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Seven days in the desert

Last July, Lisa Nuszkowski, ’01,
spent her summer vacation on a 150-mile, seven-day footrace across the Atacama Desert in Chile, the driest desert in the world.

She carried her gear on her back, trekked in the dark, fell through salt flats, questioned her commitment to the challenge – and kept going.

Nuszkowski, who works as a business analyst for the city of Detroit, used her participation in the race to raise about $1,200 for Alternative for Girls, a nonprofit organization in southwest Detroit that helps homeless and high-risk girls and young women make positive choices.

The Atacama Crossing is one in a series of multiday races sponsored by Racing the Planet. Others are in Antarctica, the Sahara Desert, and the Gobi Desert. Here Nuszkowski talks about her experiences.

The starting line
Before starting the race, I was fortunate to meet Ting Bresnahan, an American woman around my age who also was doing the race alone. We quickly became friends and ended up running most of the race together.

The evening before the race started, we were bused from San Pedro de Atacama to a campsite a half-hour outside of town. In the morning we took a long, bumpy bus ride up the mountains to an elevation of about 13,100 feet. The president and first lady of Machuca started the race by ringing a bell at what I believe was the town hall. And we were off!

The course was supposed to take us down to the bottom of a canyon and then lead us out. However, the course got mismarked, so we ended up following the river throughout the bottom of the canyon. And to follow the river, you had to cross it – many times. At the previous day’s course briefing, we were told that we would have five river crossings that day. We ended up crossing the river at least 50 times ­– no joke. Ting and I finished in the dark (with headlamps) around 8 p.m.

Day 2
Stage 2 started off with more water. The course wound through slot canyons – large rock formations with a river down the middle. Instead of crossing the river, this time we walked through it. It was so cold, I could barely feel my feet. But it was pretty amazing to walk down the river through all of these giant red rocks.

After we made it out of the water, we followed a long, winding road up through the mountains, even walking through one of them via a tunnel. When we finally made it to the top, we were rewarded with a view that was worth the trek ­– mountains and valleys as far as we could see. We ran down a major sand dune, and the rest of the day was pretty flat – just miles of sand.

Enter the salt flats
Stage 3 was one of the tougher stages for me mentally. Ting and I got split up after the second checkpoint of the day, so I did the second half solo. I got my first taste of the salt flats that afternoon, and I was not a fan. The flats looked like plowed fields, except they were hard and crusty on top, not soft like soil. It was tough on the ankles, constantly walking on uneven ground.

Salt flats, round two
Stage 4 was the least scenic and the windiest of the stages. We started off over more hard-packed sand and red stone, then went down a sand dune to a little oasis of green. There was a small river at the bottom, which we followed to a tiny town, where Ting and I bought some chips and Cheetos at a store. Salt and grease never tasted so good.

After the town, we began a long, boring trek across hard-packed sand. The wind was blowing like crazy – Ting and I couldn’t even hear each other a few feet away. The next section was rated “very difficult” on our course maps – all salt flats. While most of the flats were hard, crusty, and solid, there were some with water underground, making the surface soft and easy to push through. I stepped on one of the peaks, and my right leg went through up to my knee. While I was trying to get my balance, my left leg punched through another hole, and I had to hoist myself out using my arms. I got some nice scratches and bruises up my legs, but nothing serious, so we carried on.

Are we having fun yet?
We were given two days to complete Stage 5, but most would finish it in less than 24 hours, leaving the next day to rest at camp.

The route took us out of the salt flats for good and back onto hard-packed sand. Ting and I split up for awhile. She was moving pretty fast, and I couldn’t keep pace because my right knee was bothering me.

The course followed a road down to more sand dunes. At the top of the dunes, I walked along more red rock, but this time it was covered in white salt. Then the course went down another sand dune to a dry riverbed at the bottom of a canyon and followed the river bed through the canyon to the next checkpoint. About halfway there, it started to get dark. We plodded on, but it was really difficult to see, and I started to get a little freaked out, as it was now completely dark. After what seemed like a very long time, we found the checkpoint.

The rest of the course had not yet been marked with glowsticks, and they were holding us all at this checkpoint. About 15 minutes later, the director told us that the course was now marked. Ting and I got our stuff together and took off with a big group to the next checkpoint.
As we trudged along, I was having serious doubts. What the hell was I doing? I was not having fun anymore. I honestly thought about throwing in the towel and catching a ride back to camp, but then I thought about how far I’d come (probably 130-plus miles at that point) and how close the finish line was, so I kept on moving.

When Ting and I reached the next camp, we decided to hammer out the last section of the day, which was challenging terrain mostly covered in salt. In the dark, the salt made it seem as if we were walking on snow. We climbed through giant rock formations, one of which formed a little cave, which was
really neat.

About halfway through, we came across one of my tentmates, Nicholas, and a 67-year-old gentleman from Japan. We stuck together for the last half, which included a climb across a very narrow, rocky ledge and a climb down a dry waterfall. When we got down, we only had 4K to go, but it seemed like the longest 4K ever! We blew one of our whistles, and the volunteers at the finish line turned on their headlamps – we had made it in just under 19 hours. The four of us grabbed hands and ran across the finish line together. It was a pretty special moment.

The homestretch
Stage 6 was a short 11K out of the campsite, with 5K of hard-packed sand hills and 6K of road into town.
I walked the hilly section and then began to trot when I reached the road. As I got closer to town, I started to recognize things. The main road in town! My hotel! Through sheer adrenaline, I picked up the pace.

About 500 meters from the finish line, one of the volunteers was handing out Chilean flags to the runners. I grabbed mine, turned the corner, and saw the finish line. I was so overcome with emotion – I was laughing and crying at the same time. In the town square there was a crowd of people cheering.

Crossing that finish line was the most incredible feeling I have ever experienced. I still get a bit choked up when I think of it. Ting was there (she finished about 15 minutes ahead of me) with her husband, John, and they took my pack and got me some food and water. We watched the rest of the racers come in over the next hour and a half, and then it was back to the hotel for a shower, clean clothes, and off to
the awards banquet.

Later that evening, Ting and I learned that we had finished 68th and 69th – way better than we had expected. We were solidly in the middle, not bad at all for two first-timers.

Epilogue
Will I do it again? Right now, my body says no way, and for everything that I put it through that week, I’m going to listen to it. But the Gobi does sound like a fascinating place to visit…. We’ll have to see. Until the next adventure! •