by Salvatore Riggio
The most dangerous ultra marathon: you cannot register, invitations to participants come from the organizers on Whatsapp, they are divided into teams and one always has to run, the others rest in a van. “We risked being arrested by the police”
There is an ultra running race unique in the world in the Atacama Desert, Chile. It’s called “The Speed Project Atacama” and it takes place in a place where the average annual rainfall is less than a millimeter (that’s right), with some regions waiting decades before seeing rain fall from the sky. With a temperature ranging from 30-40 degrees (sometimes more) down to zero at night. An arid region with very little life. So much so that NASA regularly uses it to simulate landings on Mars.
And it is here that a non-stop mega marathon of 310 miles, just under 500 kilometers, is organized. A race that has no rules, no prizes, no website, nor a defined route. It doesn’t even have any permission to take place. The departure takes place in the coastal city of Iquique, in northern Chile, and ends in San Pedro de Atacama, a small municipality located in the Andes mountain range at 2,400 meters above sea level. The effort to accomplish this feat is truly beastly, also because – as mentioned – the Atacama desert is the driest place on the globe after the Poles. The priority is, therefore, to survive.
Registrations on Whatsapp
How do you sign up? There is no official procedure: the 90 runners from all over the world who met at the start in Iquique last November were invited directly via WhatsApp. They were divided into 15 teams of six members each and took turns along the (almost) 500 kilometers to the finish line, without refreshments or assistance of any kind from the organization. One of the few rules of the race is that at least one member of the team must always run, while the others can recover from the effort in a vehicle.
Who attended: Former Olympic athletes
Former Olympic athletes, the American MTV presenter Nvev Schulman, the British “Forrest Gump” William Goodge and the former footballer of the Guatemalan women’s national team, Daniela Andrade, who ran the entire Chile solo, took part. And there was also former Spanish-Guinean Olympic distance runner, Roberto Mendje: «What makes this really challenging is that you run for short intervals and then you get in a van, you get stiff, you get tired and then after an hour you run again. After two days, you start to get tired, especially in those long nights when you’re out there with your thoughts and the fatigue builds up,” he told the BBC. And again: «The most difficult point was when I covered a 30 kilometer stretch in which I struggled a lot. Every time I got out of the vehicle, I had to start each stage as if I were dragging my feet or walking fast. It was also the point in the journey where you’re a long way from the beginning, so you can smell the finish line, but you’re also aware that there’s a long way and a lot of climbing to go.”
Who organized it
A very tough race, born in the mind of Nils Arend, a German who played and organized parties in the Hamburg rave scene, who later became an organizer of races in California. There he founded “The Speed Project”, an ultramarathon that connects the cities of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, later taking the event to the extreme in the Chilean desert. «It’s quite clear that this is something dangerous. This is one of the reasons why we choose the people who will participate and we don’t do a lottery”, he said. Adding: “It is often forgotten that The Speed Project is actually unauthorized. This has consequences and I have done my best to communicate them.” Not being an official race, it is not surprising that the police became suspicious when they saw groups of people running in the middle of the desert along roads that only lead to lithium and copper mines.
Police
At that point the authorities threatened to arrest the runners and some teams decided to abandon the race. So the first edition of «The Speed Project Atacama» will probably also be the last: «I don’t think there will be another one like it because of the situation with the police. They let us get away with it. But I don’t think they will do it again”, concluded the organizer. And how did it end? Mandje’s team finished ninth in 43 hours and 46 minutes, almost nine hours behind the winners, the Belgrade Urban Running Team (34 hours and 55 minutes). Of the 15 teams that started, 12 reached the finish line.
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January 20, 2024 (changed January 20, 2024 | 11:03)
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