---

Feeding the Machine

José Manuel Jiménez / 23.02.2006

Last night team Feed The Machine made it to San Isidro, part of the last trekking section to Pc 7. They came in at midnight, very tired and extremely wet. They had no dry gear, but the marshals were waiting for them by a nice fire in the San Isidro Hostel. There they were able to dry the sleeping bags and were given some food. They gulped down tons of pasta before calling it a day. Have you ever seen someone walk over a pit of fiery embers, that’s what it looked like when Jayson and Bernice would try to walk, their feet were very swollen and blistered.

This morning they got ready for a special treat prepared by the organization, because they had never been able to do any kayaking sections during the race they were offered the possibility to kayak the remaining 10 kms to the pc. At approximately 10.15 they got into their kayaks and took off to Pc7 where the next transition for the 60k bike section was.

Before that they were able to get their final food bag and ultimately FEED themselves with all kinds of carbs and proteins. Christian Burke the night before had said to me that during the trek he could have sworn there were 8 of them on the trail ... Short of food and sleep they were seeing and hearing things.

Christian Burke said they were haunted Forests of Patagonia ... “It was as if it was haunted, you would see light in the middle of the woods and walk towards it, you’d then think you were going downhill but in reality it was uphill and then the light was further away. It would happen every time, I would often think we wouldn’t make it out.�

See All Stories On This Race