Atacama Extreme: Still Running In The Desert

One of the big adventures that had just gotten underway before I zipped off to Africa was the Atacama Extreme. For those who may have lost track of that adventure while I was away, this is the expedition during which endurance athlete Ray Zahab is running the length of Chile's Atacama Desert, a place that is considered the driest place on Earth. The initial plan was to cover 70km per day but conditions have not made that easy to achieve, and the journey is now taking longer than expected.

When we last checked in with Ray, he was suffering with some nasty blisters on his feet and was forced to not only take a day off, but go slow on his return to the trail. The harsh desert hasn't helped to ease the suffering either, as 50ºC (122º F) temps have been the norm and high winds have challenged Ray's progress in the past few days.

The Atacama Extreme is just the most recent expedition to fall under the impossible2Possible umbrella. The organization reaches out to thousands of students, in hundreds of classrooms, around the world. Their aim is to educate and inspire those students through adventure, while showing them some of the most amazing places on the planet. Previous i2P projects have taken those students to the Amazon, Tunisia, the South Pole and beyond. It is a great organization that really does a fantastic job of reaching out to schools.

Ray still has a ways to go before he is done, although he is indeed closing in on the southern point of the Atacama. Check out the video below, which is actually from a few days back, to get a sense of what he has been dealing with while he has been running.



Day 14-15 Atacama Extreme from GOi2P on Vimeo.