Did you know Edit. Connections Edited into Fino alla fine del mondo: Running the Sahara User reviews 6 Review. Top review. Details Edit. Release date October 17, United States. United States. Official site. Box office Edit. Technical specs Edit. Runtime 1 hour 42 minutes. Related news. Mar 1 The Guardian - Film News. Contribute to this page Suggest an edit or add missing content.
Top Gap. By what name was Running the Sahara officially released in Canada in English? The trek is one of extremes. The relentless sun can push temperatures above 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. 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. About an hour later, they started running. Liquid calories became very important in this expedition. A: We were really a small team, if you compare us to expeditions that have taken place over the last 50 years.
Jeff Peterson, our logistics coordinator Don Webster, who's also a writer for National Geographic, and the remaining member was Mohamed Ixa. He was the native tour guide that enabled us to get across the desert safely.
He was always out in front making sure of that. He knew the desert unlike any other person on earth. A: [Laughs] Ray and I could talk about nothing all day, every day. Poor Kevin was stuck listening to us. I've known Kevin for a long time. He's Taiwanese.
His English is quite good, but it's very difficult to jump in with two guys that talk as much as Ray and I do. We talked a lot about running and our daily schedule. We got along great and we're still great friends, but just image spending straight days with any single person in your life never being more than feet away from them 24 hours a day. I'm talking eating, bathroom, sleeping, running, you name it.
We're right next to each other. At some point, you're ready to kill that person and push them off to the side of the trail! One of the things that really motivated us was the fact we decided that water was our real focus during this expedition. That sounds obvious for runners, but what I mean by that is we actually aided in setting up a NGO [nongovernment organization] called, "H20 Africa.
In particular, bring attention to the problem in the Sahara Desert. It was very motivating for us just to run through these towns and villages and see people that were happy, well-adjusted and family-oriented. But almost every place we encountered lacked access to clean water.
We're hoping that in phase two of this expedition, happening now, we're able to bring attention to that and solve a few of the problems over there. Q: I recall reading a story from Don Webster's blog. You all encountered a 7-year-old boy whose parents left him alone for a couple days, with very little food and drink, while they went to search for water. It seemed stories like that were common. A: Very common. That little boy was incredible. I have children of my own, Brett and Kevin, who are 12 and I couldn't imagine leaving them anywhere in the world.
I couldn't imagine leaving them in the house for two or three days by themselves! Just picture this 7-year-old boy who is out there in the desert in his nomadic camp.
He's fending for himself while his parents are off with the camels on a two-day journey just to get enough clean water to bring back to camp to last for a week.
Then, the process starts all over again. Q: I know you were able to give the boy some water and cookies, but it's like that will only last for so long. A: You really hit the nail on the head right there.
I was almost embarrassed at times about the expedition. When we did happen to encounter a village that might have some bottled water, I'm a Westerner and I could afford to go in and buy it. These people don't have that luxury. It was just very humbling to be there and see it firsthand. I realized that I had an opportunity to do something about it. I'm not sure what kind of impact I can make, but I do feel like it's my responsibility to at least spread the word and do what I can to bring attention to it.
A: We had a very difficult time getting in Libya. It's a dangerous area to go into and they weren't certain they wanted us there. Politics, religion and everything else was taken out of the picture. We commend them for that because we were certainly nonpolitical and nonreligious. They recognized that and realized we were hoping to do some good things for Africa. They allowed us to pass through.
Ultimately, it wasn't him that ended up helping, but rather a gentleman from Los Angeles who was involved in that community. A: Right, it was a man named Omar Turbi. I had actually seen him before on "Larry King Live" and some other shows. He's an American, but born in Libya. He's a Libya expert. He was very well-connected with the Libya government. Q: You mentioned the dangers involved with this expedition.
It was scary enough running on the streets with how bad some of the drivers were. Then, you're running through areas where there are minefields. A: I'll give you two very brief stories. One was when we were in Mauritania. We called it the Highway of Dead Animals. It was a wide two-lane road where cars regularly drove mph. There were no fences, even though camels, goat and sheep were all being herded.
Animals, just like deer in our country, happen to wander out in the road all the time. Let's just say it was ugly. Every day, we literally encountered hundreds of dead animals along the side of the road. Unfortunately, the smell that comes with that will never leave me. The other story involves me stopping to pee for the hundredth time that particular day. I stepped into this field and stepped over the remnants of a barbed wire fence. I'm standing there, doing my business, and one of the guards yells at me to come back over.
I walk back over to him and he's making what I like to call the international sign for explosion. He's shaking his finger at me and pointing to where I was just standing.
I got the picture and was a little more careful after that. Q: I should also point out there are apparently some difficulties in going to the bathroom in sandstorms.
A: Very, very true! We had a day stretch where we had winds and sandstorms that blew up every single day. Our joke, Kevin's in particular, was that you have to be very careful which direction you pee in a sandstorm.
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