So its official. Pulled the plug today, ackelies is done for this time. Found out this morning it was 40C yesterday, thought it felt a little warm :). Apperently its getting just as hot today. Best wishes to Marco who is going strong. I think he is going to make it!! He is also in good hands as he partnered up with an Italian woman in our tent now as I departed, who is maybe not the fastet but has vast experience, she has even finished the "333" which an insane crasy race of 333km single stage (ie all in one go) through the desert. Go Marco!! :) For me I am sitting at a resturant eating gnochi with Bob Marly in the background. Not so bad :) Now its time to heal and then on to next adventures. :) Was three really tough days (well day 2 and 3 especially). Glad I made down here at least, was fun to see Atacama and run half the race at least! Thanks for following everyone! Ill have pics if anyone wants to see!

Hi all, as usual thanks for the comments! What a freaking day. Brutal, really brutal. Only good thing is that a lot of the staff said today was the hardest day including the long day, true? Don

Thanks for all the comments guys! Didn

Stage 1

Marco and I passeed the equipent check, woho :) It felt a little like an exam :) Now we are at a little cafe befoe we grab our last lunch before we bus out to the desert at 3:00pm. Tomorrow the starting gun goes at 8:00 in the morning as a "warm up" day "only" 36.2km (22.5mi) ... :/ Now off to lunch!

This is for my grandmother who turned 100 yesterday while I was traveling. Grattis p

Finally arrived after 35 hours of travel at 4:30am in San Pedro de Atacama! It was a crazy start to an already crazy trip. Getting here should count as the first leg of the race at the very least! Exhausted...:) After road trafic accidents (not mine mind you), airport deversion landing at the wrong airport in Chile due to fog, flight delays, refuling delays, being stuck on the groung in our plane for hours, missing my transfer with Marco, more flight delays and more again and again... 4 flight legs in total and a bumpy bus ride in the middle of the night to wrap it up, I have arrived and got to wake Marco up from his beauty sleep ar 4:30 am since we are sharing a room. It is ... the wonders of travel :). I did meet a few other competitors and have heard some have not even arrive who also left wednesday. Luckly today there is nothing planned so going to take it very easy! Hotel seems fun though, little mini huts all layed out along small paths.

(OK, here is a second go at this post since this extremely user friendly blog site thought it would be fun to evaporate my last post I just typed up.) As I am getting ready to depart to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, tomorrow, the question is - am I ready? Well I sure hope so... :) Both gear and training have been occupying a large part of my time in preparation for this event which has been a lot of fun but also very time consuming! Shoes, this has been my hardest choice followed closely by which backpack to carry all my gear in which I will need to live and service off of for the 7 day Ill be in the desert (water will luckily be provided in batches by event staff several times each day, a spot in a 10 man tent will also be provided at each camp each day). The three final shoe candidates, all high-cushion shoes, came down to "Hoka One One Stinson trail", "Altra Lone Peak 2.0" and Skechers Go Run Ultra LT. In the end I have decided to go with the Skechers which have an awesome soft ride which feels great running in. They have a wide toe box to allow for natural toe splay and also leaves a bit of room for the feet to swell. And last for the sand proof upper which together with the "Outdoor Research Stamina Gaiters" I got will hopefully keep all the fun desert sand out of my shoes (I hope)! I do have to say though that if I had gotten a few more miles of training in with zero drop shoes I would have gone with the Altra's as they have, in my opinion, an even nicer ride for both walking and running in, look better (important of course), and have an even wider toe box, but I got a bit worried about not having enough miles with zero drop shoes to take them to the desert as my only shoe for 250km (155 miles). The Hoka's are a great shoe but in the end decided they were to narrow for my liking for such a long event. For the pack I must have tried 5-6 different packs (yes I know thats a lot). The final choice is a new pack which just hit the market a couple months ago from Ultimate Direction, they just launched a new bigger pack call "Fastpack 20" which sits like a running vest and rides great!. It's 22L volumes makes one be strict about gear choice, which is great, but it has a huge back mess pocket which fits tones of extra stuff allowing me to actually fit everything I need for the 7 days! I have used it for several long runs now and love its set up. Hopefully it will be just as awesome in the desert as it has been during training! As for everything else (mandatory safety and emergency gear, 7 days of food, sleeping bag and mattress, warmer extra clothes for the evenings, and personal items such as camera, iPods, toiletries etc) I feel I have done pretty well. My pack is going to come in around 8kg (17.6lbs), excluding water, which is about 2.5kg (5.5lbs) lighter then my pack was day one in the similar Sahara Race event I did back in 2010... So have I forgotten anything because that's a lot lighter?? Well I guess I'll find out one day in the desert if I find myself naked out of cloths and food with rotting teeth and dehydrated wondering where half my gear has gone :) In any case, tomorrow I am off so lets hope I have everything! I am meeting Marco in Santiago (where he has spent a couple days extra exploring before the event) where we will fly together up to San Pedro and meet the 163 other competitors plus event staff. On Saturday its race briefing plus gear check and later we are getting bussed out into the desert to spend the first night in camp 1 before the start of this epic long journey which begins Sunday morning! Its going to be rough, uncomfortable, hot, cold, hard, painful but most of all an absolutely amazing experience which I bet will be filled with incredible and beautiful scenery, moments of unparalleled adventure and moments of utter calm and peace and moments of extreme physical hardship. Each day will also of course bring a lot of sand :) I'll keep posting update as we go so stay tuned for more...

Woohoo, found my login details again! Only a week away... Not sure if that is a good or bad thing :) anyway its going to be a LOT of fun!

Here we goooooooo! :) Its been around 3.5 years since I finished the Sahara Race in 2010. Since than I have moved to a new continent, changed jobs, had kids, been injured, got out of shape, healed, getting back into shape, and now its time for an additional big adventure! - The Atacama Crossing! It will be interesting to see how the training will go since spending the necessary amount of hours on my feet per week is not the easiest to fit in these days. But is shall be done, somehow! :) In any case it is going to be a great journey preparing for the event. If the event itself is anything like the Sahara Race (which I am assuming it is) the race itself is going to be an absolutely amazing experience!