There is so many different ways to do this type of race. In the Atacama race we had real racers, pushing hard trying to win. We had a person that just made every cut off and the check points by a couple of minutes and took his time. We had people with the lightest possible pack who suffered a lot because they didn’t have a lot of calories or “comfort” items. There were people who held back on the early days and got faster. Some who went hard at the start and slowed down later. There is no right or wrong way. Buts its good to have a plan (and a plan B and a plan C).

Some tings I would focus on next time:

• I had major blister issues which I think was down to poor sock choice and not always wearing gaiters. I haven’t had a blister for years but these are extreme conditions. Even areas that aren’t sand dunes have sand or pebbles and your feet get sweaty. I wish I had longer socks or wore my gaiters all the time.
• I wish I had a bit more food variety for when I struggled to get calories down. On course I was fine with the gels and energy powder. After day 3 I struggled to get my calories in while I was in camp and I think more variety in my food would have helped.
• I should have worked on having I had a lighter pack. Packs are tricky because it’s a big investment to get lighter gear. I also noticed so much good gear other racers had that I had never seen before. You do get used to carrying your pack, after day 1 its not such an issue, but if I go out there again I would try to have a pack a couple of kg lighter.
• I would do some more hiking sessions with my training. Even the top runners spent time hiking. I am quite a slow hiker so I would do more sessions hiking with purpose and mixing running and fast hiking.
• I wouldn’t take poles to the race again. Having something there as a fallback isn’t really worth it (I don’t think). I hardly used mine. In saying that A LOT of people used poles. But they just weren’t for me and I felt that while there were technical parts to the course I didn’t need poles to get through them, even the frozen broccoli sections.

Some things I think went well

• My sleep set up was good. I had a good sleep every night, even the first night which was cold and many people struggled to sleep
• I could maintain a positive attitude even when things were tough. Theres a saying “if you think you can, or think you cant, you’re right.” I never had any doubt I would get through a day or that I would finish the race. If you plan how to handle things that don’t go well its easier to adjust and stay positive.
• I was fit enough to get through the course. In the end blisters slowed me down the most. You can always be fitter but my training was good enough for me to finish.
• I took time to enjoy the course. To stop and appreciate where I was. It can be easy to get caught up in trying to keep moving as fast as possible without really taking it all in. I feel I appreciated the opportunity. I didn't take photos on the course which I think would have been good but you get a lot of photos from the race photographers who are great and I really wanted to enjoy the experience rather than be worried about getting a good photo.

Thats a wrap.

The last stage was a 18km run into town. Slightly uphill but all runnable. It really shows how fit everyone in this race is given nearly everyone was done within 2-3hours. It was slightly longer than a normal last stage for an RTP race but we got through this before it was too hot and (particularly) as you get past half way and starting counting down the kilomteres into town it is an easy enjoyable run.

For me, my feet were pretty bad still but I jogged the first 10km, walked quite a bit on some of the later kilometers but really enjoyed all of this stage. It gave you some time to reflect on how far you have come and you see a lot of people during this stage, either passing them or being passed by them, which is a nice way to finish.

You run down the “main” street of the town and finish in the town square which is one of the best things about this race. Once you are done you have access to cafes and stores straight away while you cheer everyone else across the line.

I will share some learnings from the race in another post but to summarise my feelings at the end I would say they were some relief but a high level of satisfaction. I felt like I got all I wanted out of the race. I finished. I spent time with a lot of inspirational people from different backgrounds. I got to see places I wouldn’t have got to see without doing this race. I got to challenge myself to do something hard.

There was so much I could have done better but I think that is what keeps people coming back to these races (in part at least). The only way to really know how to do something like this is to do it.  Prepare the best you can, go do the race and then take the learnings into the next race.

Excitement is at max levels now. After leaving Hong Kong on Tuesday, spending about 23 hours on planes, a couple of days stopover in Santiago, I have made it to Sane Pedro de Atacama and checked into the race hotel. Tomorrow we do race registration, gear check etc and head out to the first camp tomorrow afternoon. Ready to start running on Sunday. Everything has gone very smoothly so far, I hope the rest of the week goes as well.

The time to think about the race and plan for it is now done. From here the time is to just trust you have done all the preparation you can and go execute. Hence the max excitement levels. A lot of planning and logistics goes into this race and I tend to be someone who will suffer from paralysis by analysis (i.e. I can be an overthinker). So moving on from planning and just enjoying the running is something I am really looking forward to.

San Pedro de Atacama is a great little place. Actually a lot busier than I thought in terms of people around, a lot of cafes/ eateries. Clearly a lot of tourists coming through.  

Next post will be end of Stage 1.

Having to travel across 250km clearly means some training will need to be done (at least for me). The terrain and the altitude of the race were a bit of an unknown and something I couldn’t get the exact same exposure to in Hong Kong. Well it was a known but not something I could experience before the race to really know what it’s like. My focus for training was on not getting injured, getting maximum miles into my legs, trying out all my gear, doing some running on soft sand and spending time in the sauna.

I had a few trail races in October but after those my focus switched to slowly building up my weekly kilometers ready for Atacama. In Hong Kong it’s very easy to get some vertical in so I just did a lot of easy running, mainly on road with trail runs still sprinkled in, without thinking too much about vert.

From the start of January my weekly milage built from 50km to 140km (first week in March) and then dropped in half for the last few weeks. I was doing 1-2 longer runs a week (35km+) and often doing double run days (about 20km across 2 runs).

I’ve been doing weekly beach runs for about 4 months, making sure I am running in the soft sand and always carrying my pack. Pack weight built up over time but started around 5kg and built up to full race pack. These were about 10-15km each run (because running back and forth in soft sand along a 500m long beach is slow and boring).

I ran with my poles every couple of weeks to get used to them. Given I never got comfortable “running” with the poles these runs usually ended up having a lot of hiking and more vertical.

I spend quite a lot of time in the sauna hoping to get some heat adaption. Hong Kong is warm but during our winter months when I did alot of my build up in training its only low 20's (celcius) so not desert hot during that time. As there was a sauna in our building I was able to get in the sanu anywhere between 3-5 times a week for between 20-40 minutes each session. Hopefully these sessions help adopt a little to the desert heat.

You always wish you had done more training but at this point I am satisfied with what I got done given the time I had to devote to training. I have no major injury concerns which was the key thing I wanted to achieve. I am comfortable with all my gear and have got some long runs done.

While physical preparation is important for this type of race, making sure you have the right equipment and food is equally so. And this part of the preparation is easier if you plan ahead and are organized.

Thats why I started planning very early. Months and months in advance. I didn’t want this part of the race to be a last-minute stressor. My spreadsheet got set up early and captured all things like mandatory (and additional) items to pack, a training plan, logistics like travel dates and transfers etc, food options and what each race stage looked like (based on blogs from past racers and RTP website information). It was constantly open on my computer and being updated.

Gear wise I already had a lot of the mandatory items but having them listed out and ticking them off as I put them to one side was comforting (nothing I like better than making a list and putting some ticks against those items!). Other items that needed purchasing sat in the list also and identifying what I wanted/ needed early took the stress out of this part of the preparation.

 A couple of learning I had from the last RTP race I did in Gobi that I could apply this time were:

• Try EVERYTHING you are taking with you before you go – sleep on your sleeping mat in your sleeping bag one nightb at home, do some running in your pack (preferably with all your gear for full dress rehearsal), test the food you’re taking and so on.
• Work out what you need for a comfortable sleep. I found sleeping so hard at the Gobi race and it was mainly due to a lack of pillows so this time I have a couple of blow-up pillows. They worked ok when I tested them out at home so hopefully they help.
• Don’t go overboard swapping out comfortable items to make your pack lighter. For example, in Gobi I took these extra light hotel slippers for wearing around camp and they didn’t really fit properly so I wasn’t comfortable walking around camp. Some nice thongs (flip flops for non-Australians) are a little heavier but will make camp time a lot more comfortable. Food is another good example of this. A few additional calories or “comfort food” can be so much more beneficial than saving 200g of weight if you remove them.

In the end my pack weighs about 11.2kg. I would like it to be lighter but about 4.3kg of that is food so that will reduce as the race goes on and I am not really bringing much outside of mandatory items so I think this is ok. I’ve done some running with the pack (10-15km runs) and it feels ok. I know its not 80km across a desert but I am comfortable with what I have in my pack.

One big debate I continue to have with myself is around taking poles. I never run with poles and in my training runs with poles to prepare for the race I couldn’t get comfortable moving with any speed while using them. However, I know if I roll my ankle (which is not uncommon) or pick up an injury (again not uncommon) they will be very valuable. To not take them to save 500g of weight and may be something I regret, so they are in my pack.

Food I just tried to keep simple. I never really eat before or during my runs, even longs runs, but I know I will need to do so for an event like this. I tried all different foods during my training runs and different freeze dried meals to know what worked well for me. My nutrition plan was pretty settled about 6 weeks before the race so I could practise eating the foods I chose before the race.

The plan is caramel waffles for breakfast; gels and powders for on-course; freeze fried meal in the evening with a protein bar and some potato chips back at camp. Same thing every day, a bit of variation with flavors. Its mandatory to have 14,000 calories for the race week and I will be at 15,500.

That’s the approach for packing for the race. At this point I feel comfortable with my pack and my nutrition but one of the exciting things about an event like this is you only know if the plan was a good one once you are running the race. You I will find out in a week.

One week until the start of Racing the Planet Atacama. For those not familiar with the race it is a 250km race across Atacama Desert in Chile. It’s a multi-day race. First 4 days are about 40km each day. Day 5 is around 80km and then we finish up with 10km on the last day. We carry our own food and clothes, sleeping bag etc but are provided a tent to lay our heads in each night and water as we make our way through the course. Fun!!

The plan is to share my experience of the race a little. Both during the race - what the course was like, how the body held up etc – as well as preparation and planning - how I trained, what I packed, what I did well (or wish I did better). In about 2 weeks time I am sure there are a bunch of lessons learnt for me to share after a (hopefully) successful race.

I have done one of these races before in the Gobi Desert, way back in 2013. But ever since my good mate Pat told me about the series Atacama was always the race I wanted to do. So one week out from the race I am very excited to be making that dream a reality, seeing an amazing part of the world and sharing the experience with some like-minded people.