December 01

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MARATHON DES SABLES PERU, STAGE 3-30k: “SURVIVAL CREATIVITY” BY GEDIMINAS GRINIUS

Posted by on December 1, 2017 in altra running, marathon des sables 2017, marathon des sables peru, marathon des sables peru 2017, trail running, trail running peru, trail running spain, Ultra Trail, ultra trail 2017, waa ultra | 5 Comments

 

Marathon des Sables Peru saw its third stage yesterday, with Rachid el Morabity and Nathalie Mauclair as stage winners for third time in a row. Our live coverage moves on with the runers as well. After previous notes on  prerace report with favorites and race data, the bivouac zero experience, and thoughts on the simple life, today our special correspondent Gediminas Grinius shares into the survival creativity that tough outdoors bring out in all of us. Such as, teaming up to set each individual tent agains overpowering winds… 🙂

 

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“Survival Creativity” by Gediminas Grinius. 

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You can be surprised how creative one must to become to manage all the challenges during #MDS to have live a bit more comfortable. Let’s take the simple plastic water bottle, which is the only thing organizers are providing to us. It can serve as a bowl to do hot meal, as a mixer to prepare electrolyte drinks or as dust bin to store all the garbage, because penalties for flying trash in the strong desert wind is high. More creative runners even managed to use it as toilet substitution as well, since nights in the desert are cold and dark, so navigate back to own tent could be yet another challenge.

#MDS brings a lot of unknowns each day and knowing how to cope with it could be crucial. It is kind of art, how to find solutions for camp daily life problems or get used to them simply by ignoring. However, do we really know what is waiting for us next day or next hour? Not really and it is the beauty of the race, as experience how to survive in the nature matters at #MDS. Let’s take the simple tent example. That’s right,

Each runner has a tent, which must be set up in the evening and put back in the bag early next morning. Sure, it is not the rocket science, but anyway it is yet a skill which must be developed in advance, as it definitely makes your life easier and preserves energy needed for running.

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So, after one stage, I have run to the finish line first from my cell (about which I blogged yesterday) and thought that would be nice to build all the tents and surprise the pals, with positive vibes after their hard day on the sand, but suddenly our campsite was ambushed by such a strong desert wind, that it was impossible even to set my own. On their arrival I still was standing with “parachute” in my hands, not being able to move, as needed to secure flying house from disappearance. It was only once we were all together, after hard CrossFit workout with the stones, we managed to set all the cell tents and conquer unpredictable.

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Is it easy to have life like that? Not at all, but adventure and creativity is always here, so every wasted minute in the desert is worth that!

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MDS PERU PROGRAMME – 26 NOVEMBER TO 06 DECEMBER 2017

  • 26 NOVEMBER: 10.00 Meeting point at Lima airport. Airport reception from 24 to 26 November: MDS PERU Team – spoken languages: French, English, Spanish, Italian and Chinese. Bus transfer to the 1st bivouac on the legendary Pan-American Highway.
  • 27 NOVEMBER: Technical and medical checks.
  • 28 NOVEMBER to 03 DECEMBER: The race – food self-sufficiency
  • 04 DECEMBER: “Solidarity” stage, timed and qualifying with food self-sufficiency
  • 05 DECEMBER: Free day
  • 06 DECEMBER: Bus transfer to Lima

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Info by Mayayo Oxígeno for Trailrunningspain