Loneliness of the long distance runner

Aug 27 2008 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

As Team GB touches down to a fanfare of praise and plaudits, Emma Pinch meets a man who has had a spectacular sporting win of his own in Asia

AS RICHARD passed the finishing line the only spectators were the eagles circling lazily overhead in the blue desert air. But a billion watching on TV sets around the world wouldn’t have made his victory sweeter.

Richard Gannon, 38, from Warrington, won and broke the record for the Gobi Desert Challenge – 150 kilometres over five days in one of the most desolate regions on Earth – in aid of an army colleague’s son, who died at 16 from meningitis.

The Gobi desert challenge had appealed because it was “hard” and “in the middle of nowhere”. “People aren’t even sure if Mongolia actually exists,” jokes the former army commando.

Teams carry their own food and equipment in heat regularly topping 40 degrees and a terrain alive with scorpions and snakes.

Richard, now a diving instructor, was asked if he wanted to take part earlier this year to raise awareness of meningitis and money for the meningitis trust, following the death of Gareth Rowlands at 16.

His father Pete announced he was setting up three extreme challenges to be performed over three years to raise awareness of the disease and cash for the Meningitis Trust Richard was immediately interested. The first was a polar challenge – skiing to the North Pole, the second was rowing from Falmouth to New York. The third was running a substantial distance across a desert.

He found £2,000 to fund the trip and began his preparations with a “quite relaxing” London Marathon in April.

He bought lightweight camping equipment, clothing and food and customised them to shave off vital extra ounces. His toothbrush was cut down to a stump and foil dried meal packs replaced with lighter freezer bags, and he set off running round Plymouth, where he now lives, with his kit on his back.

“I wanted to give myself the best possible chance to win,” he says. “That was in my mind right from the start.”

The contestants ran in teams following linear features like roads or mountain ranges or flags, and would make for a defined finishing line each day where they would set up camp.

“I’d say hello if I passed a competitor then sprint away until I couldn’t see them any more. I was running off like a loon.” The first day he won by 25 minutes.

Snakes, scorpions, bears and eagles all made their home in the inhospitable surroundings, but the most fearsome enemy was the July heat.

“One day it was 41 degrees centigrade and that was just in the shade.” The sandy conditions also made it hard – as Richard knows, sand gets everywhere.

“It rubbed your shoulders, anywhere where you have a strap attached to you, sand gathers and rubs. Then there’s the constant pounding on your feet. I had to take pain killers for the pain. I got blisters, but my suffering was relatively bearable. Two guys had horrible blisters covering the entire soles of his feet and they had to be carried by their team because they couldn’t walk anymore. Their feet just looked like slaps of meat from the butchers.”