What do the Gobi March, the Sahara Race and the Jungle Marathon have in common? South African running sensation, Ryan Sandes, has completed and won them all. We speak exclusively to Sandes on how he went from the Knysna Marathon to winning a 250km stage race in the Gobi desert.

His entrance into marathon running was not planned — he ‘stumbled’ across his first multi-stage race through Chile — but little more than a year later and South African running sensation Ryan Sandes is cleaning up on the world stage.

Incredibly, Sandes’s career began through a “happy accident” in Knysna, but since then he has not looked back.

“Three years ago, I decided to enter the Knysna half marathon with a bunch of mates, intent on having a bit of a party during the varsity break,” Sandes tells this website.

“But I couldn’t get into the half marathon because it was full, but was offered a spot in the full marathon and just jumped right in.”

He continues: “I did do a bit of training before the race — a couple of months — and really enjoyed it. After that I joined the Hout Bay Harriers (running club), who are more into trail running, and then finally I stumbled onto the 4Deserts website... ”

Racing the planet

The 4Deserts Series is one of a kind, made up of four seven-day stage races across some of the harshest terrain on earth — the Gobi Desert in China, Atacama Desert in Chile, the Sahara Desert in Egypt and Antartica.

Competitors can take part in any event at any time, except for The Last Desert in Antarctica which requires the completion of two of the 4Deserts, which includes the Gobi March, the Atacama Crossing and the Sahara Race.

Sandes’s quest for the extreme was answered on the 4Deserts website and while he admits to coming up short during his first race, since then, he has not looked back.

“I immediately signed up for the Atacama Crossing in Chile, which is the first of the 4Deserts races,” recalls Sandes.

“But going from 38km trail runs (with the Harriers) to a 250km stage race across a desert I went in underprepared and picked up chronic ITB and was forced to pull out.

Sandes learnt his lesson, however, and began training for the next event in the series — the Gobi March. The training paid off and the Hout Bay local won the event on his first attempt. He followed it up by winning the Sahara Race the same year...

The response in South Africa has been overwhelming, and while Sandes is not necessarily making millions from the sponsorships he has received, they do allow him to pursue running full-time.

And that’s something of a necessity when you run the kind of races he does.

On Page Two, Sandes gives the lowdown on running in the Amazon, rank feet, drinking dodgy water and his plans for the future.

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