The latest race in the Racing The Planet Series of ultramarathons begins on Sunday. Dubbed the Atacama Crrossing for the desert that the event is held in, the race will be run in six stages over the coming week.
In all, there are 80 competitors in the race from 16 countries around the World. They'll be tested in a desert that is 50 times more arid than Death Valley. During the day, temperatures will hover around 100 degrees F, while at night they'll plummet below freezing, testing each athletes endurance even further.
The six stages will take place at at least one mile above sea level, and range in length from 10 miles on the final day to 50 miles on the fifth day, which has been branded the "March of Death". Most of the days will hover around the 25 mile mark. When complete, the competitors will essentially have run the horizontal length of Chile.
Besides the usual leaderboards and race reports, this year's version of the race will also include daily blogs and a live webcam from camp each day.
As of now, the competitors are all checked in, and have gone through their gear checks as well. They're in camp, and will be launching the race at 8 AM local time tomorrow morning. It should be another amazing race to follow, as these endurance athletes battle the distance in one of the harshest places on Earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment