At 5 a.m. local time, Zheng Junyue arrived at Rest Station 4, leading the women’s field. “I got lost so many times,” she said, pointing to the 169 kilometres she had run on her sports watch. That’s eight more than were officially foreseen. After taking a sleep of around two hours, and resting for a total of four hours, last year’s Ultra Gobi winner left the aid station.

Forty-five minutes later, Lucy Schodell, the Chinese runner’s closest rival, arrived, running alongside John William Carey. “We’re like brother and sister, connected professionally and travelling together to events,” John explains. 

‘The landscape we’re running through is stunning,’ enthused Lucy. ‘The volunteers are so friendly everywhere. Currently, second place for me? Yes, nice. However, the race is still so long; first I want to be safe and then I want to enjoy the Gobi Desert.”

‘I’m impressed by the variety of landscapes we’re running through. On the one hand, they’re very beautiful, but on the other, they make it harder to progress. The mountain sections in particular presented us with a few challenges – there’s no uphill training in New Orleans where we are from.”

Damian Kühn arrived at the R4 between the two women. “I had a really cold night. I needed the thermal blanket and sleeping bag, which I put around my neck to keep warm.” He has had to overcome various challenges: the different terrain, which he tackled by changing his shoes; sleep deprivation, which he combatted with power naps and a break in the R4; and finally, his equipment: ‘My rucksack is definitely three to five kilograms heavier than the others. But I couldn’t find the equipment ‘ which I wanted in my home country South Africa.

At 10:36 a.m., Kühn, Carey and Schodell left the refreshment point together: 240 km to go until the finish line. If Cody Poskin continues running as he has so far, he could reach the finish line at Gobi Spring before sunrise on Monday 7 October or at midnight in Europe.

According to the lead pack of  Ultra Gobi A, the 65km climb with more than 1500 meters of elevation gain, the climb was tough but the decent on the other side was madness. Athletes had to make their way without existing trails in steep slopes with Cody Poskin reaching Rest Station 2 in the lead followed by Aaron Kubala not far behind. Zheng Junyue, last year’s champion is the first female to arrive at R2.

Text Credits:  Daniel Keppler / Egon Theiner / Ultra Gobi Organizing Committee
Photo Credits: Ultra Gobi
Video Credits: ICARUS Sports