Across Atacama Desert

By Tom Reynolds,

Is it wrong to say that the most powerful moment of two days and two nights running across the Chilean desert was when my head torch was switched off?  

Let me explain. 

It’s just after 0100 in the morning. I’m half-awake and halfway across the Atacama Desert. I’m 20 hours into a challenge in which moving fast is literally in the job description.

I’ve been moving under Moonlight – basically daylight – for much of the night. Trucks regularly rumble past. 

In addition to their ubiquitous soundtrack is the pat, pat, pat of my increasingly heavy footsteps. 

And so, whisper it quietly and definitely don’t tell my teammates, I stopped. 

Stood still. Turned my head torch off and was still for a moment. 

The stars were incredible. And the truck stars aligned – no rumbling lorries. 

Just a moment of deserted desert tranquillity.

Tranquility is not the word that The Speed Project (TSP) regularly evokes. 

TSP is a 500km race A-B race across the Atacama Desert. 

The original version is from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on the west coast of the USA. It is the brainchild of Nils Arend, a captivatingly complex German-born creative. In his late teens and early 20s, Arend organised underground raves in northern Germany. When he moved to Los Angeles he replaced organising raves with another underground activity. 

Running, and organising, unsanctioned ultra runs.

TSP LA-LV celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2023 and to celebrate Arend set-up a new, more extreme challenge. Still 500km. Just across the Atacama, the driest non-polar desert on earth.

In his words: “If LA-LV were compared to a cat it would be a domestic cat. Atacama? Definitely a tiger.” 

It’s a relay so for 40 plus hours, five teammates and I took it in turns to jump out of a flatbed truck and run, usually, two mile intervals.

We set off from the Pacific Ocean city of Iquique at 0400. A deserted skate park was illuminated by head torches and the combined nervous energy of 15 teams of six.

We were right to be nervous. 500km is a long way. And there were zero resupply options between our ocean start and our high-altitude finish - San Pedro de Atacama, at 24000m altitude.

There were highs, and lows, aplenty over the next two days. Two feet always moving from our team of six. Two mile sets. 

Run, rest (badly), repeat. 

The Speed Project was a sea of contrasts. Blazing midday SunGod runs in dark specs and short shorts.

Midnight moon lit runs in Hoka down jackets.

For me, the event itself was one big juxtaposition. I’m not a fast runner. Never have been.

I’m more suited to a slow project. In fact, myself and two friends literally run ultra fun runs like the Peak Divide, which is in sharp contrast to TSP.

In the Peak Divide (https://www.instagram.com/peak.divide/) we run/walk/shuffle on trails between two Northern British cities – Manchester and Sheffield. It’s 76km and is a supported event in which you get hot gnocchi and tiramisu at the feed stops before stopping definitively to sleep for the night at the halfway point.

Halfway through The Speed Project, Atacama between us we hadn’t stopped. Not once. 

A constantly moving half-dozen, half-cooked runners constantly in a rush.

Run fast. 

Eat fast. 

Brew fast (I’m happy to rush but Allpress Aeropress coffee moments were non-negotiable I’m afraid). 

Which is why my pocket of desert stillness on night two hit so hard.  

It was a contrast.

Moonlight off. 

Desert moonlight on. 

A petit pause under the biggest of skies.