Original subtitles

We'll be right back.

There are those who do what so many others never will.

Defy boundaries.

Break through barriers.

Starting with their own.

They dare to take on what might seem impossible.

It's as if something is planted deep within.

A belief that nothing is beyond reach.

Nothing is impossible.

I am...

tremendously happy and relieved that we are going to get the chance to try to

run across the Sahara Desert.

It will be a life changing experience and not just for the three runners, for

everybody who's along on this expedition.

I love

the

fact that it all came from a seemingly silly idea on a run one day.

I got to know Kevin and Charlie through racing.

I was part of a running team with them, and we instantly hit it off. We became

friends. I mean, they're like brothers, actually.

I went to Niger to do the Trans 333.

When I was there, it dawned on me, I thought, I wonder if anybody's ever

to run across the whole Sahara. Like, I just, I wondered, you know?

I called Charlie, and I was telling him how beautiful the Sahara was and how

incredible. He was saying, hey, I wonder if anybody's ever run across the whole

Sahara Desert.

And it's like, ha, ha, ha, you know, in my mind, I'm going, hey, I wonder if

anybody ever has done that.

And he said, you want to run across the Sahara Desert? I'm like, I would love to

join you. The very next person we call was Kevin.

Taiwan is ready to fight again.

I've been running for 20 years.

There are a lot of passionate reporters in Taiwan. They often ask me about my

news. Thank you, Ms. Yang.

But when you think about this country, you wonder what you can do, what you can

do, and what you can do. That's why I've been persisting.

For me, ultra running is 90 % mental, and the other 10 % is mental.

I have no clue how I do this shit. I wasn't fit before. I'm not a great

I was a smoker and a drinker.

And then I started running on a whim, and then I've been blessed to win a few

these races.

More than a couple of races. And why? I don't know. You know, I have no clue

why, but I know that I'm driven when I do it.

Doctor?

My legs feel heavy. It's so hard to lift my legs.

You know what I mean? I've just started running two years ago. I made a change

from sedentary and partying lifestyle overnight. Like a switch went off in my

head, and I said, I need to change my life. I need to do something different.

just have to do something different. This just isn't working anymore.

I want to be able to say that I actually ran two marathons a day, which is

basically what this amounts to. Two marathons a day for a minimum at 4 ,000

miles of about 80 days.

As my girlfriend Lisa and my family will attest, I make a lot of very

questionable decisions, and I have a lifelong history of it.

You did a good job.

On July 23rd of this past year, I had 14 years of sobriety from, you know,

significant alcohol and drug addiction. I was doing cocaine pretty much daily. I

was living on the streets for a period of time, screwing up my life, you know,

in a serious way.

Don't peg me either.

I am still that addict.

Hello?

No, we're just cooking dinner right now. It's Charlie.

Yeah.

Kathy says hello. Hello.

Kathy is my wife. We were just recently married.

The hardest thing in the Sahara will be being away from Kathy. You know, as

corny as it sounds, there will be a hole in my heart because there will be.

But she's with me on it. She backs me up 100%.

So Magellan is going to sponsor the expedition itself, but because the

have been so difficult, my finances are a mess right now, and I feel guilty as a

father a lot of times.

And it's just been very hard, and I don't feel good right now. I just want

run. Kevin and Charlie, they're amazing. They both have completely different

qualities. Kevin is the elite runner, you know, capable of a sub -220

I mean, it's just so impressive.

Charlie. Toughest guy on the planet and an amazing mountain runner.

Me, I love the Sahara. I love the people. I love the culture. I love

about the desert. The heat, the sand, everything that goes with it.

Two years of planning, exhaustive training, and finding sponsors for an

unprecedented test of endurance.

For a challenge that will become more than just a mark of personal

Much more.

And you know what? There's no other guys I'd rather do this with than Charlie

and Kevin. Really. I mean, it's going to be awesome.

I'm sort of the trail boss, I guess.

My job is sort of keeping everybody together and headed in the right

so that we're not making any big mistakes. Because once you start making

mistakes, they pile up on mistakes. And before you know it, you've got a

problem.

Good to see you guys. Doing all right? Good.

Is it bad that my sciatica is killing me? The reason Don Webster is the guy

the job is that he is a writer by trade, and so he's been to the Sahara Desert

numerous times to document stories for different publications.

I would not feel confident without Don Webster aboard.

Muhammad Iqsa is, I consider him sort of my African counterpart.

Mohammed has been through every situation on Earth. He's been without

He's been without fuel. He's been horrendously lost in sandstorms.

Mohammed Ixa and his team are really the key to this expedition in that they are

the native people of the Sahara Desert.

Their job is to set up the camp.

cook the food, make sure we don't get lost, keep us safe, and keep us

resupplied. Would Mohamed know if there are any other issues to deal with

politically? You know, whether or not there's any...

Well,

I mean, the other things I want to talk about...

you know are basically the rules of the expedition i mean we need to cross this

desert safely but we also need to cross it in a certain period of time if

there ever comes a time where someone is injured or just ill then you know

whoever that person is is going to have to get in the car and ride along until

they're able to rejoin i mean basically the goal of this expedition was to get

at least one person across the entire desert.

I mean, I'm prepared as far as anything catastrophic, but it's really, it's the

more mundane things that you have to think of again and again, and that is,

know, hydrating. The three of us are the runners, but essentially we're a team

of six.

Our doctor for this expedition is a gentleman named Jeff Peterson, who's a

doctor at Stanford.

This is our automatic external defibrillator.

This is our blood pressure cuff, O2 stat monitor.

Needless to say, it's a critical position.

Chuck, the physical therapist that's here, because what these guys are going

put themselves through is probably as demanding a physical set of exertions as

anybody ever has. He can treat it all.

I do sports therapy mostly.

It's just going to be a very fast turnaround.

We'll have to get them off their feet and get them cooled down, get them

hydrated and get their food going.

We'll get you in shade, we'll get you cool, and then just visualize Egypt.

That's the best way I can think of.

We'll just worry about tomorrow, today, get over there, running by 7 .30, 7 .45.

We're going to start tomorrow with our feet in the ocean off the coast of

Senegal.

Run north to Mauritania, east through Mali, keep going east through Niger,

bend north towards Libya, cross Libya into Egypt, head east to the Red Sea.

know, 90 days, I mean, it's going to be crazy.

I'm just trying to think about one day. I can't even think about more than a

day. All the time.

San Luis, Senegal.

It has been called the bridge between Africa's past and its future.

A long -ago slave port between the savannah and the Sahara, now a

connecting point.

The Western Sahara touches the Atlantic Ocean here.

six countries and 7 ,000 kilometers from the desert's eastern edge at the Red

Sea in Egypt. I thought that was our thing, though. I thought that was our

thing. If a sponsor asked me, are you sure you can do this?

My answer every single time was absolutely.

If my friends and my family asked me, are you sure you can do this? I'm like,

hell no, I'm not sure.

I mean, what I do know is that I want to do it, and I desperately need to do it.

All right, Kevin.

I love my home.

Remember that.

I try not to let negative thoughts enter my head about not making it.

I'm not thinking, oh man, are you going to feel like shit in 500k? Well, of

course I'm going to feel like shit in 500k.

That's a given. But I'm not thinking about that. I'm not dwelling on it. I'm

thinking about being there and doing it.

Let's get you guys dried off and into some running shoes.

Let's do it.

Where are we going?

Across that bridge?

Yeah, across both bridges, and we'll catch up with you at the traffic circle,

okay? Just a straight line?

All right, like 7, 15.

I say bonjour enough, you think they'll think I'm French? No.

Can you believe it? Can you believe we've actually started?

6 ,499 kilometers to go.

I wonder if now is a good time to tell everybody it's actually going to be a

little longer than that.

Hey guys! Bonjour!

We're at 15 .4.

That's fine. So we'll be at about 21, 22 total for today.

We'll know the border when we see it. It's a dam. You can't miss it. Oh, cool.

It's a family show.

You think Kevin will actually say anything before we get to Cairo?

Yeah.

We knew we needed to keep the mileage low today and give everybody, including

our support team, an opportunity to sort of work things out.

I'm going to bed.

Me too. Good night, guys.

Have a great sleep, guys.

Let the scorpions bite.

So what's going on is this. The drivers we have from Senegal

only have identity papers. They don't have passports. It's a lot of

There is a way through Africa, a way that must be negotiated as much as

navigated. This is really, like, torture.

The right word can gain cooperation and trust.

Without trust, governments can refuse to allow foreigners to cross borders and

travel freely.

See you guys.

Enjoy your stay in Mauritania.

Check out the gift shop.

Merci.

Yee -haw!

This is what a day will look like for us.

So we'll begin running at 5 o 'clock, somewhere around 11 or noon. We will

three or four hours off in the heat of the day and then begin running again at

o 'clock in the afternoon and run for four more hours, crash for the night,

up and do it all over again. A 12 -hour running day.

Kevin's cramping up already, due completely to dehydration. I mean, he's

than everybody else, so when he loses four pounds of water, it's percentage

much bigger for him. We're keeping on him to drink more Gatorade now, and I

think he'll work through it. But Jeff, the doctor, is concerned, and I'm

concerned. You're not drinking enough.

You're falling behind.

You know what? I don't know, man. That's a little heat draft, I think. We

typically go about five kilometers in front of the runners, and as soon as

roll into the stop, it's like a NASCAR pit stop. We get them out as quickly as

we can so they can get their mileage in for the day.

Thanks, Doc.

The funny thing about Kevin and difficulty is that he is probably the

accomplished, the most qualified to be here.

Hang in there, Kevin.

If you need to take a break or you need to stop or anything,

then you stop.

Yeah.

I don't want to stop.

Okay.

I think I've got my first two.

Oh, yeah. Oh, sexy.

That's a nice one.

The good news is we're catching it.

It's bigger than I thought.

Thank you.

I feel strongly that you guys should be running in the morning and at night.

Yeah, I mean, we're feeling pressure, of course, to keep schedule because we

were so late yesterday.

And I'm more worried about Kevin than Kevin.

It is stifling heat, and it will knock you down. I mean, it's 140 degrees

temperature, but they've got that drive that is just unflinching.

Is it tender?

A little bit, but not so bad.

You're severely dehydrated.

We're fighting, losing battle against the heat. But this will help you catch

My leg is uncomfortable.

But I told myself, you must do your best.

If you don't want to do this, no more.

I'm excited. I think Kev is going to feel a lot better tomorrow.

Yeah.

Is that Charlie or the doctor?

Pretty lonely for me because the cultural difference or language

When I run, I cry probably three or four times because I just miss my home.

This is a lot tougher than you could have ever thought.

We are fatigued, we're tired, we're not getting a lot of sleep.

I miss my wife.

My body wants to stop, my brain's telling my body to stop, and it's sort

physical and mental no -man's land.

I asked him could you go back down here, and he said no, it's just all

run over with streams and creeks.

He's moving faster.

It's a shame to see that beautiful stride all kinked up, too.

Kevin,

usually your running is perfect.

Now, not pretty. Now you run like me.

Oh, my God. Yeah, sorry.

So, Don, can you tell us what we did today?

We had a great morning.

It's like a different expedition.

I kept saying to Muhammad, if we do this, I can see us doing it.

It's not a problem.

Tev, how about you?

Happy today?

Yeah. You're very strong.

Yeah, because I create a song for Ray.

Sing it.

You like that?

It's good.

Ray, you are so sexy, sexy, sexy.

Ray, you are sexy, sexy, sexy.

Everybody loves you.

Ray, you like a cat.

But everyone loves you. You are sexy.

That's it.

How was that?

And so I walked around all night with my pants down to my ankle, carrying a

chair and an ashtray, and I borrowed a little dog.

Remember Shithead? Yeah, yeah, yeah. His dog.

That could have been bad. Don't do that again.

Okay,

get in here together.

Don said we have fresh vegetables tonight.

Oh, good.

Dude, I'm hungry. I don't know what's up.

Well, we're burning so many cows. Well, but I haven't been hungry.

Yeah.

That whole rack is camels. Yeah. From this guy.

They eat everything, don't they? Yeah. What is that, the liver? The liver.

Wow!

That's huge. That's a liver. It's new growth.

Do they say a prayer for the camel before they kill it? No, just for the

So two or three camels do they eat over seven days? That's incredible.

Merci beaucoup.

Merci.

We'd reached our point of maximum stink.

You can't smell any worse, and the fact is no one gives a damn because you don't

know if it's you or the person next to you that smells like shit, but someone

smells like shit.

The runners are hitting their stride, and it's lovely.

So now they're starting to think about bigger picture stuff. Okay, how long to

Timbuktu? How long to Agadez?

They're dying to get to Agadez. For us, I think Agadez is a little bit over

halfway. It signals a lot of stuff. It signals the holidays are here. With any

luck, wives and girlfriends will come and visit.

You know, I've said all along, and I will say again, and I will say to the

they put their feet in the Red Sea, I will never say how many days.

I mean, I've said all along, you know, it's roughly 100.

We're on the trail for about half an hour, 45 minutes this morning, and Ray

feeling really bad.

The best thing to do would be to stop for the day, but the fact is that's not

possible. We have to cover some miles today, so it's going to be a very long

for Ray.

Look, I'm going to die.

Hey, Don, is there anything you want of Ray's if he doesn't make it?

Ray, it's going to be okay, Ray. One way or another, it does not matter.

I know you feel awful.

The hardest part for me during this is that I have no choice but to set aside

all my own compassion for my team members.

It is an expedition. We're not racing each other. We're supporting each other.

But we came into this thing knowing there would be a lot of suffering.

Let's go.

Timbuktu. The name suggests a mythical place, but this 3 ,000 -year -old city

very real, with a rich history of trade in gold, ivory, and even human cargo.

An ancient city of books, civilization, and religion.

I mean, it's really tough rolling into a town like Timbuktu. It's so legendary.

so many things to see, but the focus is, you know, running. And so we experience

as much culture in a small amount of time that we can, but really it comes

to hours and minutes that we have to see anything.

because you don't want to just fly through everything.

At the same time, we're trying to juggle, right? We have no choice but to

running. Yeah, yeah.

There is a power in this place, a transformative power.

It's impossible to experience Africa from ground level and not be moved by

and by the people who too often are forced to risk life in order to preserve

There's a kid at the camp there.

I think he's seven. He lives by himself here.

Never seen a white person before. He's afraid of us. We came upon our crew.

They came up to us, told us about this little seven -year -old boy that they

just encountered living out in the desert by himself for days at a time

his parents go and get water.

It's really just amazing. Seven years old.

Wow. Two days for him to get water. His father.

Yeah, yeah. That's the water situation.

I mean, it's so much bigger an issue than I would have ever thought.

Yeah, it was amazing.

Okay.

Okay.

Bye -bye.

Bye -bye.

You know, he's touching my skin and rubbing it and going, it's just

the same, it's just a different color.

It's just amazing.

Like, he's here all alone, just there. It's humbling.

Yeah, it's amazing.

Two survivals.

We gave the little boy some food and some water.

You know, it's a fascinating story, and I think, in fact, with the nomadic

people out here, it's a very common one.

And water is such a key, because there's water right here. Right here where I'm

sitting, you know, or somewhere nearby, there is water. It's just underground.

And if there's no well, there's no water.

Look at him. He's playing with the light. He loves the light. Oh, yeah.

Charlie. He's playing with the light.

Niger, ravaged by drought, dominated by desert, the most imposing, unforgiving

part of the Sahara, a place the Tuareg people, nomads, call the Teneray.

They need 77 wells. Wow.

Each well is $10 ,000, and all that cost is the concrete, and all their wells

are drawn up. I mean, it's bad.

It's desperate.

Those people need help. Well, that's why so many of them are ending up, of

course, in Agadez. Exactly.

The nomads value their freedom of movement so much that they believe

the graves of the living.

So can we get this type with the cross of Agadez? Yes, sir.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, that's exactly how we envisioned it.

Muhammad has a well project.

He is working to drill wells that are usable by different villages and the

nomads in the desert.

There will be no more nomads if he doesn't provide water. They'll all move

the cities, saving a way of life and the people.

There's no modern equipment digging this thing. This is by hand through solid

rock. When it dawned on me, what better way to experience a well?

than to go down in it myself.

A little safety line for you? Yeah.

Goodbye, Ray.

Goodbye.

Do you see the

bat? The bat?

Oh, yeah.

Wow.

More down. I'm not to the bottom yet.

When they finally get it completed, that well alone will serve about 1 ,000

people. That 1 ,000 people, it will change their lives forever.

Tell him I don't want his job right now. So his job is safe.

So this is from Don and I. And Chuck rings with the cross of Agadez.

Oh, wow.

And running the Sahara inside.

Wow. Beautiful. Oh, my gosh.

Cool. All right? Dude, that's awesome.

That's amazing.

Thank you. It's so hard to believe it's Christmas Eve.

I know.

You can't tell. There's not a Santa in sight.

Merry Christmas.

Are you going to meet with Don tomorrow to talk to him about this whole Libya

thing? Yeah, hopefully Don will be getting a call from the UN and they'll

have good news for us.

We have a very, very big problem, and that is that we're going into Agadez

tomorrow, and we really don't know exactly where to go after that.

The reason for that is that we have not been granted passage through Libya.

Yeah, maybe Santa will come.

It's possible.

Will he come? It's possible. Santa.

You know what we should do? You want to open them?

No, save them for Christmas Day. No, let's open them. Yeah? Yeah. All right,

ahead. She won't mind.

You know, we had a great Christmas Eve because Lisa had packed some gifts for

us, so that was awesome.

What is it? I don't know.

Kevin, it's snow.

That's too funny.

Ready?

It's just for Kevin.

What a better way to spend a Christmas. We're halfway in Agadez Niger.

Literally the middle of the Sahara Desert. If you were to take your finger

look at this enormous desert and go, boom, there's a town there, that's what

you'd see.

Home sweet home.

Well, so where do we sit with the great state of Libya?

That's disappointing.

Hey!

Keep our fingers crossed with regard to Libya and then get creative after that.

The Libyans aren't saying no because diplomatically that looks bad. The

aren't saying yes because I don't think they're inclined to. I mean, we come out

of left field. It's not a diplomatic thing. It's not a tourism thing.

They just don't know what to do with us.

So what I got here is an enormous problem.

We got really nowhere to go.

The news.

It's not great.

No approvals for Libya.

They've known for nine months we wanted to go, and the answer coming back is the

same. Well, that's a bummer.

Yeah, I wish it was better news. I'm happy to make some calls in Chad. I'm

to make some calls to the Sudan.

The Sudan has now announced that any Americans found there without proper

paperwork are going to be considered spies liable to execution.

Any direction we go that is not into Libya, we are uninsured and really...

.N. did say that they can't guarantee us anything, including provisions,

including support, Algeria or Chad.

To go to the Libyan border and have to stop and say, that's the end of the

expedition, that would be very upsetting.

We're so pumped up and we're so steamed to just run, run, let's just hammer it

out to Egypt.

It might still happen. We get close to the border, they might say yes.

But it's 1 ,000K from here to the border.

Now you can go 1 ,000K and get no.

Yeah. Unfortunately, I mean, anything short of all the way across is an

failure. If Libya doesn't give the answer, we have no choice. It's a

It's a true thing. You think it's too late to call this running most of the

Sahara?

We are not

a big person. Nobody will laugh.

Oh, no, of course not. No, of course not. But I mean, to go so far, we need

try and exhaust every possibility.

I want everybody to sleep on it for a night and think about it, but I think...

attacking all options is the way to go.

We can go after Chad in the Sudan.

Chad should not be hard, right?

It's not hard. It's not hard to get permission, but it's just not

there. And we're going right into the middle of the problem.

And we're... Darfur? Yeah, we're going right into Darfur. And it's all mined.

You would see unexploded ordnance just sticking out of the sand.

Yeah. I mean, it's bad.

What do you want to do?

I'm not going to say no to that option at this point.

But I know this, Charlie. We head to Libya, and we go for it as if we're not

stopping. So you'll make some calls tomorrow, because frankly there's

can solve at this point.

It's been difficult for Westerners to enter Libya in recent decades, harder

still from Niger, where the border is officially closed.

A successful crossing will require permission from the highest levels of

authority, perhaps even the country's leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

It's hard to get out of bed every morning and go run right now because I

feel like we have anywhere to go.

It's my...

job, though, to be the one to say as often as I can, don't worry about it.

going to work out. It's going to work out. Meanwhile, inside, I'm like going,

what are we going to do?

Emotionally, it's really been hard.

They're doing an awesome job. That's amazing. I don't know how they do that

this weather.

Oh, there we go, a little YouTube, a little Bono for them.

It's Bono?

I explained as well as I could.

where we had gone, and three times he went over it.

Wait, what?

Senegal?

Mauritania?

Yes, a few days ago, my girlfriend, Nicole, also... At that time, in my

head, it was like I was on vacation.

Because it made me feel very, very relaxed.

Last time you went to America, right? Yes, because I'm the only Asian here.

No one tells me my own language.

So I don't feel so lonely.

We just keep on going to the border crossing from Niger into Libya.

At least make them say, no, you can't come in. Then if they did, maybe we head

up towards Algeria and make them say, no, you can't come in.

I don't know. Then we try to find some other people to reject us. Maybe some

individuals along the way.

Can we come into your house?

No.

Something's got to happen.

I'm happy we're moving.

Seeing some cool stuff and having some fun.

I don't want to hurt Charlie and Ray because I know if

I leave early, I mean... Because I have

my concern point about dangerous thing.

Very honest. Because you know I didn't have any opinion.

I mean, I just follow with you guys. I love you guys.

But this time is very different for me. I mean, very difficult.

It's just like we've come so far.

Yeah. You know? Yeah.

I don't even want to think about anything but just continuing together.

Part of me wants to say, you committed to doing this thing and you're going to

continue.

The other part of me, you know, says, you know what? If a person doesn't want

be out here... then they shouldn't be out here because this is really, really

important to me, and I think it's really important to Ray.

You're going to have to make the best decision for us as a team, whatever that

is. We can't let him just quit because I know how he's going to feel about that

later.

I think I will leave early.

And when?

I think maybe tomorrow.

What do you think?

But if you don't finish it, does it mean you don't have the spirit?

In the past, many adventurers didn't complete their mission. But their spirit

still exists.

They just want you to put the focus on ending it. But they didn't consider your

feelings. Yes.

They just want you to end it.

There are many ways to end it. There are many ways to end it.

It's not that I'm blind, I have no purpose, and I keep changing directions

end it. It's not that I rely on my luck to get to a place, and I rely on my luck

to get to a place.

I can't move forward and find another direction. I think it's a waste of time.

I won't regret it.

If I don't move forward?

You said if I don't move forward?

What's the dollar?

I just can't believe that anything would stop you, Kev. You fought back from the

knees. You fought back from the sickness.

You got to fight whatever this is.

Expedition is difficult.

There's no answers.

That's the whole thing. You always have to wait and see what happens next.

That's why it's exciting.

If you don't want excitement, then run a marathon.

You know, you can get water at every station and you can take a shower and

at night, but that's not you.

You can do this.

You don't want to quit.

We are going to finish, but we want it to be with you.

We're a team.

Don't quit.

Just run to Libya.

Ten more days.

If you still want to quit, then you can quit.

Will you stay until Libya?

Yeah.

Yeah?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

I miss having coffee with you first thing in the morning. I think about you

the time. Don't even think for a minute.

Even though we're running and that's what we're here to do is to run.

Every kilometer I think about you. Every single kilometer.

Every mile, every minute I'm thinking about you.

I can't come up with the words that I need to describe everything.

I'm going to miss it so much.

I hope I'll learn something from this and be a better

husband.

Appreciate things more.

I hope you do.

I have to go for a poo.

I'm sorry.

You can work on the romantic stuff. You're out there running. Can I be a

more romantic?

Running has consumed my life completely for the last three years.

After being out here for so long, there's been a transition in my

Greatest Christmas present I could have had.

The expedition has made my emotions more richer or, I don't know, you know.

Chocolate tastes different, just better, you know, that sort of thing.

Have a safe trip.

Bye.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Happy New Year!

Okay, let's go.

We are in the Tenerife Desert.

It's got to be the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life. It's just

this huge ocean of sand.

You're running across an area of the earth that is so arid and

so empty, but so beautiful.

I see that look on your face, dude. Don't worry about it. I'm just having a

mentally hard day today. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm really scared

not. being able to finish i don't know what i don't know why it's in my head

like i just feel really weak this morning i woke up feeling sore and

and feeling on the verge of wanting to quit like it's just not happening i

know like i really i'm doubting myself don't sweat it just you know what dude i

mean we're now within like 30k of turning north yeah

I mean, hell, we could do it right now, but I want to see Foshee. It sounds

interesting. I want to see it, too, especially if it's a real oasis. When

hope seems to evaporate in the desert sun, there is the renewal of the spirit,

the oasis, like a stepping stone across the desert, drawing people for miles and

days to its life -giving water.

Entering Fasci, I left feeling healed.

Running with these kids has such a huge impact.

Their faces, their energy, I'll never forget it.

The Sahara is a world of extremes, where suffocating winds create sandstorms

that can kick Duft up over 15 ,000 feet.

It's no wonder these winds became one of the earliest gods to receive our

prayers.

Holy.

I've never run in anything like this. Yeah, me neither.

I think it's the hardest running we've had.

I think so, too. Definitely.

You know what?

I think it's getting worse.

Yeah, it's getting much worse.

The wind is so strong, it is hard to breathe, you know.

Look at the side of my shoe.

That's two kilometers, and it actually blew into the side of it.

50 mile an hour straight line winds, and when the wind blows out here, it picks

up everything that it can and throws it in your face.

and our eyes, and you run for an hour, and you can just feel the grinding, you

know, in your teeth and nose.

We're just absolutely covered.

Whoa.

Shit, that hurts.

Yeah. Like needles.

We've been out for 51 minutes since the last TV. I know. It'd be a bad place to

get lost.

Yeah, seriously.

Hand me that GPS so I can check where we are.

Our support vehicle went on up ahead, I don't know, 3, 4K, whatever. But the

sand was blowing so hard, the tracks had felled over.

And so now we're basically wandering aimlessly through the desert in the

sandstorm for maybe two hours. We'd gone and hadn't seen anybody.

Well, it's still got us heading in the exact right direction.

The problem is out here, with this much blowing sand, we're more than...

Half a kilometer off, we won't see them. Yeah.

I feel like they went too far.

All we were doing was running and drive open and look for the vehicle. You're

not thinking, hmm, I could die out here. You're not giving yourself that time, I

guess. All you're thinking about is locating the vehicle so that you're

be all right.

Oh, I'm happy every time I see that truck.

I got a temper tantrum.

I got angry at the planet. I got angry at the Sahara.

They've all lost weight.

Charlie's lost, I think, 40 pounds.

Ray's at 30. Kevin's at 25.

They have no fat reserves whatsoever, and they're eating whatever they

can. Our meals are fantastic.

Our cook is doing a great job, but I'm supposed to eat and drink as many

calories as I possibly can get.

We eat chips, we eat cookies, we eat candy, energy bars.

We went through Agadez and got about $700 worth of cookies. The better the

calories taste, the better off we are. I think we're almost out of peanut

butter. I have another whole one in my other bag.

I gave it to you, didn't I?

Are you happy?

Oh,

I heard that.

Very good.

All right, thanks.

Gentlemen, I have news.

Oh. We're in.

Woo -hoo!

Really? Yeah, starting any time we want to get there.

Woo -hoo! Is that right? Yeah. The day I get a no from the UN, Omar Turbi, this

American Libyan businessman, steps up and begins making calls, and he's done

miraculous things. So now you understand you have to go to Libya.

Oh, yeah.

Uh -huh.

Uh -huh.

Uh -huh.

I think Kevin was still thinking, all I said was I was going to the border.

Omar Turby came to our aid literally in the 11th hour, and it was like a weight

got lifted from everybody's shoulders.

Doing good. Keep your head in it.

So no lunch yet?

Camp is 23K ahead. They're going to get food and come back.

No food and no explanation?

No. Running smooth as ever.

So Don and I have a long friendship, nearly 10 years, and we've had a bit of

disagreement brewing.

He brought up, right after the good news about Libya, his need to leave by a

certain date.

I didn't say much when he first told me, but as the news settled in, I started

to feel as though he was just giving up on the team, on me, on the entire

expedition.

Forget about us?

Noon was supposed to be lunch.

We had this conversation yesterday, and we had it again this morning. I never

had that conversation yesterday.

Yes, we did.

I don't believe so.

I think I remember.

On Libya.

I know you have other commitments.

But, you know, anybody that basically doesn't want to be here after being with

us for 65 days needs to hit the road.

I mean, I don't know what else to say, but if we haven't earned enough respect

by our hard work. I don't think that's the case. I don't think it's an earning

respect thing. I can't believe what you tell me that you don't want to stay

until the end.

I didn't say that.

I said I had commitments in February.

I might go early.

It might be February 2nd. It might be February 9th.

Charlie, if it goes late, February gets tight for me, but I'm still with you.

I'm not talking about you right now. Unless you want to get involved in this.

No, I don't want to get involved. I thought it included me. I apologize.

I mean, my feelings are hurt. This is nothing more than a job for you. I

your commitment to this project was different than that. And it's your

right to live your life the way you want to live it.

Totally respect that. Thank you. Totally respect that, but I need you to go.

Okay. Because if you don't want to be here, I don't want you here.

Did I ever say that? I don't remember that conversation. Well, you cannot

now to staying to the end. When is the end?

The end is when we get to Cairo.

He really didn't give me any out. It's either a job or it's a passion. I've got

several other assignments out there, things I, you know, committed to just

I committed to this.

I'm not running, you know, I'm not.

He has to have the passion.

There's no way you could do this and not have that passion. You're the one who

came in here all nagged, man. You know, I am, because the lunch was an hour and

a half late. I was. You need some reason to get mad at me. If you want to quit

the expedition, then... Well, actually, I'm not quitting. You're pushing me off.

Don. Okay?

Don't be a baby. Oh, who's being a baby?

Don't stay with my expedition.

Come on, Charlie. Come on, man.

You and me are getting ready to take this to a different fucking level.

You want to start talking to me like that?

When cooler heads prevail, I think he will commit. I tried ten different ways

today to get him to say that he wanted to be here. All I care about is

commitment. I would go to the ends of the earth for anybody here.

that just wants to be here.

You just became a victim of the mental aspect of someone running 70 to 80K a

day. Because there's going to be an outburst. I know. Like I said, it's not

job to be a human sacrifice when someone needs fuel to get them up the hill.

It's not why I'm here.

I worried whether or not Charlie hadn't just gone over the edge.

If you look out there, all you see is them running, but there's a ton more

on inside of their head, and a small little thing can immediately explode

something so big that the expedition is done.

I would like for you to stay and get us through Libya.

Appreciate it. No matter what I said yesterday, I was emotional and whatever,

but I mean, I appreciate what you've done. I won't hold it against you. One

second, I'll hug you and...

Wish you the best, and I know you'll do the same with us if you need to go. And

if you decide that you can or want to stay, I think that we would, you know, I

know I would love it personally.

Yeah, yeah.

See you guys later. See you in Libya.

Libya is a very good country, a very different country, a very mysterious

country. Of course, we hope to see the mysterious and beautiful places of this

country. But we still want to quickly complete the entire adventure.

Oh, pew.

That was like a 10 -second fart right there, too.

Yeah, I know.

No, you don't. Yeah, I know. No, you don't.

I'm just going to dispute everything you say today.

Okay. It's not okay.

You don't wear women's underwear. Yes, I do.

Four down, two to go.

Omar,

how are you?

Thank you. Oh, my Lord, thank you. You were the key that got us into an

otherwise locked door. It's you that are making it through.

Thanks, man.

The Libyan government is sending you a message that they welcome you here.

Believe me, it took mountains to get people through the borders and get the

visas and get things moving forward. Well, and be sure to pass along back for

on our behalf that we thank the government very much because, again, we

want to see a beautiful place, politics aside and all. I mean, we're not, you

know, we're just runners.

Right, this is where we are.

And we've actually explored.

Several routes.

We had about 11 people that really know this area really well. We told them that

these guys want to get here as fast as possible. There's a mountain range over

here somewhere.

Very tough, so we're not going to go through.

Well, thank you very much. I love what I'm seeing.

I definitely want to run with you for a little bit if you allow me. Anytime.

Anytime. As much as you want. As often as you want. We would love it. Yeah, we

do.

It's been a tough go lately.

The guys are really tired.

Keep having this wind that shifts sides behind their back sometimes.

Unfortunately, when it's in their face, it's really, really strong.

And it's gotten colder.

When I wake up and my eyes open, it's like, oh, no.

Every day is an act of desperation.

The last two or three days have been down in the low 30s in the morning.

We're running on bodies that are just simply out of gas.

If there are mines, will it be... And we have to go out through... Tripoli has

been very, very cooperative.

And we have a lot of... We have many friends in Tripoli. They're going to

us. Every couple of days, Don and Mohammed and Omar and the chief of

from Libya will get together and they'll look at the route on a map.

We've had to follow the security folks, not to the best interest of the runners.

They say that there are mountains that are treacherous that we can't cross, or

there's a question about some minefields at the border, and we're having to

alter our route.

Just the sheer volume of security that's been with us, for us, is almost

embarrassing because we can't figure out whether it's for our security or to

watch what we're doing, or just both. Right,

good.

One day, the runners ran 80 kilometers, and they only gained 26 kilometers

toward our destination.

So it's very frustrating for all of us because we just want to get this thing

over with and go home.

Right now we're at work. We're in Libya and it's work.

We are here to run.

Sometimes it really sucks, but we run.

And when we get across Libya and we're at Egypt's door, then we're going to see

the light at the end of the tunnel.

Okay. I'm exhausted.

I got sick with an upper respiratory infection. Just go for it.

The three of us, Chuck, Don, and myself, are exhausted. We're supposed to be

done by now. A lot of times it's far from one big happy family, but there

any fighting whatsoever.

It's whatever it takes to get the job done, and that's it.

Keep going, keep going, keep going.

Good, good, good, good, good, good. Just hold that there and open it up. Open it

up, give me some tape. Let's get you squared away, dude.

It's my medical integrity that's keeping me going, and I want to see them

finish, but I would not do this again.

There you go, buddy. Good job, bro.

Charlie for Don.

Yeah, just not really bad stuff going on with Ray's leg. He's now got this giant

knot on the front of his shin, and it's definitely going downhill.

Nick, I knew that I'd be injured. I never thought I'd be debilitated.

Yeah. The last couple of days have been torturous because I've had this

reoccurring injury with my Achilles, which is now...

gone into the front of my shin, and I'm worried that it might stop me from

finishing.

They all three agreed that if one runner went down to the point that they had to

take a full day off, then they would evaluate, you know, leaving that person

behind, and they would be out of the expedition.

We can't do an X -ray to see if there's a stress fracture or anything, which

there possibly could be. Who knows?

That type of injury is something that would stop him from completing this run.

Hey, Don.

Hey, Charlie.

I see Ray's satellite phone.

Where is the one for me?

This was his car. Do you want it now?

Yes, as we discussed, yes.

I'll be there in a minute, man.

Shit, we just had the conversation.

The runners are not doing that well.

I think emotionally they're almost at their end point.

Charlie's trying to hang in there, but he's essentially a powder keg waiting to

explode. I gave an absolute out date, and we are pretty much past that.

I have tried to extend it and continue to do so, and so I'm

trying to stay on as long as I can.

This is day...

98 of our 80 -day adventure.

They're elite athletes, and elite athletes push themselves to those

Charlie, I think, will push himself and anyone else that's involved around him

in this expedition to the point of breaking.

Myself and Doc and Don are all leaving to go to Cairo.

Don will be leaving.

permanently. He'll be gone and Doc and I are going to stay for a few days and

relax and then he and I are going to come back out with my wife and Ray's

Kathy.

The break is going to be nice, but I will be back. Yeah, I'll be back out to

help push him through.

Are you leaving now?

Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, we need to get to camp, so we can't stop, so we'll just

have to say a quick goodbye.

So...

All right. Get there, man. All right, we will.

Thanks for everything. The timing of it's always been such with me that 100

was about the limit I could do.

Unfortunately, I've got other obligations.

It makes me kind of sick, actually. The idea that I'd have to miss literally the

last week or 10 days is unbelievable.

All right, get there, guys.

Yeah, I know. Because he's so funny. And I know we'll see the boys again.

Yeah. You know, but, I mean, that's it. Don's gone. Yeah. I think it's going to

be really hard for him.

As far as everything I know about Don, he always finishes what he starts.

And in this case, you know, he chose not to.

So we're apparently about 5K from the border of Egypt.

We're ready to get going.

That's for sure.

I thought those were happy horns. I thought it was like a parade horn.

It was a good send -off.

Time to go to Egypt.

I just want to see Lin Yi -jie running the last part of the Egyptian journey

with him.

I'm very touched.

The reason that I'm at a hotel in Cairo is, and this is Chuck and I, to come in

and get medicines that the runners are running out of.

I mean, I'm going back there to be with the runners, but it's nice to have the

opportunity to relax after putting up with so much for so long.

You've got the runners that are exhausted, and you've got Charlie that's

disciplinarian, and because of that approach, he's not winning any friends.

From the time we hit the border of Egypt, we basically ran as much every

day as we possibly could.

We'd gotten to a point where we could run 50 miles every day and it had become

comfortable. But what I wanted to do was to push it to the absolute maximum that

I felt like we could do, and I wanted us to suffer to find a new level of self

-discovery.

I keep forgetting.

What's our distance to the finish?

530 kilometers.

Okay.

We're going to need to go probably until 10 o 'clock tonight.

There's no way we'll make the mileage otherwise.

Yeah, okay.

I mean, at this point, however long it takes to get our 100 is what we really

need to do. Yeah.

Feels like your hamstring's all cramped up.

Yeah, you got to give it a break, dude.

You got to give it a break.

How are you? Thank you. Good to see you. How are you, Doc? Good.

Chuck and Jeff chose to leave the expedition and go to Cairo. I said...

Fine, go, even though I didn't really mean it.

And I, you know, we discussed he'd be gone two or three days, and it was nine

days. You know, I felt like they left us at the most critical time in the

expedition. How y 'all feeling?

Our vacation has yet to begin, but we're getting there.

Did they let us down?

Yeah, they let me down.

To me, the only important thing was getting the three runners to the Red

I never heard anything. I mean, we'd just been running.

Right. I didn't really know what was going on, but, I mean, I don't, I doubt,

yeah. I mean, you're probably not going to do any work at this point. I mean, I

think we're basically just going to be running through lunch from this point

forward and all that, so.

Well, then I'll just hang out and see you at the end. Okay, all right.

Wasn't quite welcome when I returned, and that hurt a little bit.

A blister smaller than a dime had turned into a blister the size of a baseball.

I wanted like this last week or so to somehow be, I think in my daydreams, you

know, I'd finally be learning the lessons.

We wanted to run the Sahara because we love the desert and we love the people.

And to be honest, all I want to do is get to the finish.

All I can think about is stopping.

It's like it all waited until the very end for me.

Oh, you realize it's day 110?

We finished 20 days ago.

Hey! Look in front of us.

That's so awesome!

Woo!

I'm really, really excited.

Get in there.

You know what?

Here it is.

It's just incredible.

Isn't that awesome?

7 ,300 kilometers to this point.

And we ran here.

It's a long, long way, but it was a cool work.

The last couple of days, we decided regardless of pain, it was 160K run

to the Red Sea without stopping.

It's like the horse that knows the grains in the barn and it takes off for

barn. The barn was the Red Sea, and we're just aiming for it.

Cairo the seventh largest city in the world over 16 million people along the

Nile River a whole population drawn to the water

This doesn't seem dangerous at all All of a sudden we

are in downtown Cairo and we're running on highways. We're running in traffic

like I've never seen crazy traffic Horns were honking, people were yelling, the

cars were darting in and out. You know, I really felt more like my life was in

danger than at any other point during the expedition.

Go check it out.

Oh, wow.

That's our last one.

Yeah, that's true.

I'm worried this is going to feel way too good.

Tuck me in. I am going to tuck you in. We would be trotting along the road, hit

the ground, and fall asleep for two minutes.

I mean, I was taking a sleep wherever I could get it.

How you doing there, brother?

I was appreciative for whatever sleep I could get.

All right, let's go.

And then I would just keep moving on, you know?

You'd given yourself to this end of the expedition, and now you're on autopilot,

and it's just happening.

It'd be good to know an accurate distance, how far it is to the finish.

Yeah, my guess is still, like right now, it's probably 40K.

Oh, 40K and then the whole thing's over?

I think so. I mean, certainly less than 50 and the whole thing's over.

Okay.

What can we do to help you? Is there anything we can do? No.

You know, just be patient.

Charlie's foot got really bad.

He couldn't run anymore. That's it. He was walking.

Oh, it sucks.

I mean, even just stopping for that long and taking my shoe off for a second,

it's like...

Oh, just killing me.

On the final day, we knew we had a lot of distance still to cover, and frankly,

we had walked through most of the night, and I realized that if we continued to

walk at the same pace, we would not make it to the Red Sea before dark, which

very well could end up putting us out there for a whole additional day.

We're about 45K from the finish, and Charlie said, I'm feeling pressure

you guys can run, but I can only walk. We're getting close.

Why don't you guys stay here, put your legs up for 45 minutes, and then just

and catch up. It's okay. So this is what we're going to do. When Nicole gets

here, we're going to take lunch with Nicole, you and I, and then we're going

run and catch up with Charlie.

And then I'll just make a goal of getting as far down the road as I can.

Okay. All right. Well, look.

I'm sorry.

No, you're not.

You got a bad blister, dude. You're obsessed.

You can't do anything about it.

Did you

see

Charlie? Yeah.

If he knew there was any chance at all that it was going to be okay, he should

have told us just to stay with him.

Charlie, maybe 8K.

Wow.

Let's go, Kevin.

Go!

You know,

riding a Sahara is love, trust, and belief.

You know? Save your energy, Kev. We'll talk about it later.

I'm going to have to run fast.

I assumed that I would just be walking because that's really all I could do.

I don't know if it just sort of numbed up or I overcame the barrier in my

But somehow I just pushed beyond it. And once I started to run, I didn't stop.

I wasn't competing against them, but I just said, okay, let's see how far ahead

of them I can get over the next couple of hours.

I didn't stop. I just figured I'd keep moving.

Yeah. Cool.

I just forced myself to run.

And it broke again?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know what it did. I just made it go away.

Yeah.

You're just feeling good, right?

Well, I'm really sore here.

Right here and here. But aside from that... That's very funny. You had 109

of sore.

I don't.

I don't, dude. I can't explain it.

That's crazy.

I can't believe we ran all this way.

I can't believe we ran all this way.

I'm surprised.

I'm surprised as shit.

Zebra bar all the way to here.

Not a step missed.

I never had a doubt.

Yeah. Next.

What do you want to do next?

Nothing, man. Me. Oh.

What do I want to do next? What?

Rest. Relax.

Sleep. Run across the Amazon? Just think about Amazon, yeah?

No. I don't want to run across the Amazon. That's for crazy people.

You know what? I just feel like taking my shoes off and walking in my bare

They hurt that much.

There's definitely a bond between all of us We may not come out being friends at

the end we may just be acquaintances, but there will always be a bond that we

did this together and

That can never be broken, no matter what happens.

You can speak a bit

7 ,500 kilometers.

111 days.

Here we are.

We're done. I know.

What the hell?

It has been said that our lives are measured by the footprints we leave

the courses we chart, the examples for others to follow.

They had set out on an expedition, a run across the Sahara Desert, and wound up

traveling much farther.

That is the transformative power of this place, Africa.

And for the runners, nothing could ever be the same.

The three of us used our best abilities and spirit.

And the most important thing is that some people think that we are using our

strength. In fact, we are not. We are completely using the three of us to

complete this thing together. We move forward together, we step back together,

we stop together, we joke together, we get angry together.

At that time, perhaps we all had some unpleasant things in the past. But the

smoke and fire has already disappeared because we have finally reached the Red

Sea.

I genuinely am not sure, and it does worry me, that I can ever process what I

experience. It's so vast. It's almost four months of running every single day,

and the experiences and the people that we encountered, the beauty of the

landscape, just everything as a whole is far too big to fit in my head. It just

won't stay there.

It's that life lesson that you better live the experience while you're in it

because it's going to be gone.

It makes me want to take the experience and do something really meaningful with

it, you know, to make it last.

Fact of the matter remains that until not too long ago, I'm just a regular

who decided to start running.

If I was betting in Vegas, I would have bet against me for sure being able to

finish. But I was able to finish, and I was able to convince myself to finish,

and that's a fact.

I mean, I ran the miles. I did it.

I learned that any limitations that we have are ones that we set upon

If you think you can only...

run 5 or 10k you'll only run 5 or 10k it's where you set the goal you know

because really there are no boundaries i'm living proof of that there's no

what time we're going to start tomorrow six o 'clock fall cock okay

here we go

Also on the show tonight, three men who ran across the Sahara Desert. Something

like 4 ,400 miles. You know why they did it?

Couldn't afford gas. Apparently a five -horse car.

Did you ever get lost?

Was there a time when you went, oh, hey, where are we now?

Oh, yeah. One time, yeah, major sandstorm. We got lost and totally lost

bearings. Had no idea where we were. I need to go to the bathroom. Do the other

two guys wait? Well, if you want to pee in sandstorm, that is a big problem.

If you want to pee in a sandstorm, it's a big problem. Yeah, that seems like it

would be.

So what is the next venture?

Bringing attention to the clean water issue in that part of Africa. So we

created H2O Africa as a way to bring attention to, you know, the needs of

part of the country. So we're really trying right now to focus on phase two.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much, guys.