"With your entire focus on your goal, you will reach levels of achievement that you never thought possible"
Catherine Pulsifer

Day 1 - Amazon Jungle Multi Stage Ultra Marathon.

The masses of runners, organisers, medics and of course supporters gathered at 04:00 outside the main hotel in Cusco and were greeted by a fleet of mini vans ready to ship us out to basecamp some 5 hours away deep in the Manu National Park.

Tbh, sleep wasn’t high on the agenda last night and seemed to be somewhat suppressed by excitement and trepidation but I didn't feel as tired as you'd have thought.
I'd suffered quite badly with altitude sickness during the time we'd spent in Cusco so dropping from 11,000 feet to 10,000 would be a welcome relief so couldn't get on the road soon enough.

For me personally I wanted to make sure my race pack was complete and be in a position to arrive at base camp without the need to open my suitcase again before handing it over prior to the start on the following day. So, two items correctly packed and ready to stow in the van and that was me done.

With the convoy of minibuses laden with bodies and horrendous mounts of equipment, it was our first real chance to start to meet other competitors.

Approx 8 in a van for the next 5 hours would seriously break any ice.

Travelling out towards Manu on barely single track roads that can only be described as lethal at best and was nerve wrackingly entertaining.

Meeting the occasional oncoming car made passing frighteningly impossible and with quite literally thousands of feet sheer drop off being the inevitable conclusion if things went pear-shaped, it certainly made bus chat a little more entertaining.

A couple of hours in, we hit a local village for a quick break and opportunity to stock up on travel snacks. Wow, what a culture shock!!

The residents were welcoming, friendly and greetsed us with endless smiles. It quickly became apparent that English was completely 100% unspoken and with the majority of us unable to speak Spanish the best thing was to hope that what we ate was ok.

Once back in our respective vans we took the final leg to our destination stopping just one more time at a vantage viewpoint to see our running destination. The only way I can describe it was awesomeness. Actually seeing what we were going to challenging along with almost minute by minute climate changes unfolding before our eyes was pretty amazing. 

Endless mountains of green jungle. No air or sound pollution, human existence or tainted landscape for as far as the eye could see. Stunning!!

With the brief stop completed it was straight on to the basecamp.

A pretty undignified disembark from the vehicles.

Basically, grab your bags, find a pitch and get the hell set up ASAP.

I managed to find an outer pitch and for some reason figured it’d be better not to be surrounded by others. Maybe it was old camping experience creeping in but it just seems right.

Having practised the hammock rigging loads at home it was all up and ready inside 5 mins with everything ready to climb into bed when the time came.

The Race Director had called an opening brief at the local Ranger Station set along the main trail road and with most people sorted we all headed off to hear the briefing and what lay ahead for us in the coming week.

Introductions made, expectations delivered by the Director we were handed over to the head medic for more do’s and don’ts leaving us in no doubt that this was going to be monumental and seriously tough.

Dismissed and told to be on the start line at 07:00 for an 07:30 Mayor welcome speech and an 08:00 start we drifted off with the additional order that our suitcases MUST be packed, zipped and on the transport van no later than 07:00 the following day and never to seen again until the last day. Eeek 

Sleep was intermittent at best and with a pretty short sharp awakening from the Race Director at stupid o’clock (05:00) saw everyone in camp slowly burst into life. 

 

I had my daily plan and was bloody well gonna stick to it. Do your next day race admin the night before and be prepared in advance!! Totally the right thing to do given that it was dark, damp and a new experience for me.

Up, and race kit straight on and then packed away my hammock etc.

Suitcase was already done so handed over for storage.

Brekkie of Granola and protein shake was ok once washed down with a vitamin fizz drink and at that point I was done and good to go.

Back pack with a full water load was around 13kg and although heavier than I’d liked it to have been, I’d done the training with the weight so it wasn’t a biggie.

Although we’d experienced a close lightning storm during the night no rain fell but with the amount of dew on the ground it felt as if it had. Fortunately I’d applied some great pre-race advice and packed a couple of heavy duty bin bags to place everything in at night.

This served two purposes. One to keep kit dry (obviously) and the second to stop unwanted "guests" using my kit as a home, and believe me there were loads about!

 

Temperature in the mountain was dead cold throughout the night going close to zero so no surprise to get up freezing cold.
As the sun came over the horizon things warmed up fairly quickly but it was going to get a whole lot hotter and more humid for sure.

With everyone assembled on the start line and a brief speech from the local Mayor and Race Director it was a fairly chilled kick off. Kris the Race Director wave his super huge Peruvian flag and that was it, the beginning of one hell of an experience.

We’d been told that there would be quite literally, a “door” to the trail path in the first 300 - 400 yards and we should all take said route however, reaching it we found it locked.

Without any marshalls around, the general runner consensus congregating at the "door" was to carry on along the winding road in a hope of finding another.

After a mile there we’re about 15 of us out front when suddenly the Race Director appeared in a support van to tell us we needed to go back. What a total bummer!!

Although he apologised for it being locked it was a case of redoing the mile we’d just covered. So now the leaders were at the back of the pack. Total arse and not a good start but hey, suck it up and crack on.

Hitting the trail, the faster ones were now held up by the back markers and being very much a single track trail with sheer drop offs to the left and steep banks to the right we needed to wait until the markers found suitable spots for us to pass.

Now, it’s worth me saying at this point that I absolutely love running downhill and the trail we were on was approx 10k with about 3,000 feet of steep decent. Winner, and I fricken loved it.

For me, I just throw caution to the wind and let rip. I never think about what if's or anything that could go wrong and I just let momentum build the speed and stay vertical.

Tbh, I had intended to coast the first day but it was a down so smiled and hammered it.

Quite literally flew down the trail losing count of how many people I passed. Sure I had a few slips, falls and slides but with incline that steep, unknown terrain and 13kg it was inevitable but hey, what a crack.

At the bottom was a river bed and the first checkpoint. 

I had absolutely no idea how many were ahead of me and tbh I didn’t care, I was having a fricken ball. When I clocked in and asked the team how many were in front it was purely to see how many I could hunt down. Imagine my astonishment to find that I was in second place (wtaf???).

With the leader about 4 mins ahead I thought hey, let’s have a crack at catching him. Water refilled quickly and straight out.

The first 200 yards from the CP1 was a near vertical accent. Fortunately the organisers had provided 2 ropes to hoist yourself up but with 13kg it wasn't as easy as you'd think. 

My guess is that it was only about 30 feet but then it was an horrific vertical zig zag trail thereafter that seemed to go on for ever, made worse when I went to get my poles only to find if lost one during my carefree decent to CP1.

I ain’t gonna lie here, and if you’ve followed the blog you’ll know I loathe ups with a passion and sure, I could hear voices telling me to just man up and get on with it, at the end of the day, the heat and humidity caught up with me big time and had no choice but to have a quick hurl before cracking back on.

I knew at CP1 that I had a Norwegian runner on my tail and it was as inevitable he’d catch me what with me being shit at hills and all that but I managed to paced him to the top anyway.

Stupidly I had a short chat with the race team at the top whereas the Norwegian guy didn’t and he broke away.

Having got my breath back enough to crack on it took me about 2 miles to hunt Mr Norwegian down and overtake but maintaining it was another story.

About an hour later that heavens opened with not just a little spattering. It proper thumped it down! Once yer wet yer wet and tbh it was actually quite refreshing for the first 10 mins. After an hour or two, it was a little tedious but this is the Amazon Jungle right!

Head down and continued to pull away from the Norway guy.

The next 15k were winding roads with sheer drops, waterfalls and awesome scenery but each tight bend I could see the Norwegian trying to close the gap.

CP2 was a quick in and out because I could see he was making the most of the inclines and closing.

Did the next 10k and maintained the gap and for some reason thought the next marker was the finish line. Wrong, and that’ll teach me not for listening to the race brief!

Another 7k brought another bloody checkpoint. To say I was gutted would be an understatement. Not only was i struggling to maintain 2nd place but i could sense the Norwegian closing.

Checked in, refilled water and straight back out but at least I’d maintained a gap.

I asked the CP3 guys how far it was to the finish and got a pretty shady answer. In essence they didn’t  know. Mentally this was NOT good for me. I knew I was just managing to keep my Norwegian friend at bay but it was a struggle. Legs felt as fresh as when we'd started but it was noticable on the inclines that i was being caught.

Another 5k later and I knew he was closing pretty quickly.

Inevitably he caught me and although we had a few hundred yards of unsociable chat, he just wanted that second place and wasn't in chatty mode.

Annoyingly the finish line was only another 2k away from where he overtook me but I was completely unaware. Had I known I’d have put more effort in, but at the end of the day, getting in a couple of minutes behind 2nd place and only 6 mins behind the leader was epicnesss in itself for me and even now I’m pretty stunned with myself.

Back in the new camp in just over 4 hours was really satisfying.

Got a really good spot to pitch the hammock for the night and plenty of time to do admin prep for day two.

Found a nearby fast flowing stream and took a bath before crackin open the lunch pack of spicy noodles. Yum!

One thing I was consciously aware of was my appalling nutrition intake during the race.
I’d had granola and protein shake for brekkie and putting aside the water and electrolyte intake (which I think was ok, not good, but ok), all I’d eaten throughout the stage was a few pork scratching and a handful of Skittles (not cool). Absolutely needed to sort that out better during tomorrow or it'll come back and bite me in the arse!

To keep the calorie count respectable, once washed etc I scoffed everything I should’ve consumed on the stage + the noodles. 

Late dinner consisted of dehydrated chilli and rice and a niblet of chocolate. Sounds lush but it was like eating cement to be honest. Anyway, it was calories and that's all that mattered.

One endearing positive was that another runner had found my lost pole and handed it in at CP1 so tomorrow I’ll be back to full capacity. Doesn't sound like a big deal but at the end of the day, someone had found a bit of my kit and carried it along with their own kit so, big respect.

Straight to bed with another early start tomorrow on the cards and actually felt quite relaxed.
There's something quite smug about laying in bed swinging gently in your hammock in mid afternoon and seeing the late arrivals returning to camp in the dark. If that's not incentive enough to get back quickly each day I dunno what is.

So far this bad boy event was living up to everything I’d expected (except for coming in 3^rd which even now still astonishes me) and was totally loving it.

Find out how day #2 went in next week's blog post

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