Running the Sahara
In the classic Greek story, the Greek soldier Pheidippides, was sent from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Greeks had defeated the Persians. To get the message to Athens quickly, he ran the 24 miles to Athens nonstop. Just moments after arriving and announcing “We are victorious!” he collapsed from exhaustion and died on the spot.
In reality, he probably made the run before the battle to ask for more troops, but the post-victory telling is much more inspiring.
Since 490 BC, runners have been running marathons. The first modern Olympic marathon was ran in 1896. The winner’s time was 3 hours and 18 minutes. The current World Record in the marathon is just under 2 hours and 5 minutes, more than an hour faster, even though the distance is about 1.5 mile further these days. 
Can you imagine running one or two marathons EVERY DAY? For three and a half months? Across the hottest and driest place on earth - the Sahara dessert? All 4,300 miles of it, from the coast of Senegal to the Red Sea?
That’s what a team of three endurance athletes did, led by Charlie Engle, one of the world’s top ultra-marathons did.
For 111 days at the end of 2006, crossing some of the hottest and most uninhabitable environments in the world, the three runners covered 40 to 50 miles a day.
To get an idea of what they had to endure, the average temperature across the entire Sahara is in the upper 80s, but in the hottest season, it can reach over 135 degrees, with nights temps dropping to below freezing. The widest change in historical temperatures one day change in the Sahara was 99 degrees.
Their goal was not just to run across the Sahara, but to create awareness regarding Africa’s critical water crisis and to support H2O Africa.
You can attend a special presentation at the National Geographic Society and join Charles Engle to hear his firsthand account of the team’s cross-Sahara journey.
Their story is being made into an upcoming documentary that will be narrated by Matt Damon.
The National Geographic presentation happens just ten days before the running of the annual Washington, DC Marine Corps Marathon - called the Marathon of the Monuments, on October 28th.
Running the Sahara
National Geographic Society - Grosvenor Auditorium
1600 M Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036 (map it)
202-857-7700
Dates and Times - Thursday, Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets - $18.00 and are available online.
Nearest Metro Subway Station - Farragut North, Red line, then a 3-block walk
Parking - Metered street and paid garage parking is available in the area.
Images - Flickr
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