Racing The Planet Namibia 2008

Sunday the 17th of May – Today 214 athletes from 38 countries started on one of the toughest marathons to be held in Namibia to date.

RacingThePlanet / 4 Deserts is an annual competition that takes athletes to the Gobi desert in China, the Atacama in Chile, the Sahara desert in Egypt and Antarctica. In addition there is a fifth event that travels to a new location each year.

This year the fifth event is being held in Namibia. The athletes have 6 days in which to make their way through the Namib Desert over the 250 km between the Fish River Canyon and Lüderitz, where the finishing line will be crossed on Saturday the 24th of May.

The competition is fierce with names such as Anabella Bond and Sissell S. Smaller (who both previously summited Mount Everest) and Jesse Yoo, who has already completed 11 RacingThePlanet competitions.

The main goal of the event is to organize footraces that take place in remote locations, offering cultural richness. The competitors will have to carry all their food supplies and will only be supplied with water, a tent and medical attention at the various rest stops. Coastway Tours is involved in the organization of the event on the Lüderitz side, making sure the athletes have a smooth journey through the remote area that goes through part of the Sperrgebiet Park.

Wednesday 20th of May – As RacingThePlanet goes into it’s 4th stage today, 19 of the 214 competitors have already given up. So far the Spaniard Redondo Salvadore (46), who is running for Save The Children, is in the lead. He covered the 112 km distance in just under eleven and a half hours.

The best Namibian is Charl Moller (43) who is currently in the 64th position, after running the first 3 stages in just under twenty hours. Mr. Moller, who is a consultant for Cyan ES in South Africa, is a renowned runner. He previously finished the Gobi March 2006, the Comrades Marathon twice and several other marathons and ultra marathons.

TIME Magazine previously named the 4 Deserts competition #2 on it’s list of Top Ten Endurance Competitions in the world. This list includes events such as the Dakar Rally and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Just how tough this competition is becomes clear as we visit Michelle Cheung’s (30) blog. She dropped out of the race after making it to the second checkpoint in stage 2 on Tuesday the 19th of May.

“Hello all, if you’ve been checking my times on the scoreboard, you may notice that i probably don’t have one against my name. Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) I decided at checkpoint 2, 20km into stage 3 that my time as an official competitor in the race comes to an end. It was a hard decision to make and I had a good cry at the checkpoint before conceding defeat to the wonderful volunteers. They did try and talk me out of it, but i think my mind was made up when I was feeling delirious and absolutely sun burnt walking over the never ending rock plains. I wouldn’t say that I am in pain, Elaine is in a lot worse condition physically than me. I have not had to pop pain killers to get me through the race unlike everyone else here. But my spirit is down and I wasn’t enjoying any of it anymore.…“ She writes as she says goodbye to the competition. “I don’t think I have been any happier than this moment right now. I am proud of myself for having come so far and pulling out now does not take that experience away from me.”

Today the athlete’s will have to complete one of the toughest stages in the race, as they start on stage 4 “In the Footsteps of the Bushmen”, which has an approximate distance of a 100 km. It is to be expected that more competitors will drop out as the athlete’s get closer and closer to Lüderitz. How many of them will make it, and who the winner will be remains a question until the crossing of the finishing line on Friday the 22nd of May. We will keep you updated with the next issue.