Patagonia

It is a common saying in Patagonia that you can experience all four seasons in one day due to its unpredictable weather. That was certainly true for us when we ran the Patagonia half marathon in May 2025.

For the half marathon, we traveled to the Chilean side of Patagonia as Patagonia is a region shared by Argentina and Chile. We were able to see some of our running friends and were so glad to have this experience together. The day before the race, we got to preview the course and took note of the terrain we would soon be running. The half marathon began by going up a hill and then continued to have rolling hills for the first 6 miles approximately. Then, the course flattened out for a bit which was exciting since it would be a nice respite from the hills we had just been running. However, the respite was short-lived because right when the flat section started, so did the rain. The wind blew the freezing rain in from the side and it felt like our skin was being cut by the shards of watery ice. We pulled up our hoods and persevered on, and ran the next 6 miles in the turbulent weather while enjoying the beauty of the scenery around us.

At the end of the course, we knew there was a big hill coming and prepared ourselves for it. When we got to the top of the hill, Jason said, “that’s it baby. It’s all downhill from here,” but unfortunately we were wrong. There were actually two big hills at the end of the course. In that split moment of realization, we made it our personal mission to run the last big hill of the course without any walk breaks. So, we finished off the last hill without any walking at all and felt so triumphant for accomplishing our small goal. Then, it truly was all downhill from there, and we could see the finish line coming up. It felt amazing to cross the finish line! In spite of being soaking wet from the rain, we felt proud of finishing the race and enduring the weather. 

While the course was beautiful and we were able to finish the race, there were some people who did experience some pretty difficult challenges. One marathon runner was unable to finish the course at the 25 mile mark due to hypothermia. Another runner was very depleted and had to get an IV at the end of the race. So, if you’re thinking about running Patagonia, you should 100% do it, but you must also be very prepared. Remember that you might experience all kinds of weather and let the race coordinators know if you need assistance in any way. Due to our prior research, we had the right gear and proper expectations of what weather we might face. Thus, we were able to have an experience of a lifetime! Oh, also, Hillery took second in her age group. ^_^