Jungle Marathon 2004 - Pre Race Report

On Friday 18th September the second Jungle Marathon will begin in the Para region of Brazil. Last year I considered myself extremely fortunate to have survived the first edition and come home in one piece. So maybe I should have thanked my lucky stars and stayed away.

The race comprises six stages over seven days totalling 200 km of racing on foot through roughly cut trails, rivers and swamps carrying all our own equipment for 7 days, including hammocks, food, clothing and medical supplies. Temperatures are ridiculously hot with humidity at the most horrible levels imaginable. Imagine sweating heavily from 8 o’clock in the morning until 6 o’clock in the evening and then perspiring lightly for the rest of the time!

I remember well the routine after every stage of the race – along with the two fellow Brits who I raced with all week, we washed ourselves in the river, hung out our clothes to dry on trees and branches and discussed the day’s ordeal. We agreed that Andy would be allowed one “It’s a jungle out there!” per day. My contribution was a simple “I hate this place!” And the thing is at the time I almost meant it.

Without a doubt, the Amazon rainforest is the most hostile, dangerous and unforgiving place I have ever been. Someone told me before I went “Everything in the jungle tries to eat or kill you.” He wasn’t joking, as I discovered.

There are so many different dangers; for example the trees often have sharp needles sticking out to protect themselves from scavenging animals and parasites and the needles themselves have tiny barbs on them so that if you grab one to prevent you sliding down a steep bank into a swamp or stream then the barbs stick into your hands, tearing the flesh on the fingers and creating an instant unstoppable bloodfest. Nice.

One morning I stumbled on my way out of a stream and thrust my hand down into the dirt to catch my balance. Aware I had landed on something sharp I checked my hand as I stood up only to see my fingers and thumb covered in blood – another barbed needle I assumed. In some environments it would take a day or two for a cut like that to become infected, but knowing how fast bacteria spreads in the jungle it wasn’t long before I was covering the hand with anti-septic to prevent something nasty embedding itself.

On another day I noticed two bees angrily flying around my head in circles. We’d probably passed too close to a nest and these bees were clearly sentries protecting their turf. But to maintain this for 30 minutes or more was highly off-putting. Restraining myself I managed to avoid swatting at them with my hands, knowing this would only antagonise them further.

We saw snakes, scorpions, caiman, and the largest spiders I have ever seen anywhere. I’m now convinced that tarantulas in zoos are merely a midget breed as the ones we saw were the size of large shoes and had incredibly hairy legs too. Although I didn’t see jaguar, others did, and we smelled one on the trail on one of the days. All in all, the wildlife was everything and more that I had been promised.

But the most severe difficulties encountered by runners came not from the wildlife but from one of two sources, either dehydration or the side-effects of malarone, an anti-malaria treatment. Unfortunately the side effects of malarone and the effects of dehydration/heart exhaustion seemed to be similar, namely acute feelings of nausea, headaches, dizziness and general feelings of poor health. The majority of the race’s casualties were sustained in the first couple of days and these two reasons accounted for most although later in the race blisters and other injuries took their toll too.

So why do we do it? Personal adventure? Competition? Meeting other like-minded ultra-athletes? Charity? Possibly for some of these reasons and maybe others too. Nevertheless, I have a feeling that whatever gets us all to the start may not necessarily be what carries us through the tougher times all the way to the finish. We will just have to dig deep and encourage each other as best we can.

This year I have had more time to prepare and although I feel I have done everything I can possibly do, in this race there are so many more things which can go wrong which are completely outside my control than in any other race I know. So I can’t help feeling a bit apprehensive again. Last year I learned that the jungle is not an environment to conquer, but one to survive. My sincere hope is that I have the same good fortune as I did last year and return home more or less in one piece… and maybe then I’ll come to my senses!

Daily race reports will be here on Eventrate beginning on Thursday 17th September after the runners have had their Jungle Survival training day.

Luke Cunliffe

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