In August, Duncan King took on one of the mightiest endurance challenges around in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The Atacama Crossing is a six stage 250km race with stages varying in length from 20 to 80km across terrain which could be described euphemistically as "varied" and at altitudes of over 4000m.
This year 80 competitors from 16 countries and ages ranging from 18-67 took part. Competitors have to carry all food and equipment (apart from their tent which is transported ahead of them to the next camp) but while some managed to keep their packs down to under 10kg our Duncan was less frugal and started the race with the heaviest pack of all - 17.2kg (see photo above).
Added to that, Duncan arrived only a couple of days before the race and so had no time to adjust to the climate and altitude.
Despite these self imposed handicaps, he managed to complete the race in 35th place in an excellent time of 57hrs 32mins, surviving injury-free apart from one or two memorable blisters.
No comments:
Post a Comment