Adventure in Mongolian desert

From just buying excellent running shoes to participating in Mongolia Ultra Marathon 225 km

By Heikki Ranta

Could you believe that just seven weeks ago I was going to buy special marathon running shoes for starting some running exercises to improve my health condition? Yes, certainly you would believe that. But would you believe that after not running in over 35 years I just last week participated in Mongolia Gobi Ultra Marathon 225km? Probably you do not believe that. But this story is true. I will explain how it was possible.

I was introduced five years ago by my Professor in Entrepreneurship to a special man Park Bok Jin, who designed ultra marathon shoes, wrote blogs and ran ultra marathons, and was living a free happy life. After these years I decided to find him and buy his shoes to start exercising for a triathlon. But after several weeks of seducement he convinced me to join the Mongolia Gobi Ultra Marathon 225 km.

He was telling me that it is a stage run with a lot of fun and that I could also ride in a car if got too tired or if I had any difficulties. A stage run means that we run only during the day and only a certain distance and sleep in the night in tents or gers (traditional Mongolian dwellings).

After buying the shoes, I went running in them. By the way Mr. Park’s motto was “free as a bird” and that’s why his shoes are called faab. So I went running and I felt nice as the shoes were very good and I also felt free as a bird. But I could hardly run 2 kilometers the first time; but after a week’s rest and new tries I was able to run 25 kilometers one week before D-Day.

We arrived in Mongolia late night and were accommodated in the Mongolian Olympic Committee House in Ulaan Baatar sleeping only a few hours as we had a departure at 7 a.m. for a long ride south to the Gobi Desert. After riding for several hours in the afternoon we stopped for the first short run of 20 kilometers. I started slowly and managed to run all the way. But I felt sore and tired. I was keeping up with another elder runner but his speed was probably a little bit fast for me. And I run in sandals as my toe was sore from the one week before 25 kilometer run in Seoul. But the cushions in the sandals were not so good and I got sore knees. Then we drove more and stopped for a camp to have a nice Mongolian dinner with kimchi and in the late evening arrived at a ger camp where we stayed overnight. And in the morning we packed and drove further like Nomads. On the second day we ran only 10 kilometers but I could run only about 5 km and then I had to walk the rest of the way as my knees started to hurt badly. But I enjoyed the scene of the beautiful endless steppe, freely herded cows, horses and sheep in the front of the silhouette of the Altai mountains and I walked to the end. I got a special massage and treatment for the knees by our physiotherapist. I taught that I could not run the next day. But I got a lot of advice from my Korean running friends. They were so kind that I got a knee tightening bandage from Mr. Park and a lot of advice from the long term runners as they wanted me to be ready for the next day’s run. Also how I should improve my running position and how I should step with my leg and what are the best socks and how I should tighten my shoe laces for the best results to be able to run a long distance and how to avoid pain and be able to run long distance. All the Korean friends and the Mongolian support staff were so helpful that it made me very happy and emotional.

We continued the daily runs and after the second day’s difficulties I did not have problem with my knee anymore. I was well treated and guided by our physiotherapist and doctor. But now I got a problem with my toes. On the third day what happened was I got black toe nails and blisters on my toes that hurt me when we ran 25 kilometers. But my helpful Korean friends sterilized and taped my toes and gave me a pair of toe socks; so the next day my toes were in running shape again and painless. On the fourth day we climbed a very beautiful sand mountain and run through the sand hills again and we could be barefoot. That was really nice and natural. I would recommend it to everyone. It was like walking on a sandy beach only we had to climb up. Coming down we could actually slide like on snow as the mountain was so steep. It was really fun. For the last days runs I did not have any problems with pain anywhere so I just could concentrate on running and challenge my strength limits. I mean that running uphill on the last day of running I could just see how much strength and mind I have. So after arriving at the finish line I had drained out all my energy. I was happy to finish and happy to have done it. It was a great feeling and I cried and fainted in the open endless steppe wilderness. I was so happy.

We had a couple of punk tires and one of our two engines overheating. But our teams were excellently knowledgeable and all problems were solved smoothly even when we had to leave one car on the road and cram up in the remaining vans in good friendship. The Eagel Valley in the southern part of Gobi Desert was a marvelous place. It could be compared to Grand Canyon but in the end we could find a real glacier that never melts. During the nights we could see also the location where dinosaurus’ eggs were found, and a ruined monastery with 28 temples that was destroyed to the ground during Stalin’s purge in the 1930’s. On the last day we had also a chance to ride Mongolian horses

This was an excellent adventure, I could only dream of at least once in my lifetime.

Heikki Ranta is the chairman of FinnCham Korea. ― Ed.