So you’re thinking about running the Camino? What an adventure! To follow is an in-depth guide that will tell you everything you need to know about running the Camino de Santiago. We will cover: How many routes there are What the terrain, route, and elevation is like The best time of year to run the … Read more
Marathon des Sables, French for Marathon of Sands (or MdS for short), is known as the “Toughest Footrace on Earth.” Why? Because it is roughly a 250-kilometer journey in seven days run in the hot sands of the Saharan desert. It is fully self-supported meaning there are no race crews, and you have to carry … Read more
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
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
The GlobalLimits race series is a collection of boutique stage races set in far-flung and culturally rich countries; Cambodia, Bhutan, and Albania. The series was founded by Stefan Betzelt, an experienced ultra-runner in his own right who realized no-one was organizing the types of races he wanted to run himself. Having run the Cambodia and … 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