Kevin Lin knows a thing or two about running. He is Taiwan's first ultramarathon1 runner and has faced some of the world's most intense
courses ever. In 2006, Lin won Racing the Planet's 4 Deserts
championship2. Having bragging3 rights after this race is definitely impressive. Racing the Planet started in Hong Kong in 2002. The idea was to blend
a challenging footrace4 with an unforgettable international experience.
The first race was the Gobi March in China with 43 runners competing. Since then, all the runs have been based on that first event.
A Racing the Planet race takes seven days
and is 250 kilometers long. In addition, runners must carry their own
supplies as they compete. What they gain is a cultural experience like
no other. The 4 Deserts championship is a series of races across the
world's four largest deserts—the Atacama, Gobi, Sahara, and Antarctica.
The series in progress now started in March 2011 and will end in November 2012.
The Atacama Desert is in Chile. It is a 1,000-kilometer strip5 of land that gets absolutely no rain and is regarded as
the driest place on Earth. Its high elevation6 and average daytime
temperature of 40 degrees Celsius7 make it one of the most difficult
races in the series. The fastest anyone has completed the Atacama
Crossing was just slightly less than 24 hours.
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