Ryan Sandes

Which Suunto products are you using?
Suunto t6d heart rate monitor, Foot POD Mini, X10 outdoor sports instrument

What’s the best thing about your Suunto?
The X10 is my favourite toy as it tells me the exact speed I am running at, distance covered, meters climbed etc.

Most memorable sporting moment?
Winning the first stage of the 2008 Gobi Desert Race - I did not expect that to happen!

Story:
South African Ryan Sandes burst onto the trail running scene in 2008, winning two Racing the Planet long distance stage races across the Gobi and Sahara deserts. They were two dominating performances by a guy who only entered his first marathon in 2006 because he wanted to join a post-race party.

Realising he could go further and faster and looking for adventure, he began training in earnest, resulting in his break through season in 2008. More top placings followed in 2009 including a first in the Jungle Marathon and second at Racing the Planet’s Namibia event.

In 2010 he won the Atacama Crossing in fine style, clean-sweeping every stage in the process.

“Training for 18-25 hours (a week) is very demanding on your body and you need a lot of sleep to recover,” says Ryan. “After my long runs on the weekend I just sit in front of the TV and vegetate. I believe what you put into something is what you get out; therefore, all the hard training definitely does pay off during a race.”

“I think you need mentally tough or maybe just stupid during longer runs or multi day races as your body tells you to stop and your mind needs to tell yourself just keep going. I enjoy this aspect of a race as it is interesting to see how far you can push yourself.”