How can you truly experience this beautiful and varied planet we live on? Competing in the RacingThePlanet 4 Deserts Ultramarathon Series would be one way. The 4 Deserts Ultramarathon Series takes place in four deserts around the world. Participants traverse 155 miles over several days in each self-supported ultramarathon, running through sand dunes, past an … Read more
It has certainly grown in popularity in the last few years, but what is ultra running? An ultramarathon is a run that covers any distance longer than that of a standard marathon – therefore, any run longer than 26.2 miles, or 42.195 kilometres is an ultramarathon. No one is saying that running a marathon is … Read more
With 10 months before Racing The Planet: Georgia kicks off, I spent a bit of time this week reviewing my gear and mapping out how I’m planning to train for the event. (to date I’ve done essentially no specific training, and haven’t done a stage race in > 3 years). Vardzia – part of the … Read more
My Path To Racing The Planet: Georgia Reflecting on my stage race experiences and how I signed up for Racing The Planet Georgia. *** It’s been almost three years since I ran a full stage race. After running several in quick succession from 2014 to 2016, it felt like a good time to take a break … Read more
Dion Leonard is an extreme runner and stage race veteran. He has tackled the Marathon des Sables several times, along with 3 x KAEM (Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon – which he won in 2017), MdS Peru, Gobi March 250km and Global Limits Cambodia (where I first met Dion) to name a few – regularly bagging podium … Read more
Filippo Rossi is a globetrotting journalist originally from the Swiss-Italian town of Lugano. In the last few years, Filippo has thrown himself around the world, running some of the most prestigious and challenging ultras and stage races in far-flung locales. His medal collection includes Marathon des Sables, Transgrancanaria, Endurance Life Dorset, Ultrabericus, Vulcano Trail and every … Read more
Cynthia Fish became one of the first women to complete the ‘4 Deserts Grand Slam Plus’ in 2016, completing five 250km races in a calendar year. She has also completed several other stage races, such as the Global Limits races. Cynthia walks her stage races – she is consistently ‘near the back’, but also has a … Read more
Sarah Sawyer makes no secret of the fact that she loves multi-day races, primarily because they combine two of her favourite pastimes – running and travel. She has completed a number of multi-day stage races around the world, including the Racing the Planet 250km Patagonia in 2017 (1st female), Racing the Planet 250km Ecuador (1st female) … Read more
Tony Brammer is one of the best-known figures in the world of stage races, particularly the 4 Deserts series, organised by RacingThePlanet. Tony set out to complete a single 4 Deserts race back in 2005, then went on to complete each of the races in the series. He joined the 4 Deserts Club in 2008. Since … Read more
Hey guys, I recently published the Stage Race Handbook – a full-on, 200-page guide to every part of preparation, training and running multi-day stage races such as the 4 Deserts series and Marathon des Sables. I was lucky enough to convince several well-known stage race runners and ultra-running legends to contribute to the book in … Read more
Having a good equipment list is a key part of stage race preparation, whether you are running a self-supported race like MdS or one of the 4 Deserts races, or a supported one such as the Global Limits races. I find that by far the best way to track my equipment when planning for a … Read more
One of the biggest challenges of a stage race is getting the right backpack. Here I explore what your criteria should be, how to test a good backpack and give some recommendations based on experience. A stage race is a race over two or more days, and they are typically ‘self-supported’ – this means … Read more
Gaiters are designed to prevent sand, dirt and other debris from entering your shoe. They fix onto your shoes and come in a few different designs. Gaiters are certainly not required for every type of race – however, if you are venturing into the desert (Marathon des Sables, some of the 4 Deserts series) … Read more
Stage races (also called multi-stage races) are completely different animals from regular, one-day races. Be it the Marathon des Sables, a 4 Deserts race or any of the other stage races popping up, you have to be able to run well over several days – which takes a lot of training and conditioning. Here, … Read more
A Stage race is a foot race that takes place over more than one day – or stage. They typically cover between two and six stages. Given there are so many stage races with different formats and elements, it’s a wide field to try and categorise. So here is a brief overview of what … Read more