Vietnamese girl becomes the first Asian woman to cross 4 deserts

Giving up her dream job at the world's leading financial news agency Bloomberg and a stable life in Singapore, Vu Phuong Thanh conquered the challenge of crossing 4 deserts to become the first Asian woman to achieve this feat.

Go beyond your limits

With a broad knowledge base and experience, Vu Phuong Thanh (26 years old) was once assigned the position of customer relationship manager at Bloomberg’s branch in Singapore. The job seems like a dream job to many people, but for the 26-year-old girl, a life “just like that” seems to be wasting the passionate years of her youth.

Vietnamese girl becomes the first Asian woman to cross 4 deserts.

Having lived and worked in Canada, England and Singapore, interacting with many people and with different streams of thought, Thanh feels that her life can still be more colorful and happier than an office position. With a desire to explore herself not only in terms of health but also in terms of will and determination, the young girl decided to quit her job to live with her great passion.

Thinking is doing, Thanh set a goal to conquer the challenge of the "The 4 Desert Grand Slam" running race, a total journey of 1,000 km through the 4 harshest deserts in the world: Sahara (Namibia), Gobi (China), Atacama (Chile) and Antartica in Antarctica with each stage being 250 km long.

To do this, this 9x understands that he will have to overcome extremely difficult challenges on the journey through Antarctica and 3 deserts with the world's best: the largest, hottest desert (Sahara); the windiest (Gobi) and the driest (Atacama).

To achieve this achievement, Phuong Thanh had to overcome extremely difficult and arduous journeys.

To achieve this achievement, Phuong Thanh had to overcome extremely difficult and arduous journeys.

Thanh's decision to embark on a long journey was bold but not reckless. To realize her dream, Thanh had prepared very carefully. "Before running the first 250 km in the Acatama desert, I trained non-stop for 3 months. In addition, I also worked hard and saved in 2015. I even had to accept sacrificing some of my other wishes such as going out less,... Not only financially, I also fully prepared with advice from friends", Phuong Thanh said.

Conquer the impossible

Despite careful preparation, the hardships of such a fierce journey were inevitable. What Thanh feared most was the feeling of aching legs after running on the hot sand. The feeling of fatigue often made the young girl think of giving up.

But every time like that, Thanh told herself that the pain would pass, but training the will to overcome herself was difficult and that was what she needed to aim for and achieve.

To overcome that, Thanh lists the things to do meticulously after each hour of running: immediately check your feet for blisters; put your feet up to improve blood circulation after many hours of activity; drink more water or protein powder to help your muscles recover quickly.

During the trip, because the backpack could not carry much stuff due to the weight factor. Unable to bring many tools, Thanh practiced being creative to take care of herself. “Without a roller, I thought of using a water bottle to roll my calves and thighs to avoid muscle tension. The desert is very hot during the day but very cold at night. I knew I would lose my appetite, so even though I didn’t want to, I still told myself to try to eat as planned so as not to be exhausted,” Thanh said.

Finally, at the end of November, the young girl also overcame her final challenge, the Antarctica ice desert in the South Pole. Thereby, she officially became the first Asian woman to overcome this challenge.

The Vietnamese flag has appeared in the deserts after Phuong Thanh overcame challenges.

Returning from a journey full of sweat and tears, Thanh shared: “Although I had great confidence in myself to conquer this challenge, I am still surprised and very happy with what I have done. At first, I simply thought that I would freely explore and conquer my own limits. But until now, I have shown all my friends and everyone in the world the will and spirit of the Vietnamese people on this difficult journey.”

Thanh said that what she got from this journey was to feel more comfortable in life, full of energy and more determined for her life goals.

Having just returned from a trip to Antarctica with the coldest desert on the planet, Thanh is now embarking on the process of building her own ideas in the field of health and healthy living movement towards the community. The young girl shares optimistically about the most difficult experiences she has overcome and believes that she will not falter in the face of difficult tasks.

“I may not have thought about building a brand or a big company like the one I used to work for, but my future direction is to have a company that I own and run myself. Because I think there is nothing more valuable than building and making my dreams come true,” Thanh said.

According to VNN