How to Run 20,000 Kilometers Alone

Solita

Julie Pinheiro of Solita travels with Ria Xi, a trailblazing runner preparing to become the first person to run the entire Silk Road from Vl

Key takeaways

Ria Xi aims to run 50 kilometers daily for 14 months, treating the journey as a form of deep, mindful exploration rather than mere endurance.
The Silk Road symbolizes not just historical trade but also cultural bridge-building—something Ria sees herself embodying.

Main topics

Solo long-distance running
The Silk Road journey across continents

Notable quotes

"Travel should happen at the pace of a single footstep—slow enough to savor everything between point A and B."

Conclusion

Ria Xi's ambitious run across the Silk Road represents more than physical endurance—it's a powerful

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:01) Hey, it's Bobby Bones. Join me and former NFL quarterback Matt Castle every Wednesday on our podcast, Lots to Say, with me, Bobby Bones, and Matt Castle. You're in training camp, and the rookie quarterback has one good throwing session in front of the media. Suddenly, everybody online says he should start over you week one. How do you handle this? You just go back out to practice the next day and wait for him to mess up. Listen to Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 8 (0:30) It's the US Open, which means the tennis world is about to lose its mind. And I'm here for every second of it. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast as I break it all down. The matches that matter, the drama that doesn't, and the stories everyone's talking about. No cliches, no sugarcoating, just host analysts from someone who's actually been there. Coco looking real good. Her serve looks so much smoother than it has in the past. I was really happy to see. eager back to what she looked like a couple of years ago when she was winning dominantly. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 5 (1:07) Hi, I'm Michael Imperioli. I want to tell you about my new podcast, Underground Zero. Speaker 3 (1:12) We're looking at the opportunity of a lifetime for us and the other families. Speaker 5 (1:15) It's about the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. Speaker 3 (1:18) What's in the tunnels? Gold bars, silver ingots. It could be worth half a billion. Speaker 5 (1:23) starring Steve Sciarrappa, Ray Abruzzo, and me, Michael Imperioli. How Speaker 3 (1:27) far are you prepared to go? Speaker 5 (1:29) Depends how far you are. Listen to Underground Zero on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (1:37) Welcome aboard season six of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky. A beautiful woman smiles and hands you a scotch. But you have no idea just how messed up her job actually is. It was the most sexist job I think you could have. Until one day, a group of stewardesses spark a revolution that reshapes America. Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (2:17) Self-care September is your reminder to slow down, check in with yourself, get off your phone, and maybe ask, why am I like this? I'm Gemma Speck, host of the Psychology of Your 20s podcast, and this month we're helping you make sense of the person that you are becoming, from setting boundaries and navigating friendships, to understanding anxiety, confidence, relationships, and attachment. Sometimes our biggest decisions, without us even realizing it, aren't driven by what we truly want, but by what will prevent us from feeling lonely or being alone. Listen to The Psychology of Your 20s on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 4 (2:59) So we're going to get out of the door now. And if you feel cold, just scream. That's what I do. So I'm going to be screaming and you all come to joy. Okay. All Speaker 1 (3:13) right, let's do this. Speaker 7 (3:23) Are you supposed to scream from your belly? Speaker 4 (3:28) This Speaker 7 (3:49) is Solita, stories of what really happens when you travel alone. The beautiful, the messy, and the moments where you say yes and surprise yourself. I'm your host, Julie Pinheiro. Speaker 7 (4:05) I met Ria Shi in a castle. We were both visiting in Burgundy, France, living in the 15th century Chateau du Fay, or as we call it, Faytopia. You'll hear me talk more about Faytopia later in the series, but for now, picture this. 30 or so mostly solo travelers playing house in a centuries-old castle, cooking together, making art together, dancing late into the night under sprawling chandeliers. And I found that no matter where you are, when you meet other travelers, you bond fast over your excitement for the new place. But you have almost no context for why they're there or who they are back home. Except for Ria. Because on day one, I started hearing whispers that Ria was setting out to do something remarkable. That night, she dropped a message in the group chat. She was hosting a run the next morning through the French countryside. Anyone could join. She called it, quote, an easy run. Then she mentioned that it was 10 kilometers. For me, 10 kilometers isn't an easy run. It's a minor life decision. One I might brag about on a podcast. So I said yes. And I knew I had some questions for her. Because saying yes to the slightly too big thing, that's sort of what Solita is all about. Speaker 4 (5:33) Okay, we're going pretty fast right now. So what I'm a little bit anxious for is a conversational place. I just don't do. And that means that you can still have a conversation while you're running. Okay. Do you like to chat while you run or do you prefer quiet? Personally, I like quiet talking. Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:56) I'm training for a 20,000 kilometer run across the length of Asia and Europe and trying to become the first person to do that on the Silk Road from Vladivostok to Lisbon, starting in May 2026. I grew up in China and the idea of Silk Road is where like the mystery of the West lies. And it's kind of interesting because now I live in the West and a lot of people are like, oh yeah, like going East is the exotic, like. you know, so exciting parts of the world. And for us, it's like looking the other way. It feels like I'm a bridge between the two worlds. And just like how the Silk Road is a symbol to a lot of people of connection and culture, I feel like it's basically what the role that I'm serving as well. So I'll be starting in Vladivostok and I'll have three days before I run into China, the border of China, and I'll be crossing the entire length of China from the northeast to Xinjiang. I'll be crossing into some of the major cities as well. So Beijing is where I'm from. I'll be visiting my families there, which is very exciting. And also crossing into Xi'an, which is the official start of the Silk Road. And then going out of China, I'll be crossing the different stands. It should be Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, Iraq, Turkey, before crossing into Europe. Speaker 7 (7:19) Ria and I recorded this conversation a month before the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran. Since geopolitics is such an active force in Ria's run, she has a volunteer crew helping her strategize every contentious border crossing. Speaker 2 (7:34) If things get too sensitive, too dangerous, too risky, we will find a alternative route going either north, back into Russia, or... through some of Speaker 1 (7:45) the Speaker 2 (7:45) other countries, taking maybe the ferry across the Caspian as the last resort, because I want to maintain this to be a foot-only travel. So right now we have the estimate of 20,000 kilometers. Basically, my goal is to aim for 50 kilometers a day. So that's one ultra marathon every single day for 14 months. That's wild. That's so wild. Yeah. Because people Speaker 7 (8:08) will do an ultra marathon maybe once or twice in their life as a big... you know, I did this massive achievement. Speaker 2 (8:15) Right. And I mean, I just want to put it out there that like, this is something that most people feel is kind of out of reach until they actually do it. Speaker 4 (8:27) There's one woman who's done a five-year circumnavigation run. Wow. And she's really impassive. She did it when she was like 50-something. Wow. Yeah, as a grandmother. Oh my god, so cool. So impressive. So badass. Have you talked to her? I haven't. But, yeah, it's crazy because nobody has heard of her and I, in my research, I didn't, like, realize she existed until, like, pretty recently. Wow. So I think that just shows that there's so many badass women that have, like... accomplish great things. Yeah, but nobody has heard of it or celebrated them for what they've done. And that's the thing, I think it's interesting because Marco Polo, you guys know what he did, right? What did he do? He invented the pool game where you say Marco Polo. Yeah. So he like, he doesn't know it. the earliest, one of the earlier explorers to go to Asia. And I came back because I got the chaos about. Asia. But he's actually not the first guy to do it. He's the most famous one that I've done in history. Like his literal uncle and father did the same before him. Nobody's heard of their name. So why haven't we heard of Marco Polo? Because he told a good story. Speaker 7 (9:52) Rhea is telling her own story on Instagram. Speaker 4 (9:55) I want to become the first human to run the length of Asia and Europe on the Silk Road. I have 100 days before I start running. 30 days before Speaker 2 (10:02) I run across the entire world? In December, I ran my first ever ultra marathon. Speaker 4 (10:07) In April, I trained with some of the fastest humans in the world in Iten and Kenya. Each time I thought I couldn't do more, somehow I keep pushing. Because I have my eyes on something big. Something that no one has ever done before. Speaker 7 (10:20) You might expect that someone who's training for such a big physical challenge would do it from the comfort of a home base. Somewhere with consistency. Plenty of square meals and a warm place to rest and recover every night. But Ria's training from the road. She's traveling by herself, across the world, sleeping in hostels and French castles, getting her miles wherever she can find them. For the last. Speaker 2 (10:45) few months, I was mostly in Portugal, spending a lot of my time there. The reason why I'm in Portugal is I did the Camino de Santiago. And I also set the fastest known time record on that one for the female self-supported category. And how long did it take you to run it? 11 days, 23 hours, pretty much 12 days. I Speaker 7 (11:04) did the Camino de Santiago in 28 days. Granted, I walked it. But I mean, that's such a big difference. It felt like I was really pushing myself for 28 days. And 11 Speaker 2 (11:14) days is just such a small fraction of that. I was basically running from 9 a.m. to like 9 p.m. at night. And did you have all your stuff on your back? So I had a running vest. It's 10 liters. And I basically carried everything in that. And also I strapped two jackets on the outside of it and then put my pajama and like sleeping socks in the... pocket of the jacket. So was it a lot of extra weight? I'd say it was four to five kilos or something like that. Yeah. With the water. So it's not bad. What Speaker 7 (11:46) was the first moment that you really impressed yourself with your running? Speaker 2 (11:50) That's a funny question. Impress myself. Nobody asked me that. It was 550 kilometers in the desert in Egypt on this trail called the Sinai Trail. Speaker 7 (12:03) And Speaker 2 (12:03) nobody has done this trail before running. And so I would be the first one to do it. And I somehow just can't get the idea out of my head once I heard about it. And especially when I learned that there's nobody who has done this before. A part of me is like, This is ridiculous. I can never be me. But what if it can't be me? Okay. I followed that instinct and kind of expanded it. And it's like, let's just take the first steps and see what happens. So for my first ultra marathon, not only I have to run 550 kilometers, I have to set a world record, basically. What was that run like? Painful. So painful. Is there a reason people don't run it? I mean... Speaker 2 (12:46) There's definitely a reason. I did have a suspected pneumonia during the run. No kidding. And I also broke or rolled my ankle really badly during the run as well. There's many logistic complications that is probably one of the most... biggest reason why people don't run it. Basically, the entire trail is split between multiple tribes of Bedouins. So the land are owned by the Bedouins locally. And so for each of this region that you're traveling through or running through, you have to have the accompaniment and the permission of the local Bedouin tribes. And how did you earn their trust to get their permission? Well, so I had luckily someone from Egypt who was helping me coordinating all of that, Mustafa. He's super helpful and helped me. the whole thing happened. And so basically I was like a baton getting passed between these different tribes while I was running. So what that means is they would usually have some kind of a pickup truck or like support vehicle and they would drive in front of me. So I followed the truck. Or what could happen is like if there's a region where it's like, you know, straight up just slot cannon or like something really narrow.