Ultra Fiord
A Last Minute Route Change On The 100 Mile Race
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 12.04.2017
The mandatory race briefing for the longest distances on the 2017 edition of Ultra Fiord was held on April 6. With 47 runners on the 100 km and 50 on the 100miles, the briefing rooms were packed. The briefing was presented in Portuguese, Spanish and English by runners who’d participated in previous editions.
South African runner Armand Du Plessis presented in English with a map of the race route projected behind him. His presentation was succinct as he explained to runners that the route was well marked but if they had a doubt, they should follow their intuition. Reiterating what Tito Nazar had said in the 70km briefing, he also emphasized that the weather changes quickly here and that the runners first reflex should be to put on their gloves. (There is a saying here that the only thing you can be sure of in Patagonia is that the weather will change.)
The runners asked several questions such as how deep the water would be on the river crossings. Swiss runner Thomas Ernst, the winner of the 100miles in 2016, asked bluntly if there would be more food this year. When another runner sitting in front of him joked that he’d arrived too fast to the checkpoints and the organization hadn’t had time to set them up, Thomas looked him coldly in the eye and said, “That’s exactly what happened.” (He’d arrived at Perales before the food had been delivered and he’d had no food after that point.)
During the English briefing, Tito bopped into the room with some news that would later start the chain events that sparked what would become the defining story of the 100 mile race, but at that moment it was merely the simple information that there was a last minute course change.
The race director, listening to comments from previous editions, had changed the last section from Estancia Perales to the finish line in Puerto Natales. Instead of what runners had dubbed the “soul destroying slog” on a dirt track, this year the course went back into the wild after Estancia Perales; traversing private lands going through Ruta Milodon, Laguna Sofia and Sierra Dorotea and rejoining the main road in to Puerto Natales at the airport for a final 7 km on paved road.
We learned at the briefing that one of the land owners on this section had withdrawn his permission for the race to cross his land. The reason that Tito gave at the briefing was that there would be a migration of the land owners’ cattle and he didn’t want runners there at the same time. Because of this change the race start was moved forward from the original location in La Peninsula to what would have been the first check point near Patagonia EcoCamp at Lago Torro.
The Spanish and Portuguese briefings lasted considerably longer. Fernando Nazario spoke in Portuguese to the large contingent of Brazilian runners for one hour, and insisted on the cold conditions the runners would have to endure; a sensible choice in view of the Brazilian climate they were coming from.
I spoke to Brazilian based adventure racer Tessa Roorda who had competed in Expedition Alaska on team Columbia, and who would be running the 100 miles after the briefing. Tessa explained that she had had some health problems and had been absent from competition for the last year as she tried to sort the problem out. She added that, “This is a mountain race so you’re never really ready for that, you can only hope that you’re ready enough.”
After the briefing runners dispersed to their various lodgings to eat and catch a few last elusive hours of sleep before the race start. SleepMonsters is here primarily to cover the 100miles race and that story would begin to unfold at 00:00 start.
With the notable changes detailed in the first report such as mandatory gear checks, briefing, runners passports, a private helicopter on standby, unusually clement weather, and the majority of race resources with professional mountain guides and a world class technical director concentrated on the Fortress, it appeared that the race was ready “enough”. What could possibly go wrong...
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