SURVIVOR OF THE GREEN HELL

200 kilometres straight through the Brazilian jungle: the Jungle Marathon is one of the toughest and above all most dangerous sporting events in the world. This year 62 competitors fought through inhuman heat and humidity through extreme terrains during six legs. Left to fend for themselves during the race, the competitors also had to carry their own equipment, water and provisions. The Austrian Christian Schiester gave his all – including the skin on his feet -– to finish in third place. In the first part of our interview he talks about the dangers on the route and his transformation into a jaguar.

If an environmental activist had crossed your path between October 6 and 15, collecting signatures against the cutting down of the rainforest, then …

... I would have chased him off and instead pleaded for the building of a four-lane motorway through the bush! No, seriously: I saw slash-and-burn land clearances which really shocked me. It’s a crime to cut down the rain forest – not only because of its beauty, but above all because of its incredible natural diversity, including some plants and animals that are as yet hardly known.

How would you rank the ordeals that pushed you to your limits during the Jungle Marathon?

In first place I would rank the four-centimetre-long wasps, whose stings are so painful that they impel you to sprint even when you are on the verge of collapse. Then come the mosquitoes and finally the ticks – I had 20 tick bites. The incredible heat and humidity which make your pulse explode was also terrible.

The first leg was already extreme: because of the heavy downpours you presumably had to be doubly cautious of snakes and scorpions?

The 2003 winner was promptly bitten by a scorpion on the first day. Luckily there was a camera team with him, who took him to the next camp by boat, otherwise it could have turned out badly. I made an effort to scan my surroundings very carefully before every step. The shy poisonous snakes weren’t the worst; the constrictor snakes that might be hanging above you in the tree branches were more dangerous.

When you waded through swamps and rivers or swam through them, there was also the danger of crocodiles. Did you practise what to do in such a situation before the start of the race?

We were told to glide into the water quietly and to swim very slowly and calmly. But I didn’t stick to this because I always wanted to put the danger behind me as quickly as possible. Rightly so: in the ford that we had swum through half an hour before, soldiers once shot an eight-and-a-half metre-long crocodile.

In order to survive in this hostile environment, you took on the “identity” of a roaming jaguar – kind of your mental trick. In which situations did this help?

You hold yourself back if you see your environment as an enemy, instead of trying to connect with it. During the Marathon des Sable in the Sahara I transformed myself into a prudent camel, during the Himalaya Stage Race into a steady, strong yak. In the jungle I imagined myself to be a sleek, aggressive jaguar, because this animal is number one in the jungle hierarchy.