Saturday, June 9, 2012

Atacama Crossing Stage 4- Mar 2012


i cant even begin to tell you all how much it means to read all of these comments.  Too many people to name, but I do want to thank you all.  It really helps me get my head straight.  To my wife and boys I love and miss you so much.  I cant wait to come home and EAT!

if you wondering why my spelling is bad it is the size of this microscopic laptop, with tiny keys SPENCER!!!

ok, here it goes...

STAGE 4- The inhfamous salt flats

today matt and i decided (and wisely so) to stick together.  My stomach still wasent well so i had to skip breakfast.  i managed to figure out what went wrong yesterday and decided to cut my electrolyte supplements to half the previous amounts and it did the trick. 
The course description had only a 300m gain the first 6 miles and i think it was triple that.  We had to climb up these sand dunes and for each 3 steps up you take, your feet go down one.

after the dunes we climbed a ridge and over alot of rocks down a valley and belive it or not more dunes.  my goal was to overhydrate prior to entering the salt flats.  i was averaging 1.5-2 liters every 10k or so.  once you enter the flats it is like a cruel joke someone is playing on you.  afternoon tempuratures were amost unbarable.  we had to walk to entire way,but we made it to cp#3.  after cp#3 you had to walk down a dirt road for 5k, which should be easy but in the heat it took everything i had.
i felt good and my spirts are high as i focus on the 50 mile stage tomorrow.  my feet are still holding up and unlike most here, i am injury free.

thanks for the well wishes, my next post will be at camp#6 and i will only have 10k to the finish.  wish me luck for the 50, it is going to suck.

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