So…… That’s it.. All done and dusted… And what an awesome experience/adventure we all had. I won’t bother putting a trip report up here, I think Chris’ blog updates and the awesome photos tell the story… However, I will put a couple of things on here.

Firstly, I want to link you to one of the other runners post race thoughts… What a write up and he says it all pretty well.. Navigate here http://www.4deserts.com/blogs/comptetior_blog_new.php?pid=OTQy&blog=21 and read Ian’s second blog entitled ‘Till the next time…’

Who won the Prize Pot & Sponsorship update!!! Oh, the excitement… Well, thanks to all of you we managed to raise a whopping £6190.34 inc gift aid for Cancer Research UK… A massive thank you goes out to everyone of you.. And now, on to the prize pot winner or winners….

Well, we always said that the winner would be the person who picked the time slot for when the team didn’t finish and due to the unfortunate events of Chris being quite ill, the team didn’t finish Stage 5. So the winner of the entire prize pot is Ian Furlong. Well done Ian. However, we also felt that as two of us did finish, the person who bought the time slot at 41hrs, 47mins, 42 seconds which was where Rich and I finished also deserved a prize.. So, we managed to get a laptop donated to us by Geek Squad UK www.geeksquad.co.uk so we’d also like to congratulate Andy Wilkinson on his prize..

Two questions left…

Would we do it again? I can’t talk for the other two, but I would (and I’m pretty sure they would)…

Do I recommend it to you? Yes!!!

teamHSX on Atacama recieved emails today with details on the course…

It makes for interesting reading..

Distance of Each Stage
The approximate distances of each stage are detailed below.  There are checkpoints approximately every 10 kilometers / 6 miles along the course where volunteers and a medical doctor are stationed to give you water and support.  Each checkpoint also has a tent providing shade.
 
Stage 1 – 35.2 km / 21.9 miles
Stage 2 – 41.8 km / 26.0 miles
Stage 3 – 40.0 km / 24.9 miles
Stage 4 – 42.8 km / 26.6 miles
Stage 5 – 73.6 km / 45.7 miles
Stage 6 – 16.0 km / 9.9 miles

 
Terrain
The terrain is varied.  You can expect salt flats, sand dunes, loose rock and dirt, grassy plains, canyons and hard-packed dirt tracks.  There are also a few water crossings throughout the week.
 
Altitude
The course starts at its highest altitude.  Camp 1 is just over 3,000 meters / 10,000 feet.  Each Stage takes competitors to a lower level, with the week finishing in San Pedro de Atacama at 2,443 meters / 7,780 feet.
 
Climate
The climate of the Atacama Desert is hot and dry.  Course temperatures can reach higher than 40°C / 104°F (with lows of 5°C / 41°F at night).

Good luck to us…..

As mentioned yesterday, teamHSX on Atacama were on today’s news.

This link takes you to the main article :-

http://www.itv.com/meridian-west/ultimate-chile-challenge61727/

and this link is the small snippet on the lunch time bulletin :-

http://www.itv.com/meridian-west/afternoon-news39133/

Also, this evening we broke the £1,ooo mark for our Cancer research fundraising.. please help us get to £6,690… Thanks..

Today, teamHSX on Atacama were joined at Hengitsbury Head (Southbourne, Dorset) by Divya Kohli, ace reporter from Meridian News. She filmed a piece on us to be shown on the Meridian News tomorrow (Monday 17/1/2011) night on the main bulletin.

Divya, even said they are keen to join us on our Malaga training session and are even talking about joining us in Chile for the race….

teamHSX on Atacama then went on to complete a 25km training run along Bournemouth & Poole beaches and back…

Today was also great as we recieved our new team kit….. It felt great.. Thanks Russ and Simon Furlong for helping us with this..

Don’t forget now, with only about six weeks left until we fly out, it would be great if you bought a time slot and sponsored us… Go to the Atacama pages to find out more…. www.hsx.org.uk/Atacama

Great news…

After a successful training run on Butser Hill last night teamHSX on Atacama (Rich Batstone, Chris Laws & Alan Braithwaite) who are running across the Atacama Desert in March 2011 and are trying to raise some cash for Cancer Research are pleased to announce that their pages are now open..

If you’d like to find out more and hopefully donate a bit of money please go to hsx.org.uk/atacama

Keep on running…

What a year at the OMM it was. This year due to the rain and media storm last year, the organiser’s had moved the start away from the Event HQ, this added some time onto everybody’s day, but nothing too bad..

The Elan Valley, Builth Wells & Ian’s parents house were all great settings for The OMM. Having never been to the Elan valley before and having not experienced the legendary tussocks, I would go back again for a bimble..

Anyway…. Results.

Tim Clarke & James Fry came 40th in the Medium Score class….

Alan Braithwaite & Jon Hallam came 76th in the C Class…

Chris Laws & Dan Gray came 28th in the C Class…

Tom Percy & James Jones did not finish the C Class (we hope James’ knee is ok)…

Stu Rose & Terry Massey came 121st in the Short Score…

Neil Gregory & Andy Reed came 120th in the Short Score…

Ian Furlong & Selwyn Fisher came 11th in the B Class…

Well done to all and see you next year……

After last years epic Omm, where the BBC reported 1500 people ‘missing’ in the Lake District and the event was cancelled for the first time in over 40 years, HSX ART are back to win over one of the toughest races in the Adventure Racing calendar. This year it’s to be held in the Elan Valley, Mid Wales.

Follow the exploits of the team at the official Omm website www.theomm.com

The teams we have in this year are..

Good luck to all of you….