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The Last Desert Antarctica – Pre Race

I CANNOT BELIEVE I AM ABOUT TO GO TO ANTARCTICA…
Lets just let that sink in for a second because I don’t think I really have yet!
In 2 days I will be boarding The MV Placius expedition ship to sail for 3 days down to Antarctica.

So being here means that I am one step closer to completing my Goal of becoming The Youngest Female In The World to Complete RacingThePlanets Grand Slam. Not only this but I have raised almost $17k for The White Cloud Foundation Charity. 

By no means has this been a solo undertaking – it has heavily involved my parents, friends, my support team of physiotherapist, strength coach and podiatrist, my co-workers at F45 and 12 Rounds, the gym members, local community, my sponsors, the charity directors and team ++ so many more people.

This year has been the most unbelievable experience and by far the best year of my life… so far.

The top 3 things that jump out at me about this year is the epic people I have met who I experience this with, the travel and countries I get to see in such a unique way and how much I have learn’t about myself.

What’s next…?

A fair few people have voiced their concern about what I will do when it’s all over… how will I avoid the come down of completing such a massive challenge and how will I settle back into everyday life etc.. Well to start with lets not get ahead of ourselves, I still have 250k to complete in what I personally think is going to be the toughest Desert yet.

Not to mention the fact that on top of the 250k run through ice and snow it is going to be a rough 3 days via boat to get to Antarctica where we cross Drakes Passage, also know as the Sea of Sickness… haha yep it speaks for itself in that regard.

It can get absolutely wild storms and massive waves! Eeek when I was 12 on a P&O Cruise ship I was scared about a few small waves coming over the edge of the boat… I don’t know about you but Titanic just keeps popping into my head… as long as I am Rose and not Jack in the scenario…


MV Placius Ship in Antractica. 
MV Plancius ship in a storm.

But lets just rewind a moment…

I flew out Sunday midday from Brisbane which was one massive journey in itself… 40 hours later and 2 lost bags later I arrived in Ushuaia, Argentina which is the very bottom tip of South America.
Obstacle number 1 arose a lot sooner than I expected… now these suitcases don’t just have your usual bits and pieces for a holiday. They contain ALL my gear for the race which is worth thousands of dollars! So you can imagine I was freaking out just a little when there was still no sign of them 30 hours later… luckily they eventually decided to arrive fashionably late. Happy to say I dodged a bullet there… running Antarctica in Birkenstocks is not a challenge I am keen to take on.

I have settled into town now and after one day of pretty shocking jetlag and my sleep being a bit out of wack my body clock is starting to adjust. I have been able to go for 2 runs since being here, a mini yoga/stretch session and a workout in the gym so I am feeling pretty good.

View on todays 15k run.

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Edifico Pacifico Accommodation Ushuaia.

What else have I been up to since being here?

Evening one I had a lovely dinner with Zeana who works for RacingThePlanet and was my roommate and first friend in Namibia when she competed in that race. Last night I caught up with Bruno and Isabelle which is always great, Bruno gives me more stick than all my friends back home combined haha.

Bruno, myself, Isabelle at the finish line in Mongolia.

It is Wednesday today which means most competitors are starting to arrive now. I am excited that Colin Tahoe is arriving today. Colin is an amazing videographer from Sydney – checkout some of his work at Clarke Media!  One of my Sponsors Jaybird decided to jump at the opportunity to send someone over to capture my final desert run. Thanks to lovely Reegan and Jess from Jaybird in Sydney for getting this organised in just 2 days!

Colin and I have jumped straight into things and we have started getting some videos of my gear and prepping everything for the boat. Tomorrow we will adventure to surrounding mountains including Cerro Castor which is a ski resort and Tierra Del Fuego National Park.

So back to the original question of what’s next? 

Well this is just the start…
I have lots of exciting things planned for next year and some more goals I want to tick off but I will get to those in time. For now I am just going to enjoy each moment of my current adventure… I don’t want to skip any of this experience by getting to caught up looking ahead at what’s next.

OTHER UPDATES!

MEDIA

Thanks to Peter Doherty (QLD Fit) and Ben Davis from Channel 7 for being apart of my journey this whole year. Channel 7 (Pete) recently put together a story of this year adventures which was aired in Brisbane and Sydney.

USUNDAY Magazine in the Courier Mail on a Sunday did a write up.
  

TALKS AT SCHOOLS.

I loved chatting to the year 4/5 students recently at Leichhardt State School and Mount Crosby State School. Both classes have been following along with my races all year and keep up to date with all of my blogs. My favourite question by one of the students – ‘Was your favourite part of the race in Chile when you got to swim in the laguna’… he knew exactly when in the race that happened and all the details – I was very impressed. 
I also touched on how sponsorship works, showed them some of my gear including dry packed meals and explained some of the costs involved… they almost fell off their chairs when I told them how expensive some of my jackets are!   
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Leichhardt State School
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Mount Crosby State School
  

NEW SPONSORS 

MEGAPORT

A major sponsor that has just jumped on board is Megaport. 
Thank-you to Elle Poulus for helping out with all of this. 




BISHOPP ADVERTISING

Another contributor to my race in Antarctica is Bishopp Advertising . Thanks Brad for assisting with my final desert race.

A MASSIVE thanks to Yousef K another runner I met in Mongolia for backing me and being a massive support! You have been beyond generous.

Also to James Hopkins who has made the largest ongoing contributions to my charity and personally assisted me aswell. This guy has the biggest heart!


WHITE CLOUD FOUNDATION CHARITY

I have now raised almost $17,000 for my charity, so I very close to my goal of $20k.

White Cloud Mummy Run
White Cloud Charity Bootcamp with Tristian Forbes from
Witness the Fitness & QLD Fit

DONATE TO THE WHITE CLOUD FOUNDATION HERE

Anyway thats enough babbling on, I will be writing another blog within the next day or so with more information on the actual race layout, my preparation for the extreme conditions and how I am feeling about it. Post Antarctica Race I will being doing a detailed video on all my gear, the food I ate and how each day went down.

Thanks for reading!

JB
xx