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Halfway And Still Strong

Fredrik Olmqvist / 22.09.2004

It was the first hot night, so far it’s been quite chilly during the small hours. Then at 4 o'clock in the morning the howler monkeys start to make an incredible noise, so loud it’s frightening. It's dark when I crawl out of my hammock and start preparing my feet with tape. The blisters, bad ones and soon to become bad ones, must be covered.

My favourite breakfast - hot rosebud soup and an energy bar. The question this morning is whether to wear long pants and a shirt with long sleeves since Race Director Robert Pollhammer's warning bout "capoeira". It’s a dry dense jungle vegetation with lots of thorns and bushes that tears, cuts and burns your skin at every contact. Nevertheless, I choose shorts and a sleeveless shirt since anything more than that is too warm and heavy. You get completely soaked after just 5 minutes of running in the jungle.

Talking about wet - the start of the 4th stage (21.6kms) began with a 200 meter swim across the small river Tauari. Packs that weren't completely waterproof became heavy with wet clothes etc. I relied –unfortunately - on plastic bags inside my pack. However I was the first to start running on the other side and had the dubious pleasure to be the first on the trail having to watch out for snakes and getting spider webs in my face.

At CP1 I got company with Brazilian military competitor Carloso and we ran together for the rest of the fairly flat course. Nobody caught up with us and I happened to cross the finish line first. Actually I didn't race very hard and probably I won because most runners were "resting� for stage 5 tomorrow - a gruelling 86.5km with 45 km of recently cut jungle trails and 42 km of dirt roads/trails through various communities.

This stage has rating of 5 - the most difficult and there is a dark zone enforced at 34.1 km between 16.00 - 05.00. (Runners that haven't emerged from the jungle by then have to camp at a temporary campsite.)

This run will naturally be decisive for the outcome of the rankings. Who is the strongest? Who has the best feet? Who will be able to pace him/herself? We shall see.

Rankings After Stage 4

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