Atacama Desert Run; live from Jasmine in Chile

Dear friends,

It´s 3 days post-race, and ýes, I´ve completed my Atacama Crossing! All 250km of it across the harsh desert of Atacama, often through awesome and very brutal terrain. 7 days of trudge and trample under the hot fierce sun, only to come in cold wet and hungry into the campsite after night fall.

Has anyone ever tried walking across salt flats before? It is like ploughed up land, all uneven and dried out in the sun... cracked and brittle, and many times, our feet will fall through the top crusty layer, and be gashed by the rocks... it takes ages to walk across such terrain.

And sand-dunes - steep steep 45deg and more gradients of soft sand that just gives under your feet. Ploughing up such hills almost brings me to my knees and tears to my eyes... those of you who´ve run the Pierce reservoir rolling hills - imagine steeper and tougher and many times over and over again.

River crossings and slot canyons... Before the race, I thought that it would just be sensational to walk through slot canyons. Unfortunately, these slot canyons of water are from glaciel melts... freezing cold, and we were made to cross rivers FIFTY-FIVE times and walk for stretches in the water. There were sections in which the water would be up to my hips in depth, and fast flowing too... and I was nearly swept away on several occasions. My lack of height was clearly a disadvantage. How could the organisers have advertised the Atacama Desert as the DRIEST place on earth??

There´s so much to the race... it was unanimously agreed by the experienced desert ultramarathoners at Atacama that this has been the toughest race they´ve ever done in their lives. The race course has been set differently from before... I can´t believe I chose this as my ´maiden´ desert run event! Once I´m back in Singapore, I will work on a proper race report with pictures / videos to show.

Thank you to all for your support through my race, and also for giving to AG Home... Thank you for being my partner through my journey across this desert.

Humbled,
JasmineIn Santiago, Chile