Kevin Lin (林義傑, November 19, 1976) is a Taiwanese

ultramarathon An ultramarathon, also called ultra distance or ultra running, is any footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of . Various distances are raced competitively, from the shortest common ultramarathon of to over . 50k and 100k are bot ...

runner from

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

Background

Based in

, Lin is one of the best known endurance athletes in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. Lin, together with Charlie Engle and

Ray Zahab Raymond Zahab, (born in 1969) is a Canadian long-distance runner and public speaker. He has run in long-distance running adventures in several countries, including the South Pole, Siberia, and the Atacama Desert in Chile. He crossed the Saha ...

, became the first modern runner to cross the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

Desert on February 21, 2007. He had agreed to work with the H2O Africa project and be part of the first team of runners to cross the Sahara from coast to coast. The expedition was filmed and edited into a documentary,

Running the Sahara ''Running the Sahara'' is a 2007 documentary feature film that chronicles Ray Zahab, Charlie Engle, and Kevin Lin's attempt to run across the entire Sahara Desert. They traveled a total of 6920 kilometers, reaching the Red Sea on February 20, 2 ...

, narrated by

Matt Damon Matthew Paige Damon (; born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. Ranked among ''Forbes'' most bankable stars, the films in which he has appeared have collectively earned over $3.88 billion at the North Americ ...

and released in November 2007 with the logistics support of Sam Rutherford. The Running the Sahara project began in

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

and went through

Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesLibya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

before culminating in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. A full-time graduate student, he won his first ever 150-mile (241-kilometer) race across the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in the ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

in 2004. In September 2011 he completed an unprecedented 10,000-kilometer run of the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

. In 2016, he executive produced the sports film '' 10,000 Miles'' which stars Sean Huang,

Megan Lai Megan Lai (; born 5 December 1979) is a Taiwanese actress and singer who is best known for ''Bromance'', '' Miss Rose'', ''Meteor Garden II '' and ''Mars''. Life and career Early life and education Lai was born on 5 December 1979 in Yong ...

and

Darren Wang Darren Wang Talu (; born May 29, 1991) is a Taiwanese actor. He is best known for his breakout role as Hsu Tai-yu in the coming-of-age film, '' Our Times''. Career Wang made his debut in the 2008 drama series ''Mysterious Incredible Terminator' ...

References

External links

Kevin Life 林義傑個人官方網站

Audio Interview with Charlie Engle
Kevin's teammate speaks about th
''"Running the Sahara"''
expedition 1976 births Living people Sportspeople from Taipei Taiwanese male long-distance runners Taiwanese ultramarathon runners Male ultramarathon runners {{taiwan-athletics-bio-stub