The Ultramarathon Man, Dean Karnazes, gets
ready to tackle a sand dune.
It was an incredible goal to set out to achieve, and now the two who remain in pursuit of the title of being the first to complete all 4 Deserts in one calendar year are coming to their grand finale – The Last Desert. From the onset, Paul Liebenberg, the “Bush Doctor” and Dean Karnazes “Ultramarathon Man” began their journey under entirely different premises – Karnazes in response to a challenge set out by the founder of RacingThePlanet, Mary Gadams, and Liebenberg under the assumption that you needed to do this in order to go to The Last Desert. But once the objective was set, and the challenge taken up, there was nothing that was going to get in the way for either of them that could hasten their chase to the finish line.
A lot of stipulated competition has arisen due to the head to head aspect of two out of four competitors needing to drop out because of overtraining and overexertion – natural rivalry is borne out of situations such as these and the field has narrowed to a tête a tête of sorts. Even at first glance, it is immediately obvious that these two men are very different. Apart from the visible differences in physique, they do share a few things apart from a love for surfing in common – charisma and a need for the extreme. Karnazes is a seasoned runner, in fact, he is an elite runner that famously completed 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days, hence the name “Ultramarathon Man”. “Dean is a professional athlete,” Liebenberg says, “and I am an adventurer...there is a big difference.” Indeed, Liebenberg already has one foot out the door on this project and is currently planning yet another “first” to dirt bike his way to all seven summits of each continent of the world.
Liebenberg’s statement is true to a certain extent, as Karnazes earns his livelihood primarily through running and the offshoot trappings of a celebrity life being continuously in the public eye, such as product endorsement deals as well as being an author, public speaker and also lecturer. Karnazes has truly devoted his life to running, and all that comes with it. Liebenberg is a bush doctor with a love for the outdoors. He specifically chose a particular field of emergency medicine that requires him to constantly be on the go, and even fly out to far reaches of the Australian Outback being the only qualified obstetrician in the vast vicinity. “We both have a large appetite for life, and life for the journey more than the destination,” Karnazes discusses, “from my perspective, he [Liebenberg] has struggled a lot more than I have, physically and mentally – and this has been very inspirational for me – he had to dig a lot deeper to get where he is now.”
Performance wise, Karnaze’s experience with multi-day events and specialisation in running has fine tuned his body into a running machine – something that expresses itself in his consistent performance. Karnazes ranked in the top 5 for all three events he has already completed – he won the Atacama Crossing (Chile) 2008 as the “fastest survivor” as he put it, came fourth in the Gobi March (China) 2008, and second in the Sahara Race. Liebenberg is an all-round athlete and bike rides, swims, runs, plays various sports, and has had erratic performances throughout the events due to cramping and foot injury. Karnazes has a cumulative time lead of more than 30 hours on Liebenberg’s total time - the interesting thing about The Last Desert, is that it will be the first person to cross the actual finish line that will win the coveted title of being the “first to finish all 4 Deserts in one calendar year.”
Interestingly, and in a way predictably, they have both responded to this challenge in very different ways – one could even say, in opposition to one another. On one had, Karnazes has said that through the series of events that, “Through the experience, I have learnt to let it go a little bit more, and there are no elements of vanity that concern me now - I am less concerned about how I place and more concerned with what the experience is actually like.” Liebenberg admitted, “I have noticed through the events that I have become more competitive. But not necessarily with Dean, with myself – I constantly want to better my performance. It is not about him [Karnazes], for me. It is about my own personal growth and betterment, not in comparison to others, but in terms of my own satisfaction. I am always pushing myself to do one step better, and further. And at the same time, I strive to get the maximum out of every experience.”
Even in response to the dissimilar terrains of the 4 Deserts, Karnazes and Liebenberg have adapted in different ways and taken different things into their stride. “All the deserts have similarities, principally the sand, so it has been a fascinating experience,” says Karnazes, who researched each of the races to precision and commented on many different physical topographical intricacies particular to each event such as thermals and global climactic variables. Karnazes is perfectly equipped at each event, geared from head to toe in his trademark North Face clothing. Karnazes truly is the picture of perfection, he barely sweats and most of the time (bar one sighting of serious grunting on sand dunes) looks composed, cheery and focused. His stops at checkpoints are precise, he knows exactly what he needs, where things are in his pack and he is so in tuned with his body that electrolytes and nutrition are never an issue. Sure, it has taken a lot of experimenting and trial and error to get here – Karnazes has even done an experiment with self- administered intravenous liquid intake after severely dehydrating himself through exercise.
Liebenberg has tackled each race with verve and gusto, and is willing to take more risks each time. Training in the Australian Outback prepared his body for extreme heat, but in the interim, Liebenberg has also tried out different supplements such as Perpetuem (Hammer Nutrition), and adjusted the content of his pack to whittle it down to a nearly anorexic weight. There are obvious set backs with this inconsistency, and Liebenberg has had to contend with serious cramping in the process, which impeded his performance quite severely on some days. “One thing about the difficulty of the terrain in these races, is that in fact you do not always “run”, sometimes you have to walk.Walking requires a different gait to running, the biomechanics are totally different,” comments Liebenberg, “I do not have the time to train “walking”, so although I might be able to run for hours at end, I find that I get blisters after just 2-3 hours of walking.I learned this very valuable lesson in the Atacama Crossing, the 3rd day, I stupidly did not wear gaiters and A LOT of sand got into my shoes - with the help of sweat it turned into grinding paste and totally obliterated my feet when I was reduced to walking at a very slow pace because of a misjudgment of the amount of calories that I needed to finish the race.” Much of the journey for Liebenberg has been educational, both physically and also emotionally. There were times when the frustration, wear and tear of these grueling events marred his normally light-hearted demeanour, and his ever present smile and sense of humour were dampened by the physical discomfort he was experiencing.
But despite these differences in character and experience, they are both notably drawn to extremes. “Moderation bores me,” admits Karnazes, “Combining extreme elements with the extreme physical is what I live for.” Liebenberg shares these sentiments, “I am not a balanced individual and I have found the only way for me to deal with the physical and especially the emotional demands of bush medicine in the Australian Outback, is to push myself physically hard as well.The 4 Deserts races compliments the way I want to live my life perfectly, they take place in gorgeous places, not only aesthetically but also culturally, it therefore gives me the opportunity to push myself to the limit physically and mentally in beautiful, but harsh surroundings, surrounded by fascinating people (volunteers, athletes and people from the land).”
For now, the jury is out on who will complete the 4 Deserts challenge first – it could be either of them. Karnazes said, “ I hope to spend one day running with Liebenberg like I did at the Sahara Race (Egypt) 2008, it would be really rewarding for me to share this with Paul. I have to be honest…I found the competitive element like the separation of church and state – insofar as I didn’t want to get too caught up in it, but that it was also inevitable, as you need some sort of motivating factor to keep you going when the going gets tough. But my goal, first and foremost was to immerse myself in the experience of being in the desert.” It will be interesting to see the outcome of this whole experience, as nobody has achieved this before so the fact that either of these two men is vying to be the first, both of them are making sporting history. “There is a reason nobody has done it yet,” quips Liebenberg, “my body is so tired, it feels dead. At the end of the day, none of it matters as we have both completed it in one year. It is important to me to achieve this, and I don’t feel rivalry in respect to it.”
One thing is for sure, these two men different and similar as they may be, are tied together through the impending achievement of this historic act, and the shared experience of embarking on the seemingly impossible has consequently asked both of them to rise above concerns such as competition and enriched their lives in leaps and bounds.
Karnazes’ tips for survival:
1.Don’t bring shoes a size too big, it doesn’t work.
2.Light is right
3.Pack light, freeze at night
4.Sweeter foods sit better than spicy foods, especially when you are sharing a tent with others.
