Atacama Crossing 2006 - 7 Day Desert Run - Wade Repta

The Atacama Crossing is a six-stage, 250-kilometer footrace. The six stages range from 20-80 kilometers over the seven days.

My buddy Wade Repta is running in it.  You might even know Wade, as he's a Club Fat Ass member who comes out fairly frequently to events around Vancouver.  He's doing the whole thing solo.  Basically, you run across Chile.  It's the dryest place on earth.  What a stud Wade is!

Wade is a sandbagger.  He will always say, "Naw, haven't been training much", but I think he has been training really hard for this one and as of today, the 3rd day, he's in 12th place overall! Man, I wish I was there at least crewing for him.  This event looks like a lot of fun.  (See photos on the event site.  That's where I got these.)

Wader, brother Dom and Paul Kennedy did the Marathon des Sables a couple years back, so he knows what he's up against.  Their slide show of Marathon des Sables (especially the feet pictures) convinced me that races like this are for a special breed of person.  Wade is sure that. 

 The creature from outer space with running shoes on is a British guy from the Save the Rhinos team.  As if it isn't hot enough already, this guy is running in the event dressed like a rhino.  I recognize this rhino from Wade's photos of the Marathon des Sables.  I guess this guy gets around.  Imagine coming back to work and having to tell the folks around the water cooler that the high point of your summer was to dress up like a rhino and run across the desert in Chile for a week?

The fairly normal looking photo looks like some sort of race briefing.  That's Wade sitting on the floor on the right hand side toward the back under the picture.  (It's not very flattering, girls, but it's the only one of Wade I could find.)

Atta kick some butt, Wader!  'Can't wait to hear your stories.