Tamati to run across Gobi Desert

New Plymouth ultramarathon runner Lisa Tamati is going to remote China to compete in one of the top endurance competitions in the world.

Tamati will compete in the gruelling Gobi March, a six-stage, 250-kilometre race through China's Gobi Desert, starting on June 27. The event is part of the 4 Deserts series – labelled by Time magazine as one of the Top 10 endurance competitions in the world – and will take Tamati to parts of the country normally closed to non-Chinese. "I just love being able to test my limits in the most extreme and spectacular environments on earth," said Tamati, who leaves New Zealand on June 20, bound for Urumqi in north-western China.

The race is staged in the Gobi Desert's Turpan Basin, the second hottest desert on the planet, and competitors must carry their own food, clothing and gear. The race traverses mountains, sand dunes, canyons and passes the ancient Silk Route.

In races and training, Tamati, who has run many non-stop self-sufficiency style desert foot-races, has run the equivalent of more than two-and-a-half times around the world, despite breaking her back at age 21 and battling asthma all her life.

Last year Tamati, who was New Zealand Maori Sportswoman of 2008 – ran the length of New Zealand – 2200km in 43 days – to raise money for the two charities, Canteen and Cure Kids.

She has twice completed the Badwater Ultramarathon through America's Death Valley – the world's hottest desert. She has also twice completed the Marathon Des Sables desert race in Morocco and has raced through Niger's Sahara Desert and Jordan's Arabian Desert among others.

- © Fairfax NZ News