With 400km non-stop Ultra Gobi race, China pushes boundaries of extreme endurance
Crossing a desert where temperatures can go from 30 degrees Celsius by day to minus 15 at night, the race is open to just 50 runners; it is ‘the most difficult race I ever took part in’, says a Hongkonger who’s run it in 108-plus hours
Twenty years ago, a marathon was the farthest that people were supposed to run. Longer races did exist, but they were so marginal, so niche that running 100km was seen as a challenge on a par of climbing Everest or swimming the English Channel.
Nowadays, registering for a 100km gets you about as much kudos as renewing your gym membership. To get bragging rights you have to go longer and tougher, a hundred miler at least, or, if you are lucky enough to get a place, the 217km Badwater or 246km Spartathlon.
Running light and very far appeals to every runner, but the farther you run, the more food, water and equipment you need, and unless someone supplies it for you, you have to carry it yourself, which increases the load and eventually slows you down to a walk. In turn, if a race is not broken into stages, the organiser has to manage an ever-increasing section of the course as the runners spread out, which requires a lot of resources and manpower and pushes up the cost.
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Non-stop ultra-distance races do exist, such as the 866km Transpyrenea, but they can amount to a mass start and then an individual finish days later, with the runners left to their own devices for the entire race, with little or no support. Supporting, monitoring and reporting on a group of runners spread over hundreds of kilometres is extremely difficult to be done properly if you want to make the race commercially viable.
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