39 year old Zandy Mangold of New York City, a photographer, and an ultra race runner – whose link to Eleuthera as his second home goes back to his grandparents falling in love with the island, followed by his parents – was in Eleuthera once again this February from the 14th until the 22nd, training for the upcoming six and a half day self-supported 250 kilometer (or 155 mile) race across the South American, Atacama Desert in Chile.
The Atacama Crossing 2013, staged by global entity – Racing the Planet, is a grueling six and a half day affair, with runners completing a full marathon every day during the first four days, and a special double-marathon treat during the fifth stage of the competition. On the final day, the last runners standing sprint to the finish line in a relatively short, 15 kilometer race, for the win.
Zandy, who placed 4th in the race in 2012, had also spent time training in Eleuthera last year, just before the big event. He described celebrating at the finish line, after his surprising 4th place in such a tough field, with his father and sister who had taken the time to be there, saying their presence at the end was the biggest prize in the world.
Mangold, who’s shooting for first place this year, says that throughout the past year he refined his training strategy geared towards taking on the challenging course with even more determination and push, explaining, “During the past year – If I saw a hill, as supposed to taking it easy going up the hill, I would tend to pick it up with more effort, try to run it harder. Same thing when I saw a downhill, I would try to run that faster. Running downhill puts a lot of stress on the body and that was one of the things
I hadn’t prepared for last year. The course is so hilly and it’s so rough that I realized I needed to step up the uphill and the downhill training.”
He continued, “Also mentally, I’ve spent a lot of time seeing the race in my head, going over it, and how to approach certain things, since I now know the course. I think about how am I going to approach the hill that’s coming up or the river that I have to cross – am I going to be mentally strong. That’s a big part of it, because the challenges are so huge that you can get psyched out.”
When asked about his motivation for returning to the extreme race, Mangold shared that there were several reasons, including the fact that the Atacama Desert was now one of his “Happy Places”, of which Eleuthera is one – kind of remote places, relaxed, where he can totally be and find himself. He also cited the growing number of friends he now has in the running community, and the fact that he feels he has more to contribute, commenting, “I definitely feel that I have more to do – like I haven’t really tapped my potential yet as a stage racer, so I want to see what I can do.”
The Eleuthera climate and terrain, Mangold says, prepares him well for the heat of the desert and the hills he find especially helpful in the warm up for the big race. Some of the major challenges Zandy experienced during the race last year were – the extreme heat, the extreme altitude, and the drastic changes in climate between the top of the thermometer days and freezing cold nights. Despite all this, he looks forward to meeting the new challenges, and admitted that he would never say this was his last time, because of how rewarding it is for him.
Zandy did spend some time in 2012 running other races, but said, because of the toll it takes physically on the body, he kept it to just a few, participating in the Boston Marathon, a 50 mile race in New York and another marathon in August 2012 – choosing instead to focus on training for the Atacama Crossing race.
When asked whether running was serious for him or just for kicks, Mangold answered, “I’m the kind of person that tends not to do things unless they are fun, but part of the fun is taking them seriously. I’m a photographer and I got into it because I was passionate about it, and it was fun and fortunately I was able to make a career out of it. Same thing with racing – it’s fun, but I also take it seriously.”
According to race organizers, “Competitors begin at the highest point on the course, an altitude of 3,300 meters, at Rio Grande in the Atacama Desert. Over the week, they’ll climb old Inca roads, plummet into canyons and valleys, cross salt flats and sand dunes and plunge through rivers. They’ll do it all while carrying their own equipment and food, with the added physical trial of running at more than one mile above sea level. Those who overcome the physical and mental test will receive their medal in the town square of San Pedro de Atacama on March 9th, 2013.”
Zandy headed from Eleuthera to Chile on February 22nd, about a week and a half ahead of the race to acclimate to the altitude before the big start day on March 3rd, 2013.
Photo Caption: Ultra marathon runner, Zandy Mangold. Photo taken in Govenor’s Harbour, Eleuthera Feb 2013.
