Jungle Marathon Brazil
What is the Jungle Marathon? When you hear or read the name it sounds like an ordinary Marathon distance through the Jungle.
But do not get fooled by the name. The Jungle Marathon is a very difficult 250 km footrace through the Amazon.
Within 7 days you will run, swim, and crawl in a humid and very hot jungle in the remote and isolated area of Manaus, the northern region of Brazil
The footrace is divided in 6 stages. One of them is about 108 km long with a 35 hour cut off time. The rest of the stages have an 11 hour cut off time.
After every completed stage the runners will stay overnight in camps next to the river Tapajos. The sound of howling monkeys and other animal sounds will keep you awake most of the night, which will stress a lot of the runners. The race starts on the beach of Itapuama and ends in the city of Alter do Châo.
Check out my video footages from Jungle Marathon 2007
Every runner has to be self sufficient, which means you have to carry all your gear: food, clothes, medic, 2.5 L water etc. for the whole race in a backpack. The weight of the backpack is about 8-10 kg in avarage without water.
The race takes place in the fall, the period with very little rain. You can expect a temperature of 40 Celcius degrees and by night it will reach 25 degrees - combined with a very high humidity. Welcome to the Jungle!
See the official website for the Jungle Marathon (Click on the Logo):
Precondition & Preparation
It is a precondition to be well and healthy and very determined to complete an extreme race like the Jungle Marathon. Therefore - the keywords to complete a race like this are preparation and training - physical as well as psychical.
”A fit body is needed to run it, but a strong mind is needed to finish it”