Day 6: Back on track

Ray was feeling much better this morning and, after a day's rest, I was game to give my injured foot a chance as well. The day today is very different from what we've experienced so far with cloudy skies and more manageable temperatures.

Ray and I get into an effective ryhthm early and navigate our way down the two lane highway that winds its way out of the Andes. This is an impressive road that sweeps wildly down a vast river valley with mountains soaring thousands of feet above us on both sides. Like it's Chilean counterpart, the road has little for a shoulder and is choked with drivers - unfortunately mostly truckers - hell bent on getting somewhere fast.

It's a frustrating visual dance between spectacular scenery and kamikaze traffic. The drivers respect us for the most part giving us space whenever possible and even saluting us with a wave or a honk on occasion. But among the good there's always the bad and at kilometer 25 while traversing a particularly tight section up against a metal guard rail, a large truck swerves at us without warning. The drivers action is clearly deliberate and he misses us by mere inches. We both leap against the metal rail, me twisting my left ankle in the process. With an injured right foot and now left foot I find myself wobbling down the road like some ultra-running caricature of John Wayne.

This close call sets us on edge for the rest of the day and the anxiety wears on us. The road is incredible though, tunneling through mountains at some points while skirting precipices at others. We routinely see the twisted remains of guardrails scattered among the boulders and slabs of rock, hundreds of feet below us, testament to the dangers of this road.

At kilometer 40 I bow out for the day, handing the 'baton' to Bob who will join Ray for the remaining section. Since hurting myself on the first day of the expedition I have reduced my mileage in an attempt at getting better. I suspect trying to run nearly a marathon per day is taking the concept of active rest to an unreasonable limit but relative to what Ray is accomplishing this expedition the distance seems about right.

Our day ends in the small community of Uspallata, 70 kilometers closer to the Atlantic and our goal.    

Day 5: Unexpected rest day

A major ingredient of any adventure is the unexpected and there's no question the i2P Expreso De Los Andes expedition is peppered with it. Ray and I have been fortunate enough that during previous expeditions together - on the surface anyhow - no serious issues have arisen. In expeditioning this is typically more the exception than a rule and it seems, in some grand balancing act, our current adventure is making up for this irregularity by dishing out more than a fair share of problems. From Bob's chest infection to my foot and now Ray's sickness, the last few days have proved very challenging indeed.

Ray woke up this morning completely exhausted with his head spinning, his resting heart rate racing and his blood pressure high. Something was clearly up and the prospect of running 70km was not a reasonable option.

"The challenge Ray is facing", states Dr Wells, "is that a moderate amount of exercise - i.e. 6 hours per week - strengthens the immune system but extreme amounts of exercise - i.e. 6 hours per day - weakens it".

There's no question Ray's a different person from the day before and the decision to halt for the day is an easy one. We're here to encourage youth to take on their own running challenges as a means to a healthier way of life so risking our own health to get the point across seems counter intuitive.

Day 4: Tunneling through the mountains

Today's effort started on the lower slopes of the Andes and ascended a tortuously twisted road for some 50 kiolemtres to the Chile/Argentinian border. As the weeks unfold my hope is to transition into daily running efforts as my injury allows and today I join Ray and Bob on the ascent to the border. This border - where we cross it - is subterranean, lying miles beneath the Andes mountains.

Because of the precipitous slopes of the Andes, the only way to travel between Chile and Argentina in this locale is to tunnel through. This is the crux of the route since Chilean and Argentinian officials have been non-commital on our request to run through it. The regular highway tunnel is narrow and without shoulder and sees a non-stop stream of semi's and cars passing through it day and night. It's poorly ventilated, dark and dangerous and no place for a group of runners. Lying adjacent to this highway tunnel however is an abandoned train tunnel that parallels its vehicular counterpart, burrowing some four kilometres through the mountains.

Thanks to very supportive border officials on both sides of the line, the abandoned tunnel is un-gated and we are given an official escort through. It's hard to describe the sensation of running between two nations, miles under ground with the towering peaks of a mountain range literally above our heads but it's a feeling we'll likely never experience again.

We pop out the other side, in a new country and the road to Buenos Aires stretching out before us.

Day 3: Heading into the mountains

Ray and Cristian start out with a flat 20 kilometre highway section before they head into the mountains. I join the team once the road steepens in hopes that the steeper road and slower pace won't exasperate my injury.

The four-lane expressway we've experienced to this point is replaced by a steep, narrow, mountain road with little shoulder but equivalent traffic. It's a terrifying dance as we negotiate blind corners with convoys of over loaded trucks and buses racing headlong downhill.

The temperatures have eased somewhat but the supreme effort continues to take its toll. Cristian needs to stop. The combination of the unrelenting heat and the continuous road pounding under foot has taken its toll on this Chilean veteran but in his unruffled manner he simply shrugs and says, "I will take a rest, I'll be OK soon"

It's all uphill now and the next 20 kilometres wind their way higher and higher into the mountains. The scenery is stunning with jagged peaks marching endlessly in front of us and a raging river rumbling below.

At the end of the day we're joined by two incredible young Chilean athletes that accompany us for our final push to camp. We follow the unused old highway for this section as the young woman is blind and the young man has only one leg. It's amazing how quickly one's own discomforts and complaints dissolve in the face of such inspiring young people.

Day 2: Writing on the wall

The heat is a challenge in this part of the world and getting an early start is paramount for a successful day. We're up by 6am and on the road by 7. This is a critical test day for me and my foot. Having the physiological expertise of a Dr. Greg Wells on board as well as the running knowledge of Ray makes my chances as good as they can be.

The foot this morning is not swollen or bruised - a very good thing according to Doc Wells - but the pain is sharp and distinct.

We're being joined for the first week of the run by the master of Chilean ultra-running, Cristian Sievking and he will accompany Ray this morning, their speed surely to be better than mine, while i2P executive director Bob Cox will join me. Bob, who abandoned his hope of a continuous coast to coast run yesterday, feels well enough to pace me along and keep an eye on my injury.

We start day two at a gentle pace with Ray and Cristian slowly pulling away from Bob and I. We march along the side of 4-lane expressway with me plugged into an iPod in hopes of loosing myself from the pain and Bob focusing on his own discomforts. The ache in my foot proves to be a manageable enough by altering my gait, so not to aggravate the injury and by maintaining a slow and steady shuffle but for Bob things are worse. He begins to dry-heave shortly after the start and is forced to abandon.

As opposed to many expeditions Ray and I have undertaken in the past, the Expreso De Los Andes expedition is a completely supported effort with an assistance vehicle always close at hand. It's not long before they arrive and Bob can get off his feet.

The heat of the day begins to build. It's hard to believe the intensity of it, certainly for this Vancouver boy who just a few days earlier was running in 5C and rain, but the 30C temperatures, magnified by 10-15 degrees by the pavement, is overwhelming. The sun is unrelenting - searing and baking - forcing itself on me through every pore in my body and through every super-heated breath I take.

Ray would tell me that in his Sahran run in 2006/2007 the heat would reach such blistering levels that he and his two teammates would truly begin to panic. They would manage, he would tell me, by practicing an almost zen-like perseverance, by taking deep breathes and becoming one with the heat, by relaxing and accepting it rather than wasting energy fighting it.

His prescription for heat seems to be working for me today as I pass the 21-kilomentre mark about 30 minutes behind Ray and Cristian and my foot maintaining a steady ache. It's not long before another pain begins to make its presence. I was worried about this as altered gait can lead to problems and for me now it's my Achilles tendon. By the 30-kolometre mark I'm forced to a walk and am confronted with the reality that I can't keep this up.

After 15 years of adventuring I've never been forced to quit because of injury but here it is. Ray and my running efforts through Expreso De Los Andes are their to encourage youth to take on their own running challenges as a means to a healthier way of life. The idea of pounding ahead risking long-term or permanent injury flies in the face of this. The decision to step out is an easy one.

Ray manages a great day clocking in an impressive 65km with Cristian accompanying him almost all of it. The expedition is over for me but it is far from over!!

Day 1: Discouraging first day.

We made the two hour drive from Santiago to the town of Concon and the start of our running journey this morning Ray and I were joined by i2P's executive director Bob Cox who has quietly hoped to join us for the entire expedition.

Because of our journey to the start we didn't begin our run until 10:30am. The temperature was already climbing into high 20s and because this section of route was all on pavement, it felt much warmer.

Training preparation in Canada for hot weather expedition was not ideal but unavoidable. The heat started to take its toll from the get-go and by kilometre 20 I was already fighting the onset of sunstroke. Bob was feeling worse, struggling with a chest infection as well as the heat and would abandon a few kilometers later.Ray, a veteran of some of the most challenging desert running races in the world, was , amazingly, unfazed by the temperatures.

At kilometre 41 Ray and I stopped for lunch and a cool down. My symptoms of heat exhaustion hadn't got any better but fortunately hadn't got any worse.

When we returned to the road for our final 29-km effort to round out our 70-km day things started to feel better. The wind had picked up and the temperature was starting to drop. Our pace was good. The day held promise after a tough start and my spirits were building but it wasn't long until they were dashed again.

At kilometer 45 I experienced a sharp stabbing pain and popping sensation in the arch of my right foot and dropped to the pavement. This was the end of the day for me, for us.

Both Ray and Dr Greg Wells were quick to diagnose the injury as a Plantar Fascia problem. The only question now is the severity of the injury.

At the moment of this writing, the foot is very painful to walk on. We wait until morning to make a final decision. If it's blue and swollen I will have torn the tendon and/or pulled a a piece of bone off the heal at the insertion point. If so, this will require a trip to the hospital for further examination.

If there is only pain and little or no swelling there may be a chance to continue if I'm willing to aggressively tape and adjust to the discomfort.

This is the first injury I've ever experienced on an expedition and I find it humbling and immensely frustrating especially since it's only day 1. All I can do now is wait and see what happens by morning.

Expreso De Los Andes Expedition: Introduction

It all starts this Saturday, Feb 18, the long hours of training behind us - in the bank we hope - and our 1,700-kilometre run ahead. It's an intimidating prospect to be honest, the idea of running non-stop across South America averaging 70 to 100 kilometre a day but the fact that we won't be alone in our challenge is bolstering our resolve. We're going to have thousands of students from around the world joining us.

It seems like only yesterday that Canadian ultra-runner and founder of impossible2Possible (i2P), Ray Zahab and I teamed up to make an unsupported trek to the South Pole. It was the spring of 2008 and Ray had reached an epiphany through his running adventuring: he wanted to use his adventures to inspire others.

Anyone who has ever met Ray understands that he's a man who doesn't perceive boundaries and limitations like others do.

The concept of running 7,500 kilometers clear across the Sahara Desert in a non-stop four-month push would seem preposterous in a normal perspective but for Zahab in February 2007, standing in the Red Sea after 111 days of running nearly two marathons a day, it was simply a reality. After undertaking like that, it's little surprise to see his dream to inspire youth to become what it has.

I've been there since the start, watching a newborn idea of i2P grow to take its first wobbly, tottering steps around a coffee table in Seattle, to see it mature and build through four years of adventuring and now to stand grown-up inspiring countless thousands through its actions and those actions are adventure.

It wasn't long after that phone call back in 2008 that Ray, myself and Richard Weber would reach the South Pole and do it in world record time to boot. In 2010, Ray and I would race across frozen Lake Baikal in Siberia breaking another record in the process. We discovered quickly we worked well together.

The Expreso De Los Andes expedition is our third 'extreme' i2P expedition together and it promises to be a doozy. Starting in the Chilean town of Concon on the Pacific coast, Ray and I will start our journey running 70kms per day up and over the Andes mountains to the Argentinian border. This is high country - really high country in fact - and we're uncertain what toll such high altitude will take on us but once we make it through these mountains we won't be backing it off, in fact, we hope to ramp up our running efforts to 100 kilometres per day, every day, for the remaining 1,100 kilometers to our finish. On the last day of the expedition i2P Youth Ambassadors Jessie Lily and Conner Clerke will join us for the final 100 kilometre non-stop stretch to Buenos Aires and the Atlantic Ocean.

As Ray and I make our run across South America we will have thousands of students following us through our interactive website which includes an expedition live tracker, live videoconferencing, daily video blogs, photos and experiments.

The objective of the expedition is to use the running adventure as a means to educate, inspire and empower administrators, teachers and students to take on the i2P Health and Physical Activity Challenge.

There's little doubt the expedition will test our physical limits and this has garnered the interest of Dr. Greg Wells, physiologist and Gemini Award winner for his Superbodies segments during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics coverage.

Dr. Wells will gather data from Ray and I in an attempt to understand how the human body adapts (or degrades) during extreme endurance.

In a few days the expedition begins. The coming weeks promise to be a testing challenge for Ray and I, a test, in our hope, that spurs teachers and students to pursue their own challenges. We hope you can follow along.