Ragna Debats takes on the World's Toughest Trail Running Challenge

Ragna Debats (Pic credit: Franck Oddoux/UTMB)

Ultra-marathon runner Ragna Debats is set to take on one of the toughest running challenges we have ever heard of as she plans to tackle nine-races in Seven continents over one year.

After Ragna won the Marathon des Sables in 2019, completing the 250+km course quicker than any other women and racing through 40C heat, the experience left her a little unfulfilled as she reflected '“I like to look for new things, really like to put myself in the hardest of conditions”.

So, for 2020 Ragna decided she would enter the hardest ultra-marathons on each of the seven continents around the world, if that wasn’t enough, she added an additional 230km shuffle around Central American volcanoes. Over the course of one year Ragna plans to finish in in the last desert - Antarctica - a challenge no-one has ever attempted before.

Ragna is currently in the realms of Argentina where she is about to take part in the Aconcagua Mountain Trail - a course of 100km which takes runners tantalisingly close to the top of one of the seven summits of the world - and is recording the endurance feat for a documentary which will be aired once the challenge is complete.

Born in Holland, it’s even more impressive that she has made the jump from trail running the flats of the country to the highest and toughest terrain of the world. Almost by chance, Ragna stumbled into trail running whilst living in Valencia in 2007, together with some friends she was invited to run with them in the nearby mountains:

“I felt I’d found what I’d been looking for”.

She’s never looked back.

Ragna’s impressive race calendar lines up:

January 19: Hong Kong Vibram, Asia

February 22: Aconcagua Mountain Trail, South America

April 05: Costa Rica Volcano Ultra, Central America

June 27: Western States, North America

July 11: Ourea Trail, Europe

August 11: Kilimanjaro Trail Marathon, Africa

August 28: UTMB, Europe

Oct 28: Crater Rim Ultra, New Zealand

Nov 28: The Last Desert, Antarctica

In the spirit of true trail running adventure, we will be keeping our eyes peeled on how Ragna Debats gets on.

If this sounds inspiring but you prefer something a little less taxing, then we have some extraordinary trail running adventures for you.

Sound good?

Then check out our own adventure line up here.