Cool-headed but passionate, running prodigy Kevin Lin has a wisdom beyond his years That leads him to success against all odds. (courtesy of www.kevin-life.com)

In response to the United Nations Development Programme's campaign to raise awareness of the water crisis in Africa, Taiwanese marathon champion and "4 Deserts" ultramarathon series winner Kevin Lin completed a 111-day footrace across the Sahara Desert.

The race, which is seen as the most challenging known to man, raised more than US$10 million for water shortage relief in Africa. It also led to a rare mention on the UN website of non-member Taiwan--Lin's victory brought Taiwan global attention, thus creating a "sports diplomacy" effect. Hollywood production company LivePlanet was also on hand to film the entire proceedings for a documentary. The resulting film, directed by James Moll and provisionally titled Running the Sahara, is scheduled to premiere this year.

The Sahara is the world's largest desert, stretching all the way across Africa from Senegal in the west to Egypt in the east. The 5,900-kilometer expanse is largely uninhabited, and in the harsh environment there are few water sources. Until this year there was no record of it being crossed successfully from end to end by a human being on foot.

Lin and his two teammates, American Charlie Engle and Canadian Ray Zahab, left Saint Louis, Senegal, on November 2, 2006. They crossed Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Libya before finally arriving at Egypt's Red Sea coast on February 20, 2007, becoming the first to complete such a journey across the Sahara.

Though during the planning of their journey they estimated that they might have to add up to 600 km to their course, they ended up running more than 1,000 km more than their initial projection as there were minefields along their planned route. Many countries on their route were in states of civil unrest, and they were prevented from moving forward at points by armed troops.

As Lin entered the last segment of the race, he became sick. He was vomiting and suffering from diarrhea, and had a high fever. His body weight dropped by five kilograms, but he persevered. In order to complete the race within the allotted 111 days, his team only slept six or seven hours over the last four days, running over 100 km a day. They ran continuously for the last 36 hours, pushing the limits of human endurance.