Running The World - Siberia & Mongolia

THE WORLD’S DEEPEST AND LARGEST LAKE, AND THE FEARSOME GENGHIS KHAN

- Warren King

It was still dark when I was nudged awake by the haunting strains of a traditional horn; an alarm that ensured I’d make it to the pre-dawn start of the daunting Mongolia Sunrise 2 Sunset Trail Marathon.

I had spent the night in a teepee, and to get to the race village, I had travelled through Russia and Siberia – all for a race I had entered on a whim.

Siberia

Because there’s no Mongolian embassy in South Africa, I collected my visa in Irtkutsk, Siberia’s largest town. It’s pretty, and has lots of running routes to choose from. To shake off the jetlag, I ran alongside the wide Angara River, passing Soviet statues, colourful, onion-domed Orthodox churches, and memorials of the Second World War.

Another highlight was Lake Baikal, which is the world’s largest lake, in terms of volume of water – larger than all five North American Great Lakes combined. It contains almost a quarter of the planet’s fresh surface water, and it’s also rated the world’s clearest and oldest. It’s completely surrounded by mountains, most of which form part of the Russian