Life begins at 40 for adventure racing star
News release / 22.09.2007
After conquering the Atacama Desert in Chile, endurance sportsman Robert Jarvis is a firm believer of the adage that life begins at 40.The Christchurch process control systems programmer has returned home after winning the mentally and physically grueling seven-day 250km Atacama Crossing foot race last month.
"Well I don't have to do another race ever," Jarvis said yesterday. "I just turned 40 last year and I've finally started to get somewhere."
The event was part of the 4Deserts global race series which takes in the driest, hottest, coldest and windiest places on earth, the Atacama qualifying as the driest.
He had been aiming for a top-10 finish and said that actually winning was "huge".
"I'd only won one race ever before in my life."
Jarvis's sole previous competitive success had come in the 26km Croesus Crossing trailrun on the West Coast – in January.
He did the Coast to Coast Longest Day multi-sports event in 2001, finishing in the top-third of the field, and had done a lot of endurance sport since then with emphasis on mountain running.
At the end of 2005, he placed 12th in the Everest Marathon over 42km.
In the Atacama Crossing, Jarvis said that he was "obviously utterly drained" after the penultimate race-deciding 73km stage.
"And the next morning I was a bit of an emotional wreck, really.
"When you get totally exhausted your emotions are very close to the surface."
Unlike others in the field of the 66, though, he did not lose any toenails on the journey, though carrying a 14kg pack including all his food.
"I really only had two blisters of any note, one under each big toe, really on the pivot point of the foot. They were hurting like hell by the last day because I let them get infected, but in comparison to most others I got off lightly."
Jarvis said many others had badly blistered and infected feet with one woman needing to be carried on the last day and a man finishing with a lower leg stress fracture.
Appointments had to be made for the medical tent on the rest day despite the five doctors and they were "flat out all day" from 11.30am.
Jarvis said he never went to the medical staff, being able to manage his few blisters.
"But, yeah, a lot of other people had it a lot tougher.
Some just took twice as long which means suffering for twice as long ..."
Jarvis said he put so much time into preparation for the Atacama Crossing, that he had "no plans at the moment to hook into another 4Desert".
