RYAN SANDES

Ryan Sandes has blazed his way into the trail running record books and the hearts of most sport-loving South Africans. Our talented, yet humble ultra-marathon runner has broken records, and challenged the boundaries of long distance trail running.

As one of the top endurance athletes in the world, one would expect that Sandes, also know as “Hedgie” (short for hedgehog, after a short hair cut went unexpectedly spiky), excelled in athletics at school – but that is not the case. The Cape-based South Africa College Schools’ pupil played cricket, rugby and water polo, but never really bothered with athletics. 

In 2006, in his final year at the University of Cape Town, Sandes stumbled upon distance running, or perhaps it’s more appropriate to say that distance running found Sandes.

On a whim, Sandes, then a self-admitted party animal, signed up to run a full marathon. The only way he could get a trip to Knysna to party with his mates was to join them on a run. The half marathon was already full, so Sandes signed up for the full marathon without giving it much thought.

With minimal training in the preceding month Hedgie finished the 42km race in the top 20 with a time of 3 hours 20 minutes. The running bug bit, and soon the Sandes was spending weekends trail running instead of partying.

During an Internet search on trail runs and endurance races, Sandes chanced upon the 4Deserts.com website. Deciding it looked like a cool challenge, he signed up for the 250km seven-day Gobi Desert race, known as the Gobi March - one of the toughest endurance races on the planet.

In 2008, aged 26, with just a couple of year’s running experience, Sandes took his first self-supported ultra-marathon in China’s harsh desert by storm. He not only won the race, but he won every stage over the seven-day race.

Remarkably, still employed full time as a quantity surveyor at Faircape Property Developers, Sandes repeated this feat again in 2008, in the 250km Sahara Race in Egypt’s formidable desert, once again winning all six stages as well as the overall race title, in his second rough-country endurance foot race which is billed to challenge competitors to go beyond their physical and mental limits.

Sandes, also known fondly as the Sandman, took a break from the 4Desert challenge in 2009, to enter the Namibia Desert Race where he placed second and the 2009 Jungle Marathon, which he won in record-breaking time.

In 2010, Sandes, Runners World South Africa’s hero for 2008, 2009 and 2010, entered the third of the challenging 4Deserts series, the Atacama Crossing in Chile. He again won all six stages and the final leg of the seven-day 250km race and smashed all time records to become the first person to complete a 4Desert race in less than 24 hours, finishing almost 6 hours ahead of the person who placed second.

With a strategy of breaking long races into small, more achievable mini-goals Sandes also won every stage and the overall race of The Last Desert race in Antarctica becoming the first person to place first in all four 4Desert Races and to win every stage of all four races.

2010 was a busy and successful year for Sandes. He also won third place in the mixed pairs, with running partner Linda Dorke, in the eight-day Gore-Tex TransAlps race in Europe.

Now 29, Sandes, says he is just a regular guy with a passion for what he does – running. He’s currently focusing on one-day 100km and 100-mile (160km) races, with his main focus-race for this year being the Leadville 100-mile ultra-marathon in the US.

In March 2011 Sandes called off a Fish River Canyon record attempt the due to high water volumes, and he’s still flying South Africa’s flag proudly, placing third in the North Face Ultra Trail Race through the Blue Mountains down under in Australia.

He was disappointed with his a podium near-miss of fourth in the Zugspruit Ultra in Germany recently, and says he still has a lot to learn about European running conditions.

He’ll be running the body-pounding Leadville Trail, also known as The Race Across The Sky, through (and over) the heart of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado on 20 and 21 August as well as The Planet – Nepal series later this year, and has his sights sets on some of the most gruelling distance trail running courses, including his ultimate challenge, the 217km Bad Water ultra-marathon in Death Valley in the US, recognised as the most demanding and extreme running race offered on the planet.

With Sandes’s incredible mental strength and fine running form, he’s likely to take his awe-inspiring, extreme running success to even greater heights as he moves from running through deserts to perfecting his form in races with elevations of over 3000m.