First of all, thank you to all of you, who follow my blog, write to me and or think of me.

The long stage was a strange run. First we crossed some of those broccoli fields and out of nowhere my hip started to hurt and cut me short of speed. I dropped back quite a lot and finally decided to take a pain killer. The suffering went on until checkpoint 3. Then as it had come, everything was gone again and I felt extremely strong. As going into checkpoint 3 I had watched a couple from my tent act on a 3/2 strategy. That means 3 flags running, 2 flags walking and then keep the discipline. Well I copied this and it worked out just fine!
The rest of the race was then enjoyable and had some beautiful sceneries. I would like to point out a huge sand dune we scrambled up and the moon valley I entered into, just as the sun was setting. Incredible the colours. And with the last ray of light I crossed the finish line, totally overwhelmed!
Now tomorrow will be our run into San Pedro with the finish line in the middle of town. I looking forward to that.
So this is my last blog as there will be no cybertent any more after we’re back to town.

For all of those who would like to know, yes, the Atacama was the hardest desert I’ve ever crossed. And I’m sticking to my quote:
“If heaven doesn’t have space, nor does hell, the Atacama will take you!”

Take care & I’ll catch up with all of you when I’m back next week.
Michael

Hey again

Today we did some special tours in the flats, first some sandy ones and then the salt flats. All tougher 27 km in the lunch time sun, where temperatures are above 40 degrees. Before we entered the flats we had some great dunes to climb and then went down a very steep one to get to a river (with obviously river crossings). Beautiful! Health wise I experienced some difficulties today, as I didn

If heaven will not take you, nor will hell, Atacama will!!!

But I guess that has to be so, as this stage is specifically dedicated to my son Yasha who is turning 13 today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! This is the most special birthday present I

Wow!!!! This was definitely the most beautiful stage in the 4 desert races up to now.

Awesome water crossings, through knee deep water (and once even up to the ba..), with strong current. We were in the water for many times and the water was quite cold, which gave numb feet. And lucky me my lubricant seemed to work just fine; no severe blisters. After being in the canyon and doing water crossings for 8 km, we climbed a hill and went through a approx. 500m long tunnel, further up on a step slop to finally run down an incredible dune. Running down there felt as if everything was moving in slow-motion (incredible). And coming from the dune, there were some Swiss people. How encouraging can a

Hello all

After a good night rest, even though the altitude was bringing me some headache, we started the first stage. My new breakfast set up (bouillon & 2 energy bars + a virtual Starbucks Vanilla Latte) worked out well. The race started directly into a small valley and had quite some descent in it, which made it pretty fast. Speed and altitude however are not yet in harmony and let me suffer a little, especially after check point 2, where we had a steady climb in a canyon, which just sort of sucked up all the heat. This is the first time I was running on vapour as I had no water left, as I reached the checkpoint. The landscape was awesome, with great plains, a run in a dried out canyon with tons of gravel and areas, where you though kids had built sand mountains.

Tomorrow we will be doing lots of river crossings and run through the slot canyon, which forces you to go through the water for at least half a kilometre. So I kept out of blisters today and hope all the water will not be too hard to my feet. Take care and tell you more tomorrow.

Michael

So finally we reached the first camp. The landscape is just awesome. We