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In October, the plains of the Wadi Rum desert glisten in white-hot temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius and for five consecutive days, the Jordan Ultra X race participants daringly race across 250 km of its shimmering plains, adjoining sand dunes and rocky jebels.
Jordan Ultra X is a part of a World Series of 10 Ultra Marathons each year held in different parts of the globe over a 2 year’s cycle culminating with the top finishers and top world ranked athletes being invited to compete in the Ultra X World Championships .
Covering a distance of five regular marathons, the course takes participants across vast desert landscapes, through rocky canyon valleys and over almost non-ending soft sand dunes and this year’s event saw a JHAH flag carried from start to finish.
Andrzej Szefler, a primary care physician with Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare in Dhahran, joined over 100 athletes from 18 countries in this year’s event as a way of celebrating his 60th birthday.
The marathon is a race with five stages and includes a grueling 72 km non-stop section on day three when people have to finish the entire stage within a time limit or face disqualification.
Szefler displayed a JHAH flag on the side of his pack and completed the course by winning his age-group category and qualifying for the 2022 World Championship in Slovenia.
Keeping his mind focused on the 72 km stretch was the biggest challenge for Szefler, but also one of the greatest highlights.
“The temperatures are cool when walking in the dark over the dunes and it is magnificent to see the night-sky stars”. Szefler said living in Saudi Arabia was a good preparatory environment for the marathon’s heat and sand conditions.
“I started my training for the Jordan Ultra X race in May this year by walking the course perimeter of the Saudi Aramco Rolling Hills Golf Club. In June I then took my training a step further by traversing the sand and hilly areas around the Dhahran camp.”
Szefler started running while he was finishing medical school in Poland and since then he has completed 15 marathons across the globe, including Poland, Italy, the United States and Canada.
He has also completed 2 Ultra Races already; the famous Marathon Des Sables in Morocco in 2018 and the Jungle Ultramarathon in Amazon in Peru in 2019. However, this year’s event in Jordan was the toughest of them all. Relentless heat and never ending soft sand and sand dunes were the biggest challenges and the main reason for many competitors not being able to cross the finish line.
Following a foot injury, in 2008 he swapped his running shoes for speed-walking footwear and describes the sport as an “exciting way to keep in shape.”
He encourages people who enjoy extreme adventure sports with a challenge to consider the Jordan Ultra X or other ultramarathons from the X series providing they prepare themselves both physically and mentally.