Helmut Tschellnig - The Track Mongolia - A Travel Report

What's it about?

Forty runners eastward. The Gablitz extreme athlete Helmut Tschellnig dares once again to run the ultramarathon through the desert. After several runs through six of the world's great sandboxes, including the Atacama, Sahara, and Namib, this time it's the Gobi Desert's turn. The Track Mongolia covers 520 kilometers in ten days, including a two-day queen stage of 120 kilometers. Forty participants are admitted to the adventure, which - apart from the sheer distance - involves almost five thousand meters of altitude. The air gets thin, one way or another. Because then, as Tschellnig says, "even the fastest go uphill instead of running." Sleeping will be in yurts, and this time there will be less sweating than in recent years. "A maximum of thirty-five degrees," grins Tschellnig, the Mister Teflon among sand track graduates. Will he make it through? Of course. "As long as the boss up there gives me the strength, I'll do it." (Press text)