Nice 4-hour jog this morning around the Nahuel Huapi National Park.

Magnificent panorama despite the weather being a bit dull. When I arrived on the summit I could not see the lake Nahuel Huapi – hard luck. Still worth it to carry the iPhone and take some pictures.

It is kind of suitable to be in this popular part of Argentina during the touristic off-season. I had the trails for myself and did not see a single soul in the mounts all day.

Tune of the day: Marsimoto – Angst (just one part of a very good album “Grüner Samt“)

The Good, the Bad and the Ultra

Tuco Ramírez

The Good

Wow. What a day. This race had it all. And it might had a bit too much, at least for me. As I’m pretty much new to this thing titled “Ultra Running” I was stoked, exited, charmed and now I am humble.

The Patagonia Run around San Martin de los Andes is a brute, a stunning brute.

This whole days holds so much stories that it would probably puts everyone to sleep reading it. I try to cut that huge chunk of deep feelings and impressions in a small one.

A 4am start means a timely wake up. I didn’t really have to wake up as I didn’t really sleep. So I got out the bed at 1.30am had food, listened to some music and prepared the rest of my stuff.

Then it went fast and we set off, out in the dark night. And nights in the middle of the Andes are dark. The pure wilderness is pure black. So I tried to stay with some runners. As I knew that Nelson would be starting defensively I stayed with him for a little bit. The pace then felt not right to me and I let him go. His head torch was noticeable for a few minutes and then disappeared in the pitch black forest. I was on my own. No one behind me, no one in the front. Only the huge quantity of helpers was the only species of life I confronted in the forest. The trails were great not to say amazing. Paired with the dark and the quietness it was even more amazing. Very good marked and prepared so it wasn’t a problem to run alone. The time flew by and I passed some aid stations. I ate well, took all my gels and tried to get moving.

The first severe climbing came at the 28k mark. It continued to be the major uphill portion of the course – the way to the Mount Quilanlahue (1673 m). This baby was very technical and impossible to run. Looking back this part took a good volume of energy out of my frame. The climb was long, steep and tired me immensely. At this phase the sun was rising and the sights while ascending the fell was just mind-blowing. What a sunrise, what a striking part of the world. I passed the checkpoint on the top of the mountain and faced the downhill, which had the same feature. An aid station was set up just after the decent and I could empty the shoes, eat, drink and went on.

I could rave for hundreds or thousand blog posts about the trails, lakes, woodlands, foothills, trees, plants, light… It is sheer incredible and far amongst the imagination if you haven’t witnessed it yourself. When you run past a group of wild horses through the snow-covered grassland while the sun is about to set, you surely recognize why you love this sport.

The Bad

And then it went downwards for me.

Despite being systematically with the nutrition I bonked. And I bonked like I have never bonked before. I walked parts and tried to come back. Ran through pain and tiredness but it did not work. I filled up at an aid station in the hope I wake up again but I didn’t. The inner tiredness was unreal and something I never faced before. I kept going and tried to fight the fatigue and sleepiness. I passed a group of volunteers and decided to take a lift back to San Martin.

DNF – Race over somewhere after the 60k checkpoint.

Still I don’t know what happened. I went back to the apartment, showered and went straight to bed where I remained for the rest of the day!

The Ultra

As this was only my third run past the 42,195 kilometer mark I still have a lot to learn. Despite not finishing the race the impressions running long and running trails are amazing.

The best pill against a post-DNF Trauma is just on the table – the 9th edición Yerba Buena a Tafí del Valle in Tucuman in two weeks.

Despite Mauris (He was in the 100k) and my DNF the gang had a good outing as Laura and Gustavo won the 100k and Gusti came 6th.

I have to catch up on pictures.

A selection of my Valparaíso shots can be found on my tumblr page.

About four days ’til the Patagonia Run in San Martin de los Andes.

At the moment I’m fortunate to spend a bit of time with fellow racers Gustavo Reyes, Mauri Pagliacci and his cool and openhearted family in the city of Neuquén.

After a rough 15 hour bus ride from Mendoza I got the first smack of the fabulous and challenging local trails yesterday evening.

Runners here are so blessed with a extensive trail setup that is so close to the city.

Also make sure to check the boy’s webpages!

Gustavo Reyes

Trail Running Argentina

GR Team

Record of the week (…so far): Mr Brady and Elaquent – Sayin Somethin

Got the good auld Panasonic DMC-FT1 out the bag for a little walk around the picturesque town of Valparaíso on the chilean pacific coastline.

I love the german name: Paradiestal. So true!

If you life in Germany, Austria or Switzerland you will find the all-new RUNNING Magazine at your local newsstand from today.

My portion can be located on page 32 and is about the unpleasant doping case of Martin Fagan.

Nice location for the advert, though…

I had four main objectives going into this lengthy sunday long run in Santiago de Chile:

1. Start
2. Finish
3. Negative splitting
4. Test Nutrition

When I crossed the noisy finish line at the Bernardo O’Higgins Avenue I could gladly tick off all open points – mission accomplished. Better than I anticipated!

A couple of thoughts went through my head when I got out for the 20-minute wake-up trot around the city at 5:30am. While jogging through the blank, misty and unkind roads of Rotterdam, Berlin or Florence the previous years at this time of the day, streets in South America are still busy with people lashing home or heading for another beer.

I never cared about a marathon less than I did about this one. The weeks flew by and I did not taper or did whatsoever special for this race. When I checked the course shape I was kind of stunned but still did not really care. Without the burden of running a PB I lined up in the middle of the pack and got mayor pleasure out of this race around the Chilean capital. I’m not good in warm climate and hills during a road race do not certainly suit me. On this day I couldn’t care less about those facts.

30 kilometer uphill, and the icing on the cake – a crispy 12 k downhill back to Bernardo O’Higgins Avenue. This is the course rundown in a nutshell (See Marcelo’s Garmin Recording for more info). My head divided the race up in twos and I told myself that this marathon is finished at 30k. I trusted myself and when I passed the 30k mark my head reset the system and I was hovering back down to the finish in the city. The finishing 4k hurt a lot and I was suffering.

As my watch died early on during the race I never realized what I was doing. I got the impression that I’m in nowhere´s land as the streets got less packed with runners the further I got. I passed people and the onlookers alongside the street threw “vamos flaco” and “dalle flaqito” corals at me. Pretty amusing and uplifting, I certainly had the beat.

When I saw the watch over the finish line I was surprised. Surprised in a positive way. 03:07:54 was not the time I estimated out of a intentional sunday training long run that should lead me to the Patagonia 84k in two weeks. I scheduled to walk the aid stations at the 10, 20 and 30 kilometer points to drink appropriately and take my gels. Combined with my tiny “pit-stop” just after 36k the outcome is spotless.

I walked of to get drinks and luckily bounced into Patrick who also looked to be delighted with a 03:11:34. Together with Marcelo Spinelli and my other mates from Buenos Aires we sat down in the finish area and enjoyed the break.

This day thought me a lot. More than I expected.

“It’s getting faster, moving faster now, it’s getting out of hand,
On the tenth floor, down the back stairs, it’s a no man’s land,
Lights are flashing, cars are crashing, getting frequent now,
I’ve got the spirit, lose the feeling, let it out somehow.”

 Joy Divison – Disorder

SPANISH VERSION

The past days involved a decent bit of travelling through the northwest of Argentina as I made my way down across the Salta, Catamarca, La Rioja and San Juan Provinces.

My final stopover before I head over to Santiago de Chile to run the marathon is the tiny oasis town called Barreal. Here I will pause a couple of days and rest up in the extremely picturesque middle of nowhere in the heights of the Mendoza Province just beside the “Parque Nacional El Leoncito”.

As the bus trips take a good bit of time I took lots of photographs with the „that vicious device that’s constantly stuck in my hands“ as my mate Flo’s Email signature worriedly states.

Until later.

I have to admit. I confess I totally forgot to script this test report way earlier.

It was half a year ago when I received a phone call from my local customs bureau requiring about a mysterious package waiting to get picked up. So I did pick up a box with the name “Altra” written all over the mysterious piece that flew in from the USA.

Edgy as a little kid on Christmas I opened the neat shoebox. What I was holding in my hands a couple of seconds later was a slice of nothing who looked like a shoe. I checked the box again an the name of this piece was “Adam”.

My barefoot running experience is not as sketched out as the one “Born To Run” offers. I do wear light shoes all the time and I do trust in a simple approach when it comes to footwear. When I used to play football we had to do the cool down barefoot. Nobody wrote a book or a thesis about some kids in Germany jogging without shoes over a football pitch. So for me it is nothing new.

Occasionally I run barefoot to warm up before a session or to cool down. I followed the barefoot running boom more less as an spectator but not really as an consumer. With the landing of Adam this had an end.

The instant feeling was great. Remarkably or maybe not surprisingly it felt “natural”. A well-worked piece that fitted perfectly to my big foot. I began to use the shoe for normal doings in and outdoors to get used to it. And then it happened that I overlooked “Adam”… I forgot I was wearing and using him.

At this stage I’m up to 30 minutes on all sorts of surfaces for up to 3 times a week and I enjoy the simple and trustworthy function he has to offer. Without recognizing it, and that is a good sign!

Adam certainly does the job. Once you are used to him he will help you a lot. He is there for all sorts of occasions as well. Just be cautious. It is a relationship that needs time. Get used to each other…