附錄一(postscript 1) (p.s.1)Taiwan's Lin runs
across Sahara
Resource :Taiwan
News 2007-02-21 09:53 PM
Summary:
Taiwan's ultra-endurance marathoner Kevin Lin, along
with an American and a Canadian, completed their run across the Sahara Desert
Tuesday Taipei time, making the trio the first three modern runners to cross the
Sahara's grueling 7,300 kilometers, according to Central News Agency.
Lin, 30, and his fellow ultra-athletes -- Charlie
Engle, 44 and Ray Zahab, 38 -- reached the Suez Canal at Egypt's Red Sea Tuesday
night after running 111 consecutive days to cross the Sahara – the world's
largest desert, the agency said.
The trio traversed six countries, beginning with
Senegal, but also including Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Libya, by the time their
trek ended in Egypt, the agency added.
The trio endured strong winds, which can abruptly raise
sand in every direction, making it difficult to see and breathe, and extreme
temperatures, which might peak as high as 38 degrees Celsius during the day but
dip below freezing at night, on the trek, which was originally scheduled to
finish in 80 days, the agency continued.
They began last November but had to run an extra 200
kilometers under the surveillance of the Libyan authorities, who at one point
refused to grant them entry visas, according to the agency.
Lin, who has traveled the world competing in adventure
races, said during a mobile phone call to his mentor Tuesday night that running
through turbulent conditions is nothing new to him, but the past 111 days had
tested his physical and mental limitations, the agency reported.
He had to change his running shoes from size seven to
8.5 due to swelling, but this had not forced him to rest for one single day, the
agency quoted Lin as saying.
Lin, the first Asian to run a seven-day-six-night
Sahara marathon in 2002, is scheduled to return to Taiwan Saturday.
A film crew followed trio, chronicling their desert
journey for a documentary by actor Matt Damon's production company, LivePlanet,
according to the agency. Damon plans to narrate the documentary, which will be a
film titled "Running the Sahara," the agency said.
At several points in their trek, Lin said, they stopped
near sparsely populated wells to talk with villagers and nomads about the
difficulties they face finding water -- prompting them to plan a fund-raiser for
the nonprofit group H2O Africa, which was established to raise awareness about
the need for clean water throughout the African continent, the agency added.
