The Jungle Ultra – Jon Shield

The Jungle Ultra – Many races claim to be the ‘toughest in the world’ but few come close to this one. We interviewed athlete Jon Shield who won The Jungle Ultra as part of Beyond the Ultimate’s Global Race Series. Yes you heard that right, a 230km race in the depths of the Amazon Rainforest.

“I’m done so what’s next? I’m itching to get back to it and start training again.” 

It takes a little while to sink in once you’ve done it because you wait a while to do these events and train so hard for them. You fill your life with that obsession, I know I do, I’m terrible. You appreciate it a couple of days after and you get to enjoy some time with the people you’ve raced with. After the race they become your friends and you stay in touch with the people that you’ve spent miles with. But you’re like, ‘I’m done so what’s next?’ I’m itching to get back to it and start training again. 

This is how much of a comedown it was. I’ve just come from doing the Ultra Trail Snowdonia 100 on the weekend. I went from the jungle to 3 weeks later doing a mountain race. The jungle had elevation, but it was completely different to a mountain ultra, I was training for the heat. I tried to convert in the 3 weeks so I put myself under stress getting there and didn’t have any downtime. I came to UTS and it didn’t go very well. I shouldn’t be so stubborn and listen to my body more. But I’m always keen to continue, especially when there are so many great events. 

The course…

“You think because it’s a jungle it’s going to be humid and hot, but it’s actually quite wet, then you remember that it is a rainforest, so they do get rain.”

It starts really high up, it’s 3000m above sea level where you stay in Manu national park. You don’t realise that although it can be very hot, at that altitude it can be very cold and wet. The race starts at a very high altitude and then descends very quickly. The first part of the race, you half the altitude to around 1500m and then after that, it’s lower again so you’re at minimal altitude. So after that my heart and lungs weren’t affected as much. But as you go through 5 different ecosystems there is different weather between them, you have a changing environment each time. You had to put a hammock up each night and I was really cold without a mat and with just a light sleeping bag, some nights the rain was horrendous. But during the race on a few occasions it was really hot and humid, 34 degrees at max humidity, it was very interchangeable.