The runners are all safely at the village of Santa Rosa de Huacaria, though some walked a little further to get there than others.  The course today starts with a stretch of a couple of kilometers of rough, waterlogged 4×4 track leading to the first zipwire crossing of the race.  We started the runners in 2 waves so that they wouldn’t reach it all at once, only 3 people can cross at a time so we need to do what we can to avoid congestion.

What follows is another stretch of testing jungle terrain before they emerge onto the rough rock and mud roads which criss-cross this area, joining up the tiny villages.  Out here, exposed to the sunshine, which they were so grateful for this morning, they tackle the first significant climb of the race.  A relentless uphill trudge under the beating sun.  What goes up must come down of course and they finish the day with a knee punishing downhill leading to the hammock stations at Huacaria.

We’ve built a good relationship with this village over the years and they always come out in support of the runners offering each finisher a necklace made of local seeds and beads and a round of applause as they cross the line.  Thankfully for the runners, there are also now floodlights here which negates the need for head torches, and shower facilities too.  Veritable luxury by our standards.  Though some still chose to cool down and wash off in the traditional way, with a dip in the nearby river.

As we hinted earlier, a few of the runners took a longer route than intended to get to the finish today.  A few took a wrong turn on the way to the zipwire first thing in the morning and were escorted on to CP1, they’ll be carrying on but the delay caused was significant enough that their day had to be cut short before the finish to ensure they weren’t out in the dark too long.  2 other runners wandered off the trail and found themselves at a lodge where they were faced with some very confused tourists.  All the wanderers are back at camp and all will be heading out again tomorrow.

Dan Reeves made an attempt at getting back into the race this morning but made the decision to pull out early on as it was clear he hadn’t fully recovered from his illness and he didn’t want to cause any problems further along.  He’ll now join Dan North as supports.  Our support crew is priceless on this race.  They accompany the medics to checkpoints and are a welcome sight to the other runners as they encounter them on the course.  Dan North is heading out at 4:30 am tomorrow to support the medics at one of the most remote checkpoints.  They may be out of the race but they’re still very much a part of it.

Jamie Bromfield kicked on today and opened up a 24 minute lead over Pete Liggins who came third today, just 2 minutes after Sean Budden.  Barring injury it’s looking like this will be our podium, though Simon Davies is nipping at their heels.

In the women’s race, Carolin came in 20 minutes ahead of Lucie Luft today and moved back into first.  Jacqui burke was third over the line today as Barbara Jones lost time due to some navigational idiosyncrasies.  Barbara remains in third overall though.

Tomorrow the runners take on The Lull.  It’s a shorter stage on paper but anyone who has completed it will tell you it is the hardest there is.  They are in the thick of the junge from start to finish.  Expect mud, sweat and probably tears.

[arve url=”https://youtu.be/PeNh_LLdnzY” title=”Jungle Ultra 2017 – Trailer” /]