocky terrain before joining the hard road leading into the town of San Pedro de Atacama for the last few miles.  It took my feet 30 minutes or so to get loose and for the pain from my blisters to die down, but I was finally able to run which made the stage a little more enjoyable.  We finished in the town square in front of a great crowd of locals, tourists, and our fellow competitors.  The race organizers had pizza and cokes waiting for us (in addition to the official finisher medal and short) which tasted unbelievably good after a week of dried food and powerbars. 

I have a feeling my perspective on the race will change over the coming week, but I can undoubtedly say it was a life changing experience.  Each day brings you to the edge of what you can physically and mentally do – at the completion of each stage you have nothing left.  The next morning, you wake up and get started again.  The unrelenting nature of the race is what makes it so special.  Its not necessarily “fun” going through each day, but you just keep going. The camaraderie among the competitors is also a great motivator.  Everyone is in pain with various ailments within a day or two, but you never hear anyone complain.  I have a lot of stories of people battling horrific pain to reach the end, and watching them cross the finish line today was a really rewarding experience. 

That is all for now.  Over the last week we covered 150 miles across some absolutely brutal terrain.  I figure I took somewhere over 300,000 steps, some certainly more challenging than others!  Other than a sore knee and a few blisters, I feel well and eager to get back home.  Thanks again for all of the support in preparation for the race and over the last week.  I feel confident that I could not have finished were it not for the support of the people around me.

We just finished check-in.  My bag came about where I thought, just below 20 lbs (9 kgs) and a maybe 1 lb less if you remove some of the things I will be wearing and the first day’s breakfast.  Based on what I was hearing, I am about average.  The lowest I heard was less than 17 lbs; the heaviest was close to 29 lbs.  We spent a long time last night getting our bags in order.  The only comedy happened when our vacuum sealer wasn’t supportive of our cause (or the 220v current) and died in a cloud of smoke.  I think it actually was easier not to use it in hindsight so it wasn’t a problem.

I was a bit shocked when I first put on the 20 lb bag and contemplated running up and down hills in it.  It will drop in weight probably 1.0-1.5 lbs per day, but it still seems a bit daunting.  Most of our training was done with a 10-15 lb bag.  20 lbs is a big difference to say the least.  It reinforces what we have been hearing all week:  (1) the goal is to finish, not win, and (2) take it easy on the first day.  We will attempt to do both!

We also received the course notes today.  The stages (in miles) are 22, 26, 25, 27, and 46, followed on the last day by a 6 mile run to the finish.  The highest altitude is 10,670 feet, 7,600 the lowest, and most of the race is around 8,000 it looks like.  I have not read the descriptions yet because I am afraid of what it might say…

We are off to the campsite in a couple of hours.  Stage 1 is tomorrow!

After 28 hours of travel, I finally made it into San Pedro last night.  Unfortunately - very unfortunately - my bag did not.  American Airlines likes to remind me from time to time that we are not friends, and this was one of those occasions.  First they cancel our honeymoon flight, and now they leave my bag behind in Dallas at the worst possible time.  So, if all goes to plan (and that's a big "if"), I will get my bag tonight.  I am trying not to think about what will happen if I don't.  I did pack all of my mandatory items in my carry on bag, but I still really need some of the food, electrolytes, etc. in the other bag or tomorrow is going to be a last minute scramble for a few things that may be a little hard to find in a town of 1,000 people.  UPDATE:  The bag finally arrived at around 8:30 PM on Friday night.

That minor issue aside, the town of San Pedro and the surrounding desert is really beautiful.  Tall, snow covered peaks loom in the distance, and barren desert stretches for miles beneath them.  The town is a quaint village with some neat stores and restaurants as well as a shaded (and presumably very old) town square.  The town is at an altitude of 9,000 ft., so the sun is very bright and hot but not overbearing (yet).

Today is arrival day, so everyone is getting situated in their hotel rooms and making last minute preparations before check-in tomorrow at 11:00.  At 3:00 pm tomorrow, we hop on the buses for the 1.5 hr trip to the first campsite.  The race begins at 8:00 Sunday morning.

Its somewhat of a relief to know that the only task remaining (assuming my bag arrives tonight) is actually running the race.  Reflecting back on the last few months of training and preparation, the last week or so was the most stressful.  Selecting the right food, finalizing equipment, trying to trim weight where possible, and enduring what seemed like hundreds of last minute errands was really tiresome.  It was a relief finally zipping up my bags for the trip down here.  I will get the final number tomorrow, but at this point my bag (including what i will be wearing) weighs around 21 pounds.  I have 8lbs of mandatory equipment, 3lbs of optional items, and a little less than 10lbs of food (approx 2,400 calories per day).  I can subtract 3lbs of stuff I will be wearing and breakfast the first day for a "starting line" weight of approximately 18lbs.   I have added a few things since that calculation so my guess is my bag will be 19lbs or so.  That is unless my spreadsheet formulas are wrong, which is entirely possible.  Regardless, the bag weight should be tolerable and allows me a few "luxury items" like an IPOD, my garmin watch, and a solar charger. 

I am excited about getting to the first campsite tomorrow.  That excitement is tempered knowing that everything we have read and talked about over the last year is now about to happen.  As I write this the volunteers are in the middle of a debriefing outside of my room talking about the course, etc.  My stomach churned when someone brought up the dreaded "salt flats" where competitors can sink "up to their knees".  This should be quite an adventure…