Normalize High Mileage Atacama - Agradecer
From the roads and trails of Atacama to the deeper meaning of mileage: rooted, honest, and essential.
For those who were not born there, something deeply striking about the Atacama Desert region — and, in fact, about South America in general — is its sheer vastness: the immense, overwhelming sense of space. Distances stretch out, travel times seem to extend endlessly, and the sheer number of kilometers is astonishing.
Nature is so present and all-encompassing that, throughout history, the peoples who have lived in these places have had to evolve in a contradictory relationship of strength, resilience, and surrender — a bond that is not easy to fully grasp. It is a relationship built on gratitude toward a land that may appear cold, dry, and ungrateful, yet can, in its own way, be fertile.
Those who do not know how to respect and understand this environment simply cannot live here.
This is a high-altitude land: the Atacama Desert lies at an average of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) above sea level, with some of its peaks rising above 5,000 meters (16,400 feet). The air is cold. Here emerge the most genuine and tangible traits of this region and its people: grounded, essential, honest.
The slopes of these mountains and volcanoes still echo with the prayers of generations who prayed in gratitude. Yet while the ancestors once climbed slowly, seeking a connection with higher beings, one of their descendants now gives thanks in another way — by running. Perhaps in search of that very same connection, using the mountains as a medium and a deep knowledge of himself as the key to reaching higher, faster.
This is the story of Joel Colque Urrelo.
“While most people sleep, many are working to become the best version of themselves.”
His friends call him crazy, but the truth is that the body and mind of an ultrarunner must be deeply balanced. Joel Colque Urrelo is the current record holder of the Ckalama Extreme, the only race in the world that challenges participants to summit two volcanoes over 6,000 meters (19,600 feet) within a set time. In 2023, Joel completed the race in 12 hours and 30 minutes. The following year, he finished in 9 hours and 15 minutes. His dream is to break the 9-hour mark.
Joel is an Atacameño Licanantay, the descendant of people who have long learned to make the inhospitable desert their home. He has lived at high altitude since childhood and knows what it means to understand such a place. He knows what it means to belong to this land — and he also knows that such deep belonging carries a moral obligation: to care. To care for sacred places, to preserve them for future generations, and to pass on the awareness of what we have.
These are the principles that guide his steps. Joel is an ultrarunner, but above all, he is a human being who belongs to the land he inhabits — and who loves it deeply. For him, running has become another layer of his identity as an Atacameño: a way to celebrate the land that raised him, to honor it, and to discover it from new perspectives — never with disrespect, but rather by deepening the bond he shares with this territory.
Joel approaches ultrarunning with authenticity, sincerity, and simplicity — much like his land. Essential, you could say. He has reached its deepest meaning, embracing values that resonate with anyone who runs such distances in the most inhospitable places on Earth. A pure and spontaneous expression of running, one that we want to celebrate for its authenticity.
This is Normalize High Mileage Atacama.
