What’s going on in the Desert?

by Ian | Mar 11, 2011 | Atacama, Team HSX

I’ve spotted a picture of Alan and Rich crossing the finish line of ‘The Long March”. The guys look very pleased to have made it, looks like it took a lot out of them. A little worrying that Chris is not in shot. Keep an eye on the website for more info, and cross your fingers that the team are still all on track.

~~UPDATE~~
Results have been updated, and unfortunatley it looks like Chris has pulled out somewhere in stage 5. I’m sure it’s nothing serious, as there is no way the others would have continued without him other unless they were happy he would be okay. My guess is that Chris’ problems from stage 4 came back in full force on the killer 76km stage and the others left him a a mid-stage check point.

On the brightside, Rich and Alan completed the mammoth leg in just 11h58, placing 17th for the stage! I bet they realised they were close to a sub 12 hour stage and really pused on in the latter stages – hence why they look so tired in the photo below. The pair have now rocketed up the leaderboard back to 23rd overall and top placed team with a 5 hour cushion on the next placed team.

Now an easy rest day and a “short” ~20km jog to the finish line tomorrow. Let’s hope Chris recovers well and the whole team completes the race together. Great work guys.

Stage 4

by Ian | Mar 10, 2011 | Atacama, Team HSX

Another challenging day. I went through a bit of a low patch between 10km and 20km but Alan and Rich carried me through and we crossed the line together, although not as quickly as we’d have liked. No idea where we are in the team standings, but I was happy enough just to finish.

Tonight’s campsite seems a bit on the windy side, so I reckon we have a 50-50 chance of making it through the night without the tent collapsing. They’re not particularly well anchored…

Tomorrow is the 74km “long march” which we’re not looking forward to. The idea of doing the same distance we have today with another 30km tagged on doesn’t really appeal, but once that’s finished we get a rest day before the final short stint to San Pedro.

If anything it looks like we’ve got a bit too much food, so no worries on that front.

Thank you to Russ for answering our question about the Japanese celebrity. Much appreciated!

Full blog on the official site here

Stage 3

by Ian | Mar 9, 2011 | Atacama, Team HSX

The guys remain in 23rd after another 7 hour day. The distance and the climate seem to be taking their toll on the field, as it looks like around 17 people have pulled out already.

We’ve had another good day. Not quite as strong during the race as stages 1 and 2, but we all felt pretty good at the end so can hopefully keep up the pace tomorrow. Feet and legs are in reasonable shape although my rucksack straps are starting to take their toll on my shoulders.

A Japanese film crew are filming a documentary about the race, and allegedly we have a Japanese celebrity taking part although so far we’ve failed to establish who it is or what they’re famous for. Hiroshi (or anyone with Google and a lot of time!): can you shed any light on this?

Hope all is going well for those in Barcelona. 3 days in, I can confirm that this is a piece of piss compared to winter testing. The tent is only marginally less comfortable than the Granollers, and I’m getting 9, yes NINE, hours of sleep!

For the benefit of Tom and everyone else from HSX, we agree that this isn’t as hard as advanced training!

I hope you’re all enjoying the photos and videos on the race website. We can’t see them from here, but I’ve just had a look over the shoulder of  the event photographer and his shots look stunning. I think they give a pretty good  impression of the terrain and scenery we’ve been running through.

So, onwards to the infamous salt flats of stage 4…