What is RacingThePlanet I The 4 Deserts Ultramarathon Series?

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

Filippo Rossi: the Globetrotting Ultrarunner

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

Meet Cynthia Fish – The Turtle That Completed The 4 Deserts Grand Slam Plus

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

Runner Profile – Sarah Sawyer, Stage Race Extraordinaire

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

Meet Tony Brammer, Stage Race Guru and 4 Deserts Checkpoint Captain

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

Dean Karnazes on Stage Races and Running Far

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

How To Choose a Stage Race Backpack

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 for Runners

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

How To Train For A Stage Race (+ Training Plan)

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