Taiwanese completed 7,300km Sahara marathon

[kidd]

Taiwanese nears end of 7,300km Sahara marathon

STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, Feb 21, 2007, Page 1



Taiwanese ultra-marathon specialist Kevin Lin, center front, poses with endurance athletes and running partners Ray Zahab of Canada, second left, and Charlie Engle, second right, on the Libyan border, at a point in their 100-day marathon approximately 20 days from their destination.
PHOTO COURTESY OF GAMANIA

Taiwanese ultra-marathon specialist Kevin Lin (林義傑) arrived in Cairo on Monday as he nears the end of a 7,300km run across the Sahara from Senegal. The challenge will end on the Red Sea coast 200km from Cairo near the Suez Canal.

Lin was running with endurance athletes Charlie Engle from the US and Ray Zahab from Canada in what is thought to be the first crossing of the Sahara from coast to coast, starting in Senegal on Africa's west coast, passing through Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Libya before finishing in Egypt.

Lin has an international reputation for completing other established desert ultra-marathons, including crossings of the Gobi, Chile's Atacama, the Sahara in Egypt and Antarctica. The coast-to-coast crossing is being filmed by Hollywood documentary filmmaker and Academy Award winner James Moll.

The runners and their support team have had to negotiate treacherous terrain, including minefields, as well as risk of disease, war-torn regions and bureaucracy.

A series of detours added more than 800km to the route, which had originally been estimated at 6,500km.

According to Chinese-language media reports, Lin was expected to cover the last 320km of the run in three days, resting for a total of only five hours in that time.

Lin has kept a blog of his progress through the 100-day run across Africa at www.kevin-life.com/newsall.php.

Lin is expected back in Taipei on Saturday.

The National Council of Physical Fitness and Sports is expected to hold a press conference to welcome him back on the following Monday.

[kidd]

中國時報 2007.02.21　

穿越極地 林義傑跑出人類奇蹟

曾文祺/埃及傳真

他是「台灣囝仔」，他，在二○○七年二月廿日完成了人類首次徒步橫越撒哈拉大沙漠的世紀紀錄。這是林義傑為何而戰，為讓台灣驕傲而跑，選擇踏進極地超級馬拉松的故事。

國中畢業時十五歲的林義傑有段與父親揮淚道別的辛酸過往。他回憶：「我寫了封信給爸爸，放在爸媽床頭，信中提到，我要用雙腳闖天下，我說服爸爸選擇讀西湖工商未來也能上大學，圓我們林家也能教出一個大學生的夢。我請爸爸不要阻止我，我以考上大學來保證，希望他放手讓我『跑』。」

老爸勸阻 讀體育會「撿角」

那天好似老天刻意安排，林爸爸剛好返家，讀完信就奪門而出，噙著淚勸阻林義傑：「你是要去叨位（台語：哪裡）？讀體育的將來會『撿角』（沒前途），你好好聽我勸！」至今，林義傑仍記得這一幕。

當時林義傑打算離家，同時悖離父母就讀一般高中上大學的期盼，毅然選擇體育名師潘瑞根老師執教的田徑選手搖籃西湖工商。

那時，義傑根本還沒獲得西湖入學認可。就這樣，這個十五歲的少年，展開與家人聚少離多，全心奔馳的青春歲月。他告訴自己：一定要出人頭地，戴上方帽（大學畢業），讓瞧不起林家的人刮目相看。

高中再加上重考一年，林義傑得到許多老師相助，恩師潘瑞根硬著頭皮向朋友借錢供他補習，許春展老師數次塞錢夾在他的課本裡讓他生活飽暖無虞。高四補習那個寒冷的冬季，義傑有幾回在淒冷夜裡流淚，原因是翻開書本後看到老師留下紙鈔的激動（西湖工商特例讓他繼續住宿舍）。後來林義傑考上台北體院，晚上還要開著老爸的計程車掙學費、生活費。

一個轉念 決心挑戰撒哈拉

大四時某個下著雨的夜裡，義傑差點失神開車撞上仁愛路分隔島，那時他驚醒，覺得要好好找出屬於自己的出路，一瞬間的念頭讓他想起不久在法國巴黎比賽時所拿到的一份歷史悠久、在摩洛哥境內舉行的「撒哈拉七天六夜超級馬拉松」傳單。想要成為台灣第一位挑戰撒哈拉超級馬拉松的「轉念」就此改變了他的一生。

憑藉二○○○年台北國際二十四小時超級馬拉松賽冠軍及二○○○年台北國際一百公里馬拉松賽冠軍的經歷，林義傑獲准在○二年參與摩洛哥超馬比賽，從此踏入與他「糾纏不清」的撒哈拉沙漠。

他帶著國旗在撒哈拉超級馬拉松遭遇當地二十五年來最大的沙漠風暴（一度四十餘人失聯）、腳趾甲掉了數片、遇見海市蜃樓幻影等，最後因為缺水靠自己咬破嘴唇滲出的血止渴回到終點，拿到世界第十二名。那場挑戰極限的經驗，讓他看見自己優勢、珍惜生命存在的意義，因而建立起挑戰全球各項極地超級馬拉松的目標。

帶國旗亮相 成功推銷台灣

那次賽會，參賽高手因林義傑驚奇表現紛紛詢問那面國旗來自何方，他也因而成功的推銷了台灣。自此，他的「愛國癮」上身，發願要將國旗帶到地表各個極地。

林義傑於○三年參與第一屆「中國大戈壁七天六夜超級馬拉松賽」。那一役他陷入戈壁獨有原生植物「駱駝刺」荊棘林中，迷失在全無邊際的荒原，一度沒飲水，加上氣溫急遽升高到攝氏四十六度，陷入鬥志喪失的絕境。但最後，他撐了過來，拿到第三名佳績。

○四年林義傑進入美國太空總署作為火星探測實驗地、地表最乾燥的地域，參加首屆「智利阿他馬加寒漠超級馬拉松」拿下世界第一，那一次最驚險過程是發生了迷蹤，他一個人在深夜攝氏零下五度中摸黑尋找出路。

同年，「亞馬遜叢林七天六夜超級馬拉松」小傑拿下亞軍，還有一身疤痕印記、發燒、下痢、與鱷魚共泳亞馬遜河的驚險記。

林義傑在○五來到埃及，參加埃及境內的「撒哈拉超級馬拉松」，這是他第二回來到撒哈拉，再探沙漠詭譎多變的性格，這回以第二作收。

去年一月，他在人類首次於南極進行的「南極冰原超級馬拉松賽」接受攝氏零下三十餘度冰風暴襲擊，那時高燒不退的他，被南極特有由冰原竄出的「殺人風」吹起，整個人幾乎騰空、後退了數公尺，險些跌落斷崖。最後拿下第三名。

超越顛峰 台灣囝仔享榮耀

林義傑以戈壁、阿他加馬、埃及撒哈拉、南極四項成績總和拿到racing the planet世界四大極地超級馬拉松賽總冠軍。

總統陳水扁在去年頒贈他「四等景星勳章」，而最讓他感動的是，旅居馬來西亞多年的父母已站在同一陣線支持他。上回林爸爸偷偷返國參加他的記者會，現在林媽媽則是返台等待兒子回來共度新年，並分享他完成人類橫越大撒哈拉沙漠世紀挑戰的光榮時刻。

[kidd]

3 Endure 4,000-Mile Run Across Sahara

By ANNA JOHNSON
The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; 4:12 PM

IN THE WESTERN DESERT, Egypt -- Three ultra-endurance athletes have just done something most would consider insane: They ran the equivalent of two marathons a day for 111 days to become the first modern runners to cross the Sahara Desert's grueling 4,000 miles.

"It will take time to sink in ... but this is an absolutely once in a life time thing. They say ignorance is bliss, and now that I know how hard this is, I would never consider crossing the Sahara on foot again," said American runner Charlie Engle, 44, hours after he and the others completed the run at Egypt's Red Sea.

Engle said he, Canadian Ray Zahab, 38, and Kevin Lin, 30, of Taiwan, ran the final stretch of their journey that took them through the Giza pyramids and Cairo to the mouth of Suez Canal on four hours of sleep. Once they hit the Red Sea, they put their hands in the water to signify crossing the finish line.

"We touched the water in Senegal at the beginning, and we touched the water in the Red Sea at the end. They were the bookends of our journey," Engle, of Greensboro, North Carolina, said on the telephone from a hotel room in Cairo.

In less than four months, they have run across the world's largest desert, through six countries _ Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya and finally Egypt.

A film crew followed them, chronicling the desert journey for actor Matt Damon's production company, LivePlanet. Damon plans to narrate the "Running the Sahara" documentary.

The trek is one of extremes. The relentless sun can push temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, but at night it sometimes dips below freezing. Strong winds can abruptly send sand swooping in every direction, making it difficult to see and breathe.

Running through turbulent conditions is nothing new for these athletes who have traveled the world competing in adventure races. But they say nothing has tested their physical and mental limitations like the Sahara.

Throughout the run, the runners have been stricken with tendinitis, severe diarrhea, cramping and knee injuries all while running through the intense heat and wind _ often without a paved road in sight.

"This has been a life changing event," Engle said.

The runners say they undertook the challenge to see if they could accomplish something that many have called impossible. They use GPS devices to track their route and teamed up with local experts and a host of sports professionals who also followed them, along with the documentary crew, in four-wheel drive vehicles.

Typically, the three began each day with a 4 a.m. wake-up call. About an hour later, they started running. Around noon, they took a lunch break at a makeshift camp, devouring pasta, tuna and vegetables. A short nap on thin mattresses in a yellow-domed tent usually followed before they headed out on the second leg of their day's run.

Finally, around 9:30 p.m., they called it quits each day, returning to camp for a protein and carbohydrate-packed dinner before passing out for the night.

Despite the preparation and drive to finish, the runners said they often questioned _ mostly to themselves _ what they were doing. Zahab described stopping one recent day for a bathroom break only to discover the wind was blowing so harshly that he couldn't keep the sand out of his clothes. "And I thought to myself, 'What the hell am I doing?'" he said.

But Zahab kept going, as did the other two, never skipping a day. Most days the three ran a total of 44 to 50 miles _ sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

They were interviewed by The Associated Press on Saturday _ day 108 _ on the side of a road about 112 miles from Cairo in Egypt's harsh Western Desert, part of the greater Sahara.

At several points in their trek, the athletes stopped near sparsely populated wells to talk with villagers and nomads about the difficulties they face finding water. That marked another goal of the run _ raising awareness for the clean water nonprofit group H2O Africa.

"We have seen firsthand the need for clean water, which we take for granted in North America. It's such a foundation for any community," Zahab said during day 108's lunch break. The three plan to fund-raise for the group after they return home and finish recuperating.

"It started off as a huge motivator, especially as we passed through countries where the water wasn't clean," Engle said.

But as the trio's bodies became more depleted, the focus was "the day-to-day battle to stay alive and keep moving," he said.

[mountsac]

i saw an interview with him on ettv.

this guy's amazing.