ULTRA GOBI

In the Ultra Gobi A+, checkpoints are roughly 10 to 15 km apart. Each one has water. Everything else you carry, or collect from a pre-deposited drop box at the Change Point midway through the race.

The Ultra Gobi 400 km works on the same principle, with Rest Stations at larger intervals — where you can access your drop boxes, sleep if you need to, and keep moving. The course is unmarked. You navigate with your own GPS device.

121 km or 400 km: the race provides water and a route. What you eat, when you rest, how much you carry — those decisions are entirely yours.

No lottery, no waitlist, no selection committee. A qualifier and you are in.

The qualification window for both solo formats is the two years before race start.

For the Ultra Gobi A+ (121 km, nonstop): one finish of 100 km or longer within that window, or two finishes of 50 km or longer.

For the Ultra Gobi AlUla 400km: one finish of 168 km or longer.

Registration is open for Ultra Gobi (Gobi Desert, China, Sep. 27–Oct. 4, 2026) and Ultra Gobi AlUla (AlUla, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 12–20, 2027).

When a major earthquake struck Gansu Province in 2023, the community around Ultra Gobi mobilized quickly. Former participants organized rescue operations, pooled resources and coordinated ground support within days.

This is part of what the Gobier Public Welfare Foundation does. Founded by participants and alumni of Ultra Gobi, the foundation channels the community into causes beyond the event itself: earthquake rescue, rural education initiatives, and the protection of cultural heritage along the Silk Road, including the Mogao Cave complex near Dunhuang.

The Gobi race creates strong bonds. The foundation is what those bonds do when the tents come down.

The Ultra Gobi A+ launched in 2019 as a single question: what does a desert ultra look like when there's no team, no pacer, and no crew?

121 km nonstop, self-supplied, alone. That format now runs in two places — the Gobi Desert in northwest China and AlUla in Saudi Arabia.

Registration is open for both events.

Most ultras are characterized by extreme elevation gains. The Ultra Gobi A+ is different. 121 km across open desert — the Gobi or the sandstone valleys of AlUla — with no real technical terrain and no elevation to hide behind. What makes it a challenge: heat, exposure, and a very long time moving alone through open space.

Registration is open for both events of the Ultra Gobi Series.

52 metres of sandstone. No chisel, no human hand. Jabal AlFil — Elephant Rock — is what happens when the Red Sea began to open, forced a sandstone plateau above ground, and erosion did the rest.

Participants in Ultra Gobi AlUla will start their journey here in January 2027.

Bryon Powell won the Ultra Gobi 400 in 2024. Last year, he came back for the A+. 121 km nonstop across the Gobi Desert. No crew, no pacers — everything on your back, water only at checkpoints roughly every 10–15 km.

The Ultra Gobi A+ runs at both Ultra Gobi (Gobi Desert, China, Sep. 27–Oct. 4, 2026) and Ultra Gobi AlUla (AlUla, Saudi Arabia, January 12–20, 2027). Two deserts with routes shaped by the same ancient trade networks that once connected East and West. One format.

More than 140 tombs cut into sandstone cliffs, each with its own carved facade. The Nabataeans built them at Hegra between the first century BCE and the first century CE, around two thousand years ago.

Hegra sits in AlUla, in northwest Saudi Arabia. It was the principal southern city of the Nabataean Kingdom and, in 2008, became Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Ultra Gobi AlUla course runs through this part of the desert. The route is still being set, but spectacular views are guaranteed.

Registration for all races is open.