Atacama Crossing 2013 – Day 4 – Salt flat hell

Day 4

Today, the boundaries of both my mental and physical limits have been fully tested!

Today’s torture was all caused by the dreaded salt-flats! The salt-flats are like running on a farmer’s freshly ploughed field, that has just frozen overnight and gone crunchy and white. They are lumpy, so technically very hard to run on and then suck the energy from your stride as with every plod the crust gives ….. and during today’s 45km’ there was a monstrous 30km of these pesky beasts !!In addition, during the monotonous chug through the challenging terrain, the white surface reflects the midday sun right back in your face, generating an extreme and unavoidable heat….They ( the nasty saltflats) tortured my feet, legs, hips. I was blasted with heat until I was dizzy and nauseous. Having challenged my normal motivation levels successfully, the salt flats then laid siege to the very last, deep down inner levels of self motivation … A little bit like something out of Lord of the Rings !

I endured…… just, and pretty much collapsed over the finish line fully drained, having given it everything.

I had to slow significantly about 75% of the way through to avoid heatstroke ( and not making it ) and dropped a few places as a result, finishing 9th today. Once more I am very pleased to have battled it out.

I don’t really know what the scenery looked like as I didn’t look up much from the technical terrain! The scenery at the camp is incredible though, with a snow capped volcano in the background and a huge salt lake in the foreground….absolutely Beautiful! Now to the delights of freeze dried food….

Did I mention I am dreading the 75km tomorrow. I’ll finish but I think its going to hurt!

Thanks for the support!