Sharing Dreams of Patagonia; NIGSA Announces a New

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 09.10.2014

There was a persistent rumor in the press group covering the Patagonian International Marathon and the Ultra Trail Torres del Paine: NIGSA was planning a new ultra trail run for April, 2015. Given how quickly the Ultra Trail Torres del Paine came together this year and was filled with international entries, it was a plausible rumor. We’d started to call it the “Mystery Race.”

SleepMonsters dropped by the NIGSA offices in Punta Arenas after both races to meet with the director of NIGSA, Stjepan Pavicic to get the low-down on the rumor that had created an underlying buzz throughout our time in Torres del Paine National Park.

We started the interview with a quick de-brief as to how all races had come off, from our different points of view. The sheer logistics from the organizers point of view were mind boggling; details that would never cross the mind of the majority of racers but have a ripple like impact on any event and the common thread throughout was the human factor.

One example, hiring semi trucks to transport and then remove the portable toilets to all of the different distances starting points. A journey of over 800km round trip. We had a good laugh when I suggested that the distance of the 10km on the Patagonian International Marathon might perhaps have been a bit longer ...

With a mischievous twinkle in his eye, Stjepan said, “Let me tell you about that, it was all about the toilets! You see, we arranged for them to arrive the day before the race and during our reconnoiters we had picked the most logical, perfect spot for the 10km, using the best GPS on the market. My people waited one hour, then two, then three, for the trucks to arrive and when they didn’t show up, they went to another part of the park to continue working. The next morning when my people arrived at 6am, the toilets were 2 km away from the location we had designated. What could I do, tell runners the toilets were 2km away or move the race start?!”

Once we’d wrapped up the de-brief, we moved on to Stjepan’s plans for his future races. Next year the Patagonian International Marathon will take place on the last Saturday of September and the Ultra Trail Torres del Paine will be on the first weekend in October. He plans to devote the week between the two events to ultra running, with running clinics, a symposium and a vertical event.

The conversation logically flowed to the “Mystery Race” as Stjepan read me a message he’d just received from a racer who’d finished Patagonian International Marathon: a message that gave us both goosebumps!

"Dreams keep us alive - I want to thank the Patagonian International Marathon for the immense happiness they have given me through the opportunity of being there. All beautiful. The landscape is a gift from God… The weather, everything. 5 months ago, I dreamed of being there. After the Santiago Marathon, I discovered through preventive check-ups that I had pancreatic tumor, which is fatal in 90% of its cases. I am 66 years old. I had my surgery in May and was able to fulfill my dream.

"Thank you. Thank you very much. Dreams do come true. Ever since we were young, we are full of dreams. Magic swords to vanquish evil…. When a person or a company runs out of tales, it runs out of dreams and perspective, and things are grey and dull. But when we believe in fairy tales and dreams, life has meaning and happiness. Is there someone who believes that the story of Princes, Princesses and fairies are not true?”  - Jaime Calderon Riveros, 3rd of October 2014  (After Patagonian International Marathon, translation from Spanish to English by Rose Smith.)

After a long silence as we digested the strong emotions Jaime Calderon Riveros’s words had evoked, Stjepan’s face became animated as he described his vision for the April “Mystery Race.”

“I think that April is the best month down here; It’s Autumn, there’s little wind and the colors of the forest are magical; yellow, red, orange and green. I want the race to be completely different from the Ultra Trail Torres del Paine and so with my team we are exploring a new race route. I have an idea in mind, part of the location is like a fortress, I mean really like a fortress. We are looking for a crack to penetrate through this area, in fact we will be going out searching with heavy packs and all of our equipment this weekend. It is an area where glaciers were in the past so there are a lot of verticals”

He went on to say that the race, contrary to rumor, would actually be longer then a 100 miler, closer to 125 miles or 200km, non-stop. Plans are for the race start to take place in a small settlement on the road to Puerto Natales and to end in the town of Puerto Natales, after having penetrated the natural fortress on the route that he sees in his minds eye. It will be 75% single track with about a 5,000m positive elevation gain. If Stjepan and his team are successful in finding the route through the unforgiving territory, they will need to clear about forty kilometers of trail for it to be a viable race route. (A Prince unsheathing his sword?)

It is a unique and thrilling sensation to be part of the genesis of a new ultra running project and SleepMonsters will be carrying updates. It is abundantly clear that Patagonia is a magical place.

If it is true that, "In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: "When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?" (Gabrielle Roth) then NIGSA’s  April “Mystery Race” is an enchanting call to ultra runners world wide to write their own stories, dancing at their own rhyme and singing past the pain that only an ultra runner knows. The future race entry list will tell us who has answered that call. The dreams begin.

Thank you for your time Stjepan Pavicic, and for sharing your dream.

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