Ultra Trail Torres del Paine
109km of Windblown Bliss
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 26.09.2014
The inaugural edition of the Ultra Trail Torres del Paine was a windy one. The thirteen invited racers for the 109km took off from the Hotel Rio Serrano as planned at 23:00. A van transported them out to the start line and they waited for forty-five minutes inside the van until the race director gave the race start at 02:00. It was an incredibly clear night and the stars were so close that it looked like a canopy of diamonds. The high winds from earlier in the day carried on into the night and racers ran face first into the fierce winds. The race route for the first 30km was on the gravel track that winds its way throughout the park and then racers headed onto the trails, doing a modified version of the famous W trail with additional mileage. Feed stations were in the refuges which allowed runners to get out of the elements and eat warm soup next to blazing fires.
Willie McBride from the United States pulled out after about 34km. He said that racing in to the winds had sapped his strength and he felt the remnants of his 200 mile run in Lake Tahoe a fews weeks ago. The winds also got the best of the Chilean runner, Veronica Bravo. She was forced to pull out of the race after the winds blew debris into her right eye, causing temporary loss of vision. She then took a tumble since she couldn’t see her footing.
The remaining runners on the 109km continued to battle throughout the night but sunrise revealed sumptuous scenery that lessoned the agony of running alone in the wilds but also brought the relenting glare of the sun. Third place winner of last years 63km on the Patagonian International Marathon, Yassine Deboun, took an early lead which he maintained throughout the race. At one point he was so far ahead of the racer in second place that it was a twenty minute drive by car to get back to his closest competition.
The 67km took off from the courtyard of the hotel Rio Serrano at 07:30. Three gentlemen from Australia had made the journey just for the race. Before the start of the 67km, Roger Box and Tom Cripps nervously chatted about what had brought them to race at the end of the world. Roger Box had flown in from Melbourne a few days ago and he said that his project is to run an ultra on each continent. When asked what had given him this idea he said that he had been inspired by the book “Born to Run”. After reading the book which is well-known in ultra running circles he wondered if he was “capable or worthy of running those distances”. His current quest is answering those questions in a unique way.
The press van then drove to the start of the 42km. Veteran SleepMonsters journalist, Jacqueline Windh from Canada raced this distance and before the race she said that she had not felt this prepared for a race in a long time; she has recently changed her diet to a low-carb one and addressed her dairy allergies so felt on fine form. Fine form turned out to be an understatement as she was on the podium as the fourth woman on her distance.
Andrew Brett had travelled from San Francisco to race the 42km and before the race start he said that his goal was to race a marathon distance on each continent. Andrew came in fifth on the 42km and when asked about his race he said that he just kept looking up and saying “Wow”! At several points he actually stopped to take pictures along the trail and still managed to finish in the top ten. Luis Caceres came in first.
The finish line for all three distances was set up on the lawns of the hotel Las Torres. By mid-afternoon the winds had died down and a large BBQ of lamb over an open fire (an “asado”) had been set up on the lawns as well. Several of the front runners on the 42km and the 67km had crossed the finish line and journalists were anxiously waiting for Yassine to make his appearance. He finally did in late afternoon, securing his place in history as the winner of the first Ultra Trail Torres del Paine.
A sinewy vegetarian with not an ounce of fat on him, all of the press was wondering out loud how he had managed to deal with the cold windy conditions. He arrived later then he had estimated before the race start and the relief was palpable. In his post race interview he explained that he had gotten lost at one point on the trail. Yassine also suffered from eye problems that caused extremely blurry vision. He said that he now knew what it felt like to be visually impaired as when he tried to read his map, he simply couldn’t. At one point he was down on all fours, peering at the map, trying to get his bearings. His blood shot orbits told their own story. He then spoke of the beauty of the trail itself and of how pleased he was that the race organizers had put on a trail race in such a pristine place.
Ultra runners continue to cross the finish line, greeted by loud cheers but for Augustina Pan who is still nursing her little boy, the finish line meant that she was reunited with her little one and he wasted no time in making his needs known. The sight of a breast feeding woman sitting on the lawns with the snow capped peaks in the background was a stunning reminder of what life and nature are all about.
Full results will be available shortly on the race website.
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