American Runner Wins Ultra Gobi 400 Km, Breaks Record by Over 4 Hours: Q&A With Cody Poskin

Cody Poskin woke up one morning shortly after he’d completed the Cocodona 250 to a message he’d received in the middle of the night. It was an invitation from a race he’d never heard of called the Ultra Gobi 400 Km. The race’s organizers offered to comp his entry fee and travel to China if he was interested in participating in the ultra marathon.

As someone who’d only started running marathons in 2021 and had just finished his first ultra, it was a very exciting moment for the 23-year-old Poskin. He opened his calculator app and converted 400 km into miles — roughly 250. He thought to himself, “Yeah, I could do that.”

“It did feel pretty cool. Like, oh, hey, I can go to China basically for free, and run this race,” Poskin recalled when he spoke with GearJunkie. “Sounds like an adventure, sign me up.”

Little did Poskin know, he wouldn’t just run in the Gobi Ultra 400 Km — he’d go on to win the race and set a new record, completing the grueling course through the Mongolian desert in just 64 hours, 49 minutes, and 32 seconds, breaking the previous record by more than four hours.

“I ran Cocodona in May, which is more or less the same distance, but this was technically self-supported,” he said. “It was pretty much just all me, so it was definitely a first in that regard.”

When we caught up with Poskin, he was relaxing in Hawaii, recovering, taking some time off to surf and soak up some well-earned sunshine. The up-and-coming runner was basking in the first big win of his racing career and seemed excited to talk about it.

Cody Poskin: Breaking Records at Gobi Ultra 400 Km

GearJunkie: This was your first self-supported long-distance race. Was it a little daunting when you were heading into it?

Cody Poskin: Yes and no. I think something up here (points to his head) is a little broken. Risks and fear don’t quite weigh in as much as they should.

I knew it was going to be different, maybe harder, but was I really afraid or worked up about it? No. I knew I was going to be all right, but it definitely required some more planning and some more intentionality. Besides that, I knew they’d still have aid stations and water and stuff. So I wasn’t going to be like completely out there alone if something went bad.

How did the race start?

It started at 9:30 at night, and this race is such a spectacle; there’s so much media and ceremony around. I guess they wanted it to be kind of special and have everyone start on their own, so they staggered us all 15 seconds, which was kind of odd.

So, it’s 9:30 at night, there are spotlights for the first 150 yards, and after that it’s just dark. So I started sixth out of maybe 60, and within the first quarter mile, I just found myself in first, not really intentionally. I was just there because I was running and ended up taking it. I didn’t intend to go out that hard or end up in first, but just kind of found myself there.

What was the course like?

This whole course is not like anything I’ve run before; it’s not like single track with flags every 100 yards like normal. I’d say over half of it that wasn’t on some sort of old dirt road was just on open desert. No trail, no track, literally just a sand and gravel field expanse forever. You’re going in a straight line for 10 miles, whichever way you want to go.

How did you navigate out there?

I had to rely on my watch a lot because it’s self-navigated. As long as I hit the checkpoints in the correct order — at one, then two, then three — I can take a straight line, zigzag, go over this mountain, around that mountain, over this river, under this tunnel, whichever way I want to go.

It’s funny, after the race, people were talking about this massive fence that they climbed with barbed wire. It was like 12 feet tall, and I’m like, “Guys, I don’t even remember seeing that fence.” So it’s just kind of insane how you can run the same race as people in this format and experience completely different things.

Did you ever get lost?

I got so lost on the final night. I was like 50-something hours in and super sleep-deprived, and apparently, everyone got a little lost in that section. It was a rough section for me.

It’s 1 o’clock in the morning, and I’m pissed off, lost, and being hunted by guys behind me. I was still in first, but I kept checking the tracker and calling friends and family to tell me how far ahead I was. I knew I had a lead, but I had 30 miles to go at that point, and I was dead afraid I was going to lose the lead because I’m lost, wandering in the desert, just hemorrhaging time.

That section was so rough. I was climbing over a gate-ish barbed wire thing, and I guess it had a pivot point in the middle that I didn’t know about. So as I’m climbing it and my weight gets further to the top, all of a sudden, it just falls over and dumps me straight on my face in the dirt.

When did you realize you could break the record?

I knew that I was capable of running under that record the whole time. But, yeah, I think somewhere in the 200-mile range, like 170 to 200, I had a 30-kilometer lead, so what is that? Like 15 to 20 miles? That’s fairly safe.

But I also knew those two guys behind me were running together, and when you’re running together, you push each other a little more, and those guys were so much more experienced than I am. Everyone there was more experienced than me. So, I never felt super safe. I felt comfortable and confident, but never like, “Oh, I’ve got this in the bag.”

Running for over 60 hours without sleep is kind of nuts. Were you hallucinating or anything like that?

I guess I’m bad at hallucinating, because I didn’t really hallucinate … I thought some rocks were moving maybe, but it was like a bunch of field mice the first night. In my mind, that doesn’t count. Some of these people came back with stories of like humongous huts with people playing banjos and stuff, and all I see is a rock that’s maybe a mouse? It’s actually kind of disappointing.

What did it feel like when you finally crossed the finish line?

Obviously, it was a relief that I was done, but they made it really special. I don’t know if it’s just the Chinese culture around the race or just the race making it a spectacle, but there were so many people, and they made it so ceremonial. They treated me like a hero and told me how brave I was. Which, I didn’t really feel like a hero or brave or anything, but they made it really special. So it was really nice.

Some of the people that I’d met before the race were there at the finish, and just seeing some familiar faces again, and then eating warm food at the end was great.

Did this race teach you anything about yourself?

I’ve always known that I can be a competitor and I can compete, but doing it out there against some of those other competitors and seeing how much experience they had … I learned that I can compete and I kind of belong up there and I’m really ready to just do more races like that against some strong competition and see where I stack up.

It was a real confidence boost, knowing that I can cover that distance fairly efficiently, and I can be somewhat self-reliant if I need to and not get lost — within reason.

Cody Poskin’s Gear List

Because the Gobi Ultra 400 Km is a self-supported style race, Poskin had to carry a pack with a sleeping bag, a Swiss Army knife, full medical gear, and a bunch of other stuff he didn’t even touch. He had to take 2,000 calories every time he left an aid station, and barely ate anything the entire way (which was a mistake he won’t make again, he said).

The gear he did use was limited. Poskin didn’t stop often or for very long, so he used only the bare essentials. Amazingly, he ran the whole thing in a single pair of shoes and only got one blister. Besides that, he had no issues, hiccups, or setbacks with gear.

Here is the shortlist of gear he did use: