Racing the Planet

The Sahara Desert has been captured on film and photographed like a mysterious and exotic woman; all seductive silhouettes and promising curves, scorching hot by day, icy cool by night. For Martyn Sawyer, a race across its unforgiving terrain seemed like the perfectly logical thing to do. P.Ramakrishnan captures a few moments with the New Age Marathon man and asks the most obvious question, er... why?




The year was 1976. Actor Dustin Hoffman met the legendary Laurence Olivier on the set of the film "Marathon Man", where the model of method acting, Hoffman, decided to go through the physical hardship of extreme training for his role. Found in a state of complete exhaustion and with his body tested to the limit after a race, when Olivier met the gasping shell of the Oscar-winning star at the end, he simply said,"My dear fellow, have you tried acting?"

More than 30 years later, the anecdote swims in my mind while listening to the trials and tribulation of Martyn Sawyer. Last November, at the age of 49, the gung-ho and hearty hotel management senior executive ran across the Sahara Desert in seven days, with 60 other quixotic participants who joined "Racing the Planet", an event that takes place four times a year, when people from around the world congregate to traverse across some of the harshest environments in the world. Sawyer's first race ran the gamut of the Farafra and Bahariya Oases, in the largest desert in Egypt, the finish line being in front of the Sphinx just next to the Pyramids of Giza.

Sitting in his office in Hong Kong, Sawyer recounts the harshest moments of his experience. By day four in the Sahara, he had acquired a second skin of dust and dirt that covered his body almost entirely, a thick patina of fine brown powder that saved him from getting kicked out of the race and from sunburn.

"In the middle of the race, my leg had swollen up incredibly but I didn't have an infection. My legs were very red and when one of the medical staff saw me at the check point, they warned me that if this continued, they would have to pull me from the race," recalls the man who surprisingly, has no tan or debilitating injuries to show after having completed the grueling 250-kilometre journey. "By some miracle the swelling went down the following day, and the fine desert sand was almost the same colour as my skin. It covered my entire leg, so it wasn't red anymore... they let me continue the race."

The damage to Sawyer, for all its skin-peeling horrors, was nominal. "Five people had to be taken out of the race and there were others on intravenous drips at rest stops. I didn't mind the heat, but nothing bothered me as much as getting sand in my shoes - which I know sounds silly - but I had bought this pair of shoes that seemed like the most durable, comfortable and the lightest, but what I didn't count on was how very, very fine the sand was. It seeped through every hole and crevice and I was blistering badly". Had that continued each day, the end was nigh for the enthusiastic competitor. "I had to cut up a running mate's nylon shorts and pin the fabric over the holes to prevent the sand from getting in," he recalls.

For Sawyer, taking on this challenge was a mighty big mission and like any race, it all begins with the first step. "My first challenge was the Sahara and this will be followed by the Gobi Desert on June 17th this year, the Atacama Plains in Chile in March 2008 and then, if I make it through all that, I'll be eligible for the last race, Antarctica in January 2009", states the valiant globe trotter.

In the desert, the temperature can reach up to a searing 46 degrees Celsius in the summer, but the racer admits that it is as much a mental challenge as a physical one.

"I didn't understand it but at one time I was euphoric, ready to take on the world, but the next minute, sheer misery. It was devastating at times, but I never wanted to quit". Though it might seem like a vast monochrome canvas, there is actually much more to the desert Sawyer assures, than physical endurance, referring to the vast beauty in the endless landscape.

"Visually, it's absolutely stunning. I think the most captivating was the night sky," he says, painting a picture that his camera couldn't capture. "I slept out on the sand in a tent, crammed in with the rest of the surviving racers (there were only five casualties this year) and it's not the most comfortable tent in the world. The first night, I just made myself a little sarcophagus in the sand and stared at the sky. It's three dimensional, and so deep with stars. It's completely open to you and you can even see satellites dashing across it."

The race was eventually won by a 21 year-old, but even a 66 year-old man crossed the line to a warm reception of loud cheers from all participants. "That was my target, simply to finish the race. I knew I wouldn't come in first but that wasn't the point. Crossing the line was," admits the man who beyond any measure of doubt, is likely to continue to conquer the world, one step at a time.