Dean Karnazes, Lisa Tamati, and Badwater: What Else Do We Need?

Lisa Tamati Running the Globe

Ultra runner Lisa Tamati is gearing up to run in the historical footsteps of endurance legends for her upcoming television series Run the Planet.

Along with Australian Chris Ord, Tamati plans to travel the globe and experience some of the extreme endurance measures taken by different cultures over ancient and modern times.

Interview with Lisa Tamati

Lisa Tamati and La Ultra

July 2011

An athlete who has run the length of New Zealand, the Gobi Desert and California's Death Valley, Lisa Tamati is now struggling to draw breath just sitting still.

The ultra-marathon runner arrived near the top of the world on Monday, New Zealand time, as she prepares to acclimatise for the La Ultra race through the foothills of the Himalaya's.

La Ultra will take her 222 kilometres over 60 hours from the Indian mountain town of Leh, winding through the two highest driveable passes in the world.

"I am still struggling to breathe and its a weird feeling to be sitting doing nothing and puffing," Tamati said on her blog recently. "How am I going to run at 2000m higher than this, and not for 5 minutes but for 60 hours? Incomprehensible to my struggling body right now."

The 42-year-old will reach a peak altitude of 5334m and experience temperatures ranging from 40 degrees Celsius to -6C during the challenge.