Visually impaired and conquering a desert ultramarathon

Posted on : 2011-04-08 14:39 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Song Gyeong-tae’s chronicles conquering first of 4-desert ultramarathon in “God’s Breath Sahara”

By Goo Bon-joon, Staff Writer 

  

French explorer Theodore Monod (1902-2000), called the “pilgrim of the desert” for his lifelong exploration of deserts, once said that the desert “is beautiful because it never dies.”

Song Gyeong-tae, 50, is Korea’s pilgrim of the desert. But he is unable to view the beauty of which Monod spoke. A Class A visually impaired individual who has totally lost his eyesight, Song may not be able to look at the desert landscapes, but he can sense the vibrant energy that surges even more powerfully in extreme environments. The deserts that his predecessors crossed on camels Song crosses on his own two feet.

In September 2005, Song tackled an extreme marathon in the Sahara Desert. For this race, which covered a full 250 kilometers in the worst of conditions, Song had to shoulder an 18.5kg backpack containing a week’s worth of provisions, completing the race over a period of seven days and six nights while using a stick to check for obstacles. And this was only the beginning.

Ever since Song lost his eyesight in 1982 in a grenade explosion forty days after entering the military, his whole life has been a challenge. He attempted suicide, and he was threatened with death by thugs while operating a massage parlor, but he overcame it all. Since he started running marathons in 1998, he has tackled ever harder and demanding goals. His confidence grew further in 1999 when, accompanied by a guide dog, he successfully walked across the 4,000 kilometer width of the American continent. The year after that, he established the first library for the visually impaired in North Jeolla Province, with the help of a friend, after which he set off in search of truly extreme experiences.

In 2001, he ascended to the summit of Canada’s Squamish Mountain, a four-day and three-night climb that took him up a sheer 607m rock face, and in 2005 he finally completed his first desert marathon in the Sahara. Afterwards, he raced 250 kilometers in the Gobi Desert in 2007, a 250 kilometer marathon in Chile’s Atacama Desert in 2008, and a 250 kilometer South Pole marathon the same year. He always finished last, but he always finished. In the process, he became the first visually impaired individual to complete the “Grand Slam” of extreme desert marathons with the Sahara, Gobi, Atacama, and South Pole.

Song recently published a book describing his experience completing the Sahara marathon, the beginning of this four-extream desert challenge. “God’s Breath Sahara,” published by Space Lou, tells a story of living and life, grit and determination as realized by an indomitable man racing across a desert he could not see.

Why did he wait until now to publish a book about something that happened six years ago?

“After I succeeded in finishing the Sahara race, I had this sudden, passionate desire in my mind to use the energy from that first desert challenge to write,” Song explained. “I had periodically written poems and essays, but that was the moment when I felt a true hunger to write for the first time.”

The latest book is his fourth published, following such works as “If I Could Open My Eyes for Just Three Days” and “Hope Shines Brighter Than Light,” but the first one he started.

“The desert gave me strength when I felt despair at my weakness,” Song said. “After I realized that it was arrogant to be so confident I could race in the desert, I had no choice but to become very humble.” What enabled him to run the desert race was the realization of the precious power that comes from humility. Fate may have taken away his vision, but it opened up limitless possibilities. This past February, Song achieved his wish of earning a doctoral degree in social welfare. As if to celebrate, he published the book he had been preparing for the past six years. Another race completed in 2011.

  

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