Running the Sahara
Monday, February 26th, 2007
All I can say about this group of guys who ran across the Sahara desert is wow. WOW. I mean, four thousand miles — in some of the worst weather conditions you can imagine! It makes a regular ol’ marathon in a regular ol’ US City look like nothing!The run took “only” (!) 111 days (at approximately 4000 miles covered, that’s nearly 40 miles a day!). That means the runners ran more than a marathon every day, some days running distances longer than two marathons! I can’t even imagine undertaking an athletic endeavor of that magnitude. All of the runners were in amazing shape, of course, but it’s not like you can actually practice running across the Sahara before you try it. It’s just gotta be done. And, amazingly enough, these guys did it!
Part of the runners’ motivation for completing this monumental run was to raise awareness about water quality. Water was obviously hugely important to the runners on their quest, but as they ran, they encountered many locals who have to spend upwards of 2 hours each day gathering and purifying water. That’s a hard concept to wrap your mind around when most of us can just turn on the tap to get water that’s safe to drink (if not as palatable as Evian).
The H2O Africa Foundation is working with the runners to raise awareness about water quality problems around the world. A documentary chronicling the runners’ journey, to be titled Running the Sahara, is currently in production and should be released sometime in 2007. The H2O Africa Foundation and everyone associated with this project hope the film will help inform people about water problems. If you see it advertised in a theatre near you, definitely attend! This movie is on my must-see list for 2007.
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