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Yacht♥Beat
When it comes to making the world better for others, one yacht chef is willing to go the distance — 2,850 miles, to be exact.
Helgi Olafson is a chef on a quest. His mission? To raise awareness and funds to help those who battle ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a debilitating auto-immune disorder that fuses the spine and locks the joints. Olafson was himself diagnosed with AS at the age of 19. The condition causes inflammation of tendons and ligaments where they attach to bones, he explains. The body tries to fortify those areas of inflammation with more bone tissue, which results in calcification. “Basically, if you lead a sedentary lifestyle, then those calcifications can grow together,” he said. It’s vital to keep moving.
Sedentary is not a word that would seem to be in Olafson’s vocabulary. “I’m lucky because, as a chef, I’m moving around a lot,” he said. But that’s an understatement. If motion is medicine, the man is clearly an addict — and
Leading the charge, one step at a time.
STORY BY SUSAN JOBE. PHOTOS BY NATHANIEL BAILEY
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not averse to frequent overdoses. For most people, staying active means daily walks and regular visits to the gym; for Olafson, it means running and biking hundreds of miles at a stretch.
Last summer, the former triathlete and longtime ultramarathon runner raised the bar with “Helgi Olafson’s Trans Triple Crown of 200s.” The plan was to run 2,855 miles to raise $28,550 for the Spondylitis Association of America, and to inspire others with the disease to keep on moving and never give up.
The challenge would begin Aug. 13 at the starting line of the Bigfoot 200 — a 206.5-mile trail race nonstop through the Cascade Mountains of Washington, with more than 42,000 feet of elevation gain and terrain that varies from the volcanic lava fields of Mount St. Helens to mountaintop ridge lines and deep, oldgrowth forest. For many, finishing this race would be the feat of a lifetime; for Olafson, it was just the first step.
Next would be the Tahoe 200 Endurance Run, a 205-mile race through the Nevada-California wilderness surrounding the largest alpine lake in the country, then on to the Moab 240, a punishing race that follows the Colorado River through the red rock canyons and harsh desert mountains of eastern Utah.
In the ultrarunning world, finishing all three of these races within a 3-month span is known as The Triple Crown of 200s. It’s been done before by many runners, including Olafson. But now his intention was to also run the entire distance from one race to the next, and hopefully set a few FKTs (fastest known times) on the trails along the way. I say “was” because, as with all the best laid schemes of mice and men, shit happens. And what happened to Olafson was this: While he was on a training run in Montana, six days before the Bigfoot 200 began, he broke his left foot.
Technically, it was an avulsion fracture on the inside of the fifth phalanx. Later, an MRI would reveal that a tendon on the fourth toe also was severed at the plantar plate. Much, much later, a surgeon would create a new tendon, add screws and shave bone away to make room for the toe to come back down. But at that time, all Olafson knew was that he hurt his foot — and that it was not going to stop him.
Insanely, he ran the Bigfoot 200 anyway, finishing 80th out of about 250 racers, half of whom dropped out before
the finish line. But the agonizing 102 hours and 46 minutes he endured in the race took a heavy toll on his fractured foot. A piece of bone from the injured toe broke off with the tendon attached, Olafson said, and it was pulled back through the other tendons, causing a chain reaction of injury throughout the rest of the foot.
Still, he refused to give up. The challenge, he says, was not about his personal courage and perseverance — his motivation was rooted in a passion for the cause. “It’s a really good cause. It gives me strength to be out there.”
Because of his broken foot, Olafson and his support crew decided he should continue the next part of the journey on bicycle — so off they went, heading south on the Pacific Coast Trail for the Tahoe 200. When he was able to cover 160 miles in the first day despite the pain, he thought: I can do this. “I was getting little wins every day,” he said.
Then, just as they neared the OregonCalifornia border, they got word that raging wildfires had blanketed the region with toxic smoke, so the Tahoe 200 race had been canceled. Quickly shifting gears, he cycled north instead, with the intent to replicate the exact distance of the canceled Tahoe race somewhere in Idaho, where the air quality was better. He would then head south again to Utah, where the Moab 240 was set to begin Oct. 8. The hope was that he would be off the bicycle and back on his feet by then.
Nathaniel Bailey, a photojournalist from Montana, crewed Olafson throughout the challenge, tending to his needs and documenting the journey while following along in Olafson’s massive, tricked-out fortress of a truck, complete with kitchen, shower, waterpurifier, sleeping cabin, foot surgery and first-aid dispensary — all built by Olafson and organized into tight, efficient, yacht-like compartments.
Olafson credits his experience on yachts for developing a flexible mindset and ability to work well under pressure — both crucial components of not only this particular challenge, but of endurance sports in general. Being a yacht chef, he said, has taught him to remain calm in any situation, “because overacting doesn’t achieve anything.”
His yachting career began in 2011, when he answered an ad on Craigslist. A charter chef was wanted on a wooden fantail yacht built in 1931 that was bound for the Inside Passage of Alaska. Cramped quarters made for a very “intimate” environment, Olafson said. For the guests, the yachting experience was all about whale-watching, hiking and fishing; for the chef, it meant a primitive kitchen with a propane grill and a propane stove. It was an experience he treasures to this day.
Following that season in Alaska, Olafson worked as a casting judge for the TV show Master Chef. In 2015, he got his STCW and took a job on his first superyacht: the 135-foot M/Y Polly (now Gazelle). Since then, he has worked on M/Y Next Chapter, M/Y Indigo, and M/Y Lady Sheridan (now Amaral). He is currently chef on M/Y KOJU, but when I first spoke with him, just after the Bigfoot 200, he was between jobs. “Yachting has been a good career for me, because I can take time to go on adventures,” he said.
And in Idaho, his next big adventure was to begin.
There would be pain and heartbreak ahead, more injuries and seemingly insurmountable obstacles. But also perserverance, joy and triumph of heroic proportions. Read the full account of Olafson’s epic journey to the ultimate finish line at TritonNews.com/Olafson or use the QR code below.
Help Olafson reach his goal of raising $28,550 for the Spondylitis Association of America. Use the QR code to donate.
