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Desert Runner
| Date: |
09 August 2009 07:00 |
| Producer: |
Carol Albertyn Christie
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| Presenter: |
Bonita Gorrie-Nuttall
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| Show: | Carte Blanche |
It is dry, bone dry, and it is inhospitable. Those who venture to its edge, do so at their own peril.
This is the Namib Desert and the Fish River Canyon is the start of one of the most extreme endurance races in the world. Capetonian running sensation Ryan Sandes has been training two months for this event and is in his element.
Ryan Sandes (Runner): 'Main goal is to finish the race and then obviously the bonus would be to win it or to do well.'
It is the morning of the start of the first leg of 'Racing the Planet's' Namibian trail. The course drops about 500m down a treacherous rocky slope into the canyon, but having trained on Table Mountain Ryan is undaunted.
Ryan: 'People often try taking the easy route. I think I enjoy challenging myself to see how far I can push myself physically and mentally and I think I am probably stubbornly stupid in a way... I don't really let things get in my way.'
Bonita Gorrie-Nuttall (Carte Blanche presenter): 'The desert race is recognised as one of the toughest endurance races on the planet. Now imagine running a marathon every day for five days and then on the sixth day running 80km... or an ultra marathon. This is not a race for the feint-hearted.'
Few of us would survive the desert, let alone run races of 250km over six days. It is an extreme test of will power against the hottest, driest, windiest and coldest places on the earth. It is not surprising that it is called the 'Race of No Return'.
Bonita: 'And in these races there are no seconds, no one there to support you?'
Ryan: 'No, it is a self-supporting race, which also makes it that much more interesting. You have got to carry everything you need for seven days. The only thing you're given is a tent - an 8-man tent - which you share with eight other tent mates.'
There are no comforts, no showers, no beds, no toilets... All you are provided with is much needed drinking water.
Ryan: 'Then your backpack weighs say between eight to 12kg. You have to carry everything for the seven days: sleeping bag, a sleeping mat if you want - I don't ever really carry that luxury - all your clothing and then - most importantly - you have got to carry all your food for the seven days.'
Although Ryan looks like a seasoned athlete and completely at home in the desert, he has actually only been running for three years.
Ryan: 'I kind of got into accidentally in the last year of varsity. I entered the Knysna Marathon... well, tried to get into the half-marathon but entries were full already so entered the full marathon just to go up to Knysna just for a bit of a party with my friends. And things went well there and I got hooked and I take it from there.'
Twenty-three months later Ryan decided to enter his first Racing the Planet Desert marathon - the Gobi March in China. Ryan was a complete outsider and against the world's best endurance runners he did not think he would even finish the race.
Ryan: 'I think at that start line I didn't think I was even going to be able to run - my legs just froze up and felt like jelly but a few kilometres into the race it eased off.'
Ryan: 'I started off fairly slowly and then suddenly at the last check-point they said I was in second position. I got a bit of a fright... No South African has ever won a stage in this race so I thought I might as well just live every day as it comes and just go as hard as I could. Then I managed to chase down the next guy in front of me and I won that stage.'
[At check-point] Ryan: 'Thought I was going to die!'
Ryan was the first South African ever to win a stage in one of the races. It is not only the temperatures that are well over 35 degrees [Celsius] that you have to deal with, but unlike a road marathon, the surfaces are seldom smooth and Ryan says that staying on your feet involves a lot of concentration.
Ryan: 'It takes a lot longer, or a lot more time when you run on the trails than on the road. You can probably do about 10km on the road in about 40 minutes whereas on the trails it can take up to an hour-and-a-half.'
In other words it takes twice as long to run this treacherous terrain. Ryan surprised not only himself, but the running fraternity when he won every stage of the Gobi, making him the first South African to win this gruelling footrace.
Bonita: 'Out of complete obscurity Ryan Sandes exploded onto the international trail running scene leaving seasoned runners eating his dust. And some say he has a super hero gene but he's actually just a regular guy with a super dose of guts and determination.'
What captured everyone's attention is the fact that he is only 27 years old and a novice runner.
Professor Tim Noakes of the Sports Science Institute was also astounded at his achievement.
Prof Tim Noakes (Sports Science Institute): 'Ryan has been so successful at a young age even though most people who win these races are much older because he's got the mental attitude of an older person. So he's got the maturity of the older person, and again I'm not sure that he fully understands that, but the key to success in these races is mental discipline and mental control.'
There are four desert races, the Gobi March in China, the Sahara in Egypt, the Atacama in Chile and the Last Desert in the Antarctica. Ryan set his sights on becoming the first person in the world to win all four races.
With the Gobi race under his belt, Ryan geared up to challenge the Sahara and gain another title in the four deserts championship.
Here the heat was crippling with temperatures well over 40 degrees Celsius. But Ryan seems to thrive in the heat.
Bonita: 'Do you think that your body has adapted physiologically to endure these high temperatures?'
Ryan: 'Yes, I think a lot of training in the heat chamber definitely helps...'
Before the Sahara race, Ryan trained in the heat chamber at the Sports Science Institute to acclimatise himself to the harsh conditions of the desert.'
Ryan: 'I seem to enjoy the heat, but also mentally I think in the Sahara when you're first trying to adapt it feels like [you're] suffocating. It gets so hot a lot of competitors - like it freaks you out. But I'd been training in the heat chamber already so I kind of like knew what to expect and I think mentally that helped me a lot. But then also physically I think it helps just getting your body used to those kinds of temperatures.'
Professor Tim Noakes believes that it is Ryan's ability to perform in extreme temperatures that is the key to his success.
Prof Noakes: 'Because most of us, when we run in the heat, the first thing that we think is - 'it's very hot, I can't do this, I want to stop in 10km' - and he never ever seriously has those thoughts or if he has them he completely obliterates them. He enjoys the environment and that is the crucial. If you see the environment as an enemy you've lost before you start.'
Bonita: 'What drew you to the four desert races?
Ryan: 'They seemed to interest me... I suppose I have a surname like Sandes so I suppose I got attracted to sand. It is just something different I think, but really extreme condition and there are really beautiful places to go to.'
Ryan went on to win every stage of the Sahara and became the second person in the world to win two desert races. From complete obscurity he became a running legend proving that one does not have to have years of running experience to excel at an endurance race. In lieu of this he was named as one of the Five Running Heroes of 2008 by Runners Magazine. Mike Finch is the editor.
Mike Finch (Editor: Runners Magazine): 'He didn't come from a running background, he hasn't spent years racing at the top level, he didn't come through cross-country and track and all those sorts of things. He was literally just a surfer boy who went to run the Knysna Marathon on a whim and liked it and then continued to do it. And I think he's so inspiring because the average person out there, we all like to believe potentially there's something inside of us that can do something and I think he proves that that's possible and I think he's inspired a lot of people to prove that to themselves.'
Faced with 213 competitors from 38 countries Ryan wanted to prove himself and win the Namibian Race. Riding on the crest of his two previous desert wins he was narrowly outsmarted by a more experienced runner and came second. He believes that he has learnt a lot through this experience and is not unhappy with second place, but says he prefers coming first.
Ryan: 'I think coming second, I'll remember what that feeling feels like and I think I'll be more determined than ever to go out and win Atacama and the last desert in Antarctica.'
There is little doubt that with Ryan's steely determination he will achieve his goal to become world's best endurance runner - the four deserts champion.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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