I Am Not Afraid

I have received this question from numerous friends and sponsors and thought I should share the story and some photos.

The expedition races I do involve us usually crossing ALOT of sand. We sleep on it, run on it, it finds it way into our food & water, and migrates to every nook of your body (BTW: Hydropel is a must!). In my experience sand is the #1 contributor to blisters. You can have the nicest socks and slather your feet in goo and tape like crazy but if sand gets into your shoes it becomes a constant abrasive, tearing your feet apart. Thus the funky gaiters I wear. They are made out of lightweight ripstop nylon and have velcro around the bottom and 2 elastic drawcords to cinch them down after they are on. I can put them on or off without having to remove my shoes and they do not get as hot as they look while wearing them. The second part of the gaiter is the velcro that gets applied to the shoe. Most people only use an adhesive to attach (I useShoe Goo but am exploring 2 part epoxy for future races) and this is a MAJOR mistake. A combination of heat, the grit of the sand, and the constant flexing of your shoes as you run/walk causes the adhesive to fail. So in conjunction to the adhesive you have to have them sewn onto your shoes as well. Most local shoe repair shops can do this but I decided to try to do it myself. I got the finest drill bit I could find and used a Dremel to drill holes all the way around my shoes through the glued on velcro. I then took high-strength, waxed nylon thread, and threaded it into the hole and tied EACH STITCH. The reason for this is that if one stitch failed all the others are still tied, so no unraveling. Once all the stitches are done I superglue the knots and put more adhesive on top of all the drilled holes.

And there you have the reason why I look like I have Moon Boots on in the middle of the desert.

Here are some tips I have learned from doing both The Atacama & Sahara races:

1. There are 3 types of competitors in these races:

   a. Racers who are competing against each other for a top 10 finish. Their gear is the lightest and they carry no creature comforts. The packs of these racers are around 13-16 pounds in weight with out water minus their race clothing and shoes (starting line weight w/o water). Racers are VERY talented runners who train long and hard and are well disciplined on the course (minimum time in check-points, carry only the essentials, conditioned for heat(Sahara), elevation(Atacama), sand(Sahara), wet feet(Atacama), etc…

    

   b. Mid-packers are competing against themselves. They are competitors that arrive at the finish a couple hours after the racers (except on the long stage), walk parts of the course each day, stop and take some photos on the way, and are trying to get the best time they can get on each leg of the race. Mid-packers pack weight can range any where from 13-30 pounds. They train as much as they can and usually pack more than they need the first time they race and then whittle down their pack weight for the next. Mid-packers usually find other competitors on the first stage who are similar in speed and ability and end up finishing the race leapfrogging each other over the next 5 stages. Mid-packers find time to socialize during the race and take in the beauty of the country around them. (full disclosure: I am a Mid-packer).

c. Survivors are the competitors who are truly inspirational. For a variety of reasons(age, ability, injury, etc..) they are the ones whos race days are long. They are on the course, in the heat, from twice as long as the racers, get little sleep and wake up and do it again. Both the mid-packers & racers who share tents with the survivors do everything they can to help them continue. They meet the survivors at the finish, carry their packs to the tent and run errand for hot water and medical gear. Survivors have more heart than anyone else on the course and it is that that gets them to the finish. Survivors packs weigh between 18-30 pounds (a guess on my part).

2. In the Sahara race a sleeping pad is not needed (plenty of soft-sand at the camp sites) while the Atacama is VERY rocky EVERYWHERE. I would suggest the Neolite by Thermarest.
3. The Sahara race is mostly flat (there are numerous sand dunes that are a bitch to climb) while the Atacama has numerous ups and downs.
4. The gotchas for each race are: Sahara-heat & sand, Atacama- elevation, wet feet, & the salt flats.
5. Many people ask me what is hard about the salt flats in the Atacama. The salt flats are on level terrain go on for miles. This is very demoralizing, as you cannot see where they stop. The salt flats are similar to a freshly plowed field but are the hard and shaped like coral(everything in the Atacama is hard, dry, brittle, and sharp. Imagine a place that gets no rain and is baked all day long). As you try and walk across the flats you have to look down and place your feet. Your foot will NEVER find a flat surface, it is always half-on a piece of hard coral like surface. Every few steps the ground caves in and your foot sinks into a muddy, salt incrusted, goop. Not only does the goop seep into your shoes causing any blisters to burn from the salt, but the edges of the hole are very sharp and your shoes (and ankles) suffer. After a mile of this you are tired, sore (my neck hurt from looking down all the time), frustrated, and the muscles in your feet and ankles are hurting. In spite of all this the achievement of crossing the salt flats is one my greatest to date and is something I will recall vividly forever.
6. To help train for these races spend time with your race pack filled with the actual weight of your gear (w/ water!!!). Many competitors do NOT do this and are shocked how much their packs weigh at the starting line. Try and get out as much as possible with your pack on. Time is more important than distance in these races. I wear my race pack ALL the time at home. I pick it up in the morning, and carry it all around all day (it sits by my desk while I work). Do this for a week and you will find ways to make it lighter. I see many people with sore shoulders (bruises, chaffing, strained muscles) after the first day. If you spend as much time as you can in your pack your shoulders, neck, and back will be fine.
7. If you are a racer then you already know what you have to do to be in the top 10. If you are a mid-packer try and get as many long runs/walk in as you can. Stages are never less than 20 miles so try and get as many +20mile run/hikes in with your pack as possible.
8. These races very rarely are on any type of trail. They traverse terrain that challenging on purpose. Mid-packers & survivors get some benefit from the racers breaking trail for them but BE CAREFUL, sometimes the footprints you are following are wrong! Keep your eye on the course markers (pink flags). They are always right!
9. Eat for a week what you plan to eat during the race!! So many competitors buy high calorie dehydrated meals and after the first day cannot eat them anymore. These races are hard on your body both externally as well as internally. After spending all day in the heat I personally did not feel like consuming “Beef Stroganoff”. I found after trying out many different types of food ahead of time to use the following:
   a. Breakfast: Instant oatmeal (2 packs), almonds, Cliffbar, & the new Starbucks instant coffee
   b. During the race: GU (1 pack of plain), Honey Stinger Ginsting, Cliff Chews, Cliffbar, PureSport, & a ton of Nuun
   c. Dinner: Top Ramon!!!, almonds, hot tea bags & tootsie rolls for desert.
   I would not recommend bringing any cups or cookware. You get 1.5 liter bottles of water. Everyone cuts them apart about 1/3 down from the top. The top (with the cap on) is perfect for hot tea, and the bottom you put your oatmeal or top ramon in and the camp staff adds hot water. Works perfectly and saves weight.
10. You have more strength in you than you think. These races are just as much mental as physical. Attitude goes a long way towards finishing!
11. These races will forever transform you. They are hard of purpose. You will find new depths within you and will go home with more than you think.
12. These races are addictive! One will probably not be enough.
13. Try and laugh, smile, help others, & endure.
14. I keep a poem & quote in my mind during these races:
    1. Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.
       -Buddha
    2. Self-Pity by D.H. Lawrence
       I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
       A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
       without ever having felt sorry for itself

This is all I have time for today.

I’ll post more as I think of it. Feel free to contact me with specifics.

Mike

My thoughts over the last few days have been on what I learned from my limited time in the Sahara. I am always asked why I like to do these self-supported, long distance races in extreme environmental conditions. The answer is very simple: To learn something new about myself. My race in Chile earlier this year taught me about physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering. The Atacama desert revealed within me new depths of tolerance to suffering. I left Chile with a strong understanding of what I could endure, how far my endurance could be stretched. Now as a contemplate The Sahara race I actually feel like I learned something unexpected. You see when I went to Chile I imagined I was going to suffer but was unsure how much. Being better educated for The Sahara I believed I KNEW how much suffering was in-store and thought it would be the same physical, emotional, spiritual test I went through in Chile. I was VERY wrong. Going into this race I was slightly injured but well prepared. I trained right, ate right, my equipment was top notch (more on this in another post), everything was the best I could make it. It never crossed my mind that I would not finish, that I would fail. That I learned was my biggest mistake.

As many of you know I like to build companies and write a bit about the parallels of being a Entrepreneur and endurance athlete. The best companies I have built are the ones that I knew could fail but I did everything I could to prevent that from happening. My competition is never another company, it is always myself and my lack of seeing what needs to be accomplished to be successful. Companies do not fail, Entrepreneurs fail to imagine and implement success. Companies are inanimate, I am not. So my mistake in failing to finish The Sahara lies within me. I could blame being sick, but I knew I was sick before I started. What I should of done is postponed running until I was 100% physically. 2 days before I left to Egypt I got a sinus infection and was given 1200mg of amoxicillin/day and instructions that it would reck havoc on my digestive track. This is not good news for a runner crossing deserts. I choose not to take the meds and wait and see if it got better. And I did. Sniffles went away and I felt 80%. My mistake was believing that 80% was enough. As in building successful companies, crossing deserts requires you be 100% at the start as endurance is the slow eroding of your physical, emotional, and spiritual being. What you do to prevent this eroding is what makes you successful.

So as I sit here coughing up a lung, much sicker than I was before the race the thing I learned most from The Sahara is this: Failure is ALWAYS present. It is important to be 100% ready physically, emotionally, and spiritually at the start of any great challenge to insure success. As written in Dune by Frank Herbert, “A beginning is a very delicate time.” I learned in Physics that a miniscule error in the beginning magnifies greatly overtime. So now my plan is to get healthy, work on being a better Entrepreneur for awhile and dream about all the exciting challenges that I can choose from for next year. I am glad I learned about failure and know now what it takes to help prevent it.

MS

Last 48 hrs have been difficult. Back in the US waiting for my flight home. Have a fever, sore throat, and wearing a medical mask. Hopefully I can recoupe quickly and start running again. Feel tired so I’ll write a post trip wrap up over the weekend. Thanks to everyone for the emails and posts. I will respond to you all over the weekend as well.

Mike