FEATURE
ADVENTURE Welcome to the
Without any real experience Jamie Page signed up to an Ultra Marathon in Peru, billed as the toughest, wettest, hottest race in the world. Jamie, who works for Vivobarefoot, often tests the latest shoes, but the multi-stage, adventure race over 230km with 100% humidity, running from the height of the Andes into the heart of the Amazon, was a whole new test altogether.
Prelude – Fear The hours in the minibuses tick over
and the roads don’t get any better as we wind deep into the Andes on our way to the start line. A relatively concise race briefi ng and safety talk leaves the nerves front and centre. The take home message: everything in the jungle can hurt you: the ants, the spiders, the snakes, the Jaguar and Puma. Even the bamboo and trees are vicious. The problem is we’re not going home – we’re here for the long haul. Compression socks and all.
Day 1 – Cloud 9
With everything I need for the next 6 days on my back I get ready for the start. My backpack weighs a ton. It’s actually about 13kg, but that’s heavy enough. My food, hammock, clothes, medical and survival kits are all precariously stuffed into my bag. My devised race plan for day one:
start slow and get slower, was all about taking it easy. Stage 1is 38km - nearly a marathon - so going steady is the best option. However only moments after the race had offi cially began I found myself, at over ten thousand feet, running up the hill. Competing. It is a shock; the altitude, the speed and the incline. But everyone was running, you couldn’t not run – at least not in front of the crowd. This is it; suddenly I’m running
through the jungle. 20 years earlier I had dreamt and wished of this moment. The track is narrow and the footing loose, the trees are low and I fi nd myself swooping underneath branches, logs and leaves. My feet feel strong and my legs hold. We cross narrow canyons that have rickety bamboo bridges. The track clings to the side of the steep mountainous jungle and I fi nd myself
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