Ria Xi had been running for about six days when disaster struck. The 26-year-old was halfway through her incredible mission, each step under the desert sun bringing her closer to becoming the first person to complete a never-before-done ultramarathon route in Egypt.
Suddenly, one slip of her foot between the asphalt and the sand sent her tumbling – twisting her ankle in a way that any runner would dread. “I landed on my right ankle really hard and thought ‘this is over,’” Ria explained, adding that the incident had ironically happened on her “rest day” in a remote part of the Sinai Peninsula.
