Rugged race in Namibia raises money for vet

Badly dehydrated and running with bloody heels, 42-year-old Mark Jaget said he "could have easily bonked out" of last month's 150-mile footrace across some of Namibia's most rugged areas.

Instead, he kept motivated to maintain his strength in the 95-degree heat by thinking about his wife and children and the disabled Iraq war veteran he was raising money for in the race.

In the end, after nearly 36 hours of traversing six stages of grueling terrain and carrying a 20-pound pack of food and water, the Las Vegas chiropractor found himself in an adrenalin-charged, euphoric state. He listened to his iPod while he jogged and sang "American Pie" and Three Dog Night's version of "Joy to the World."

He finished 11th out of 212 entrants and raised $4,000 donated by private sponsors for Ron Portillo, 41, an Army Special Forces veteran from Henderson who survived a roadside bomb blast in March 2007 while trying to rescue Marines under attack in Fallujah, Iraq.

An amputee battling post-traumatic stress disorder, Portillo experienced another spate of bad luck this year with the death of his son and his combat companion dog, a divorce and a home foreclosure. After hearing about Portillo through the Siena Military Veterans Club and with help from Jewish War Veterans, Jaget met Portillo and wanted to help.

"It couldn't have been a better time when I needed the money," Portillo said Thursday.

That's why, when things got tough in the Namibia race, Jaget refused to quit.

"At times I felt like I was running in an oven," he said. "My feet and hands kept sinking in those sand dunes, and the rocks we were running over were like miles and miles of bricks."

He said he kept thinking, "What are you belly-aching about? Those guys go over and get blown up. I can't go home a failure. Ron was a big part of my inspiration because there are guys like Ron who have had people shooting at them."

Jaget is not new to these punishing races. In 2006, he completed a 150-miler across the Gobi desert in China. He finished ninth in a field of 92.

Jaget's father-in-law, Richard Adamson, 62, was killed working as a defense contractor two years ago in Afghanistan after Taliban militants posing as security personnel stopped his vehicle at a fake checkpoint and gunned him down.

"We're big military supporters," Jaget said about himself and his wife, Clare.

In last month's race, at Mile 34, while trudging through thick, sandy powder of 300-foot-tall dunes, Jaget says in a video narration, "You can look around and see this is what I've been going through. I've got to tell you something. It's beautiful. I wish I was (in a) four-wheeler with air conditioning. Holy crap.

"I'm freakin' exhausted," he continued in the video, taken during the mid-May trek. "Awakened at midnight. Had a five-hour bus to get to the starting line, and it's been up and down sand dunes and crap. ... I'm shot and I've got about 25 miles to go."

On "the long day" of the event over a 60-mile stretch, he developed "some nice size blood blisters on my heels."

He kept jogging with numb heels and toes.

"We were going through areas people haven't been in 100 years," he said about the course, which wound through canyons and "endless mountains and valleys" on land owned by diamond mining operations.

"I saw zebras running past me and a lot of baboons. A lot of people saw snakes, scorpions and puff adders," he said.

During the first stage, he became so dehydrated that some runners from New Zealand told him, "'Mark, we should get you to a doctor.' But I was trying to be John Wayne. I'm the American. I knew I'd be OK the next day. As weak as I was and as slow as I was, I still came in 26th," he said.

On the second day, he moved up to 16th.

"I could have easily bonked out," he said. "Truth be told, I was always thinking about my wife and kids and thinking when you get to go home and see them."

A smiling, bearded Jaget wearing sunglasses says on camera, "Man. I'll be happy when this is over. But I'm getting closer and I won't stop. Painkillers are wonderful. Bloody toes just inspire."

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.