Word: gobi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...line up a card along the front edge of the machine, tilt the laptop's screen down and snap a picture of it; included with the laptop is software called Presto! BizCard that imports the text of the business card into your contacts file. There's also a Gobi chipset that allows you to connect to high-speed cellular networks, available by subscription in the U.S. from the likes of AT&T and Verizon, when wi-fi networks are unavailable. There's even a slot for a SIM card for pay-as-you-go cellular networks abroad...
...Competitors range between 21 and 67 years of age and come from more than 130 countries. Often, families and groups of friends enter together. Sometimes, companies use the races as team-building exercises or charitable endeavors - Microsoft entered three top executives from their Seattle headquarters in this year's Gobi race, known as the Gobi March, to raise money for the Save the Children Foundation. But most, like 60-year-old American Robyn Metcalf, who has done two desert races, are there to "combine sports with the opportunity to see other parts of the world, while also meeting people...
...seven-day, 155-mile (250 km) foot races through the arduous terrain, blistering heat and frigid cold of the world's four largest deserts. Known as the 4 Deserts Race, the event takes in the salt plains of the Atacama in Chile, the riverbeds and hills of the Gobi in China, the undulating dunes of the Sahara in Egypt and the icy flats of Antarctica. Participants can tackle all the deserts or just one if they choose. And while organizers provide water and lay on tents and bathing facilities each night, everyone is expected to carry their own food...
...Karnazes (famed for once having run 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days) the ultimate high comes from meeting indigenous peoples en route - the Bedouin in the Sahara; Kyrgyz, Mongolians and Uighurs in the Gobi; and Atacameño tribesmen in the Atacama. "Although there are vast cultural differences between the native populations and the racers," he says, "a smile seems to cut right through the divergence and unite...
...number of competitors on each leg of the 4 Deserts Race is strictly limited - up to 180 on the Gobi March, but capped at just 80 for the Atacama - so early registration is essential. While your fitness levels don't have to be tip-top (you can stroll the entire length of the course if you wish), you had better have deep pockets. Each leg in 2009 will cost you $3,100 to enter. For more information, visit www.4deserts.com...