VIDEO: A Nonstop, Self-Supported 400K Race Across the Gobi Desert

Last fall, runners set off on the 400-kilometer (250-mile) Ultra Trail Gobi, a self-supported race in the beautiful, harsh Gobi Desert. The time limit was 150 hours, or six-and-one-quarter days.

Unlike most races of this distance, the Ultra Trail Gobi was not broken up into several one-day stages, but was run as a single, nonstop stage; competitors could pause to sleep, but the clock would continue to count down. Perhaps most daunting, runners didn’t follow a set course, but used GPS to navigate from one way point to the next, finding their own route in between over tough terrain.

This video, by The African Attachment, follows the runners who took on this brutal challenge, including Bryon Powell, “Runner-in-Chief” of iRunFar, and Betsy Kalmeyer, a 16-time finisher of the Hardrock 100.