Ultra Gobi AlUla: the Series comes to Saudi Arabia

We have been working on this for a long time. Now we are proud to share it with all of you. Ultra Gobi AlUla is the series' first edition outside of China. From January 13 to 20, 2027, runners, trekkers, and teams from around the world will gather in AlUla, northwestern Saudi Arabia, for what we believe will be an extraordinary new chapter for Ultra Gobi.

AlUla: A sandstone valley north of Medina, on the old Incense Road

AlUla sits roughly 300 kilometres north of Medina, in a sandstone valley that has been a crossroads of trade and culture for millennia, with nothing between you and the horizon but rock and sand. The Nabataean kingdom carved more than 100 monumental tombs into the cliffs at Hegra, now Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. Frankincense moved through this valley. So did Chinese silk, carried along the ancient Incense Road toward the Mediterranean. Dadan, one of the great cities of the first millennium BCE on the Arabian Peninsula, was built in the same valley.

The course follows these routes on foot. Desert valleys, oases, sandstone formations that catch the light at dawn and stay warm into the night. January is the right time to be there: daytime temperatures around 18 to 21°C, cold nights, and some of the clearest night skies in the region. There are places on the course where the silence is total.

The same founding idea, a new landscape

The Series began in 2006 along the route of Master Xuanzang, the Tang Dynasty monk who spent 17 years travelling from China to India and Central Asia in search of Buddhist scriptures. He walked. So did the traders who came after him, in both directions, for centuries.

That is the idea the Ultra Gobi Series was built on: that walking and running long distances through a landscape someone else once crossed is a way of understanding both the landscape and the person. Over two decades and more than 79,000 race entries in the Gobi Desert, that idea has held up. We are taking it to a second desert because the same logic applies. The Incense Road and the Silk Road met somewhere in the middle. AlUla was part of that meeting.

As Series founder Qu Xiangdong put it: "From the Gobi Desert to AlUla, this is not a change of direction but the continuation of the same path: a path rooted in shared experience and the belief that meaningful connection matters most when the world feels far apart."

Six formats from 30 to 400 kilometres, for soloists, teams, and families

Six formats share one course. They start at different times and finish in different places, but everyone runs through the same valleys.

The Ultra Gobi 400km is the hardest thing the Series puts on. A solo, self-navigated, self-supported nonstop run with a 139-hour cutoff. 50 starting slots. Most of the field will not sleep more than a few hours across five days.

The Ultra Gobi A+ (121km, nonstop) is a continuous individual push of 75 miles through the heart of AlUla. Open to all qualifying runners. Prize money in the men's and women's categories.

The Ultra Gobi A (121km, 4-day team race) is the heart of the Series. Teams of three to five runners. Scored on the time of the third member to cross each stage finish, which means two fast runners cannot carry the team. The slower runners decide the result. Strategy and looking after your teammates matter as much as speed. This is the format the business school cohorts run.

The Ultra Gobi B (121km, 4-day stage race) is the same course, individually, at your own pace, with full camp support each night. You run the day. You eat, sleep, and talk to other runners at night. Four days of that.

The Ultra Gobi C (30km, 1-day) is a single day through the most iconic section of the AlUla course, followed by a night at a desert camp under AlUla's stars. No race experience required.

The Ultra Gobi Youth (90km, 3-day family race) is new to the Series. A multi-generational format for younger participants and the people who want to share the desert with them.

Registration opens in the coming weeks at

Registration for the Ultra Gobi AlUla 2027 opens in the coming weeks. You can find more information, schedules, and entry requirements on the Destination page.