Imagine spending $30,000 to travel to another country for a horse race only to get sick, receive little medical attention, then find yourself alone trying to get back home.
That’s the ordeal Dede Anders went through in her pursuit of competing in the 620-mile Mongol Derby in Mongolia. The Mongol Derby boasts on its website, “This is the longest and toughest horse race on earth.”
The Wyoming-based Anders told Cowboy State Daily, she was not supposed to be competing until 2025 but filled a spot when another competitor withdrew. After arriving in Mongolia’s capital of Ulaanbaatar on Aug. 1, she took an 8-hour trip to the starting point of the derby.
Anders became ill on Monday, and with the race starting on Wednesday, she couldn’t compete. Despite $30,000 spent to be a part of the event, the medical staff weren’t helpful.
“I was throwing up and stuff like that. Two medics looked at me. They told me I needed nothing but did nothing for me. They told me to ride it out,” she said.
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“One of the medics didn’t even touch me or ask me any questions.
“The other one took my pulse for a couple of seconds. They didn’t take my vitals, didn’t ask if I was diabetic or what medications I was taking. All they told me was it would pass in 24 hours.”
Trying to get back to Ulaanbaatar, the sickness was only the beginning of her troubles.
Would you go on a 620-mile race?
“They put me in a vehicle for eight hours sick with a GI bug, with a driver who barely spoke English,” she recounted, saying she had to worry about the logistical side of things herself, “I had to use Expedia from base camp to book a hotel, had the driver stop in the city and get my passport, so I could finally check into the hotel.”
Anders told Cowboy State Dail,y she is feeling unwell as of Wednesday and won’t be flying until Aug. 11 — a flight which will only get her to Seattle.
Anders is a former medic for the Army and has a doctorate in medical science and emergency medicine.
Given her expertise, she was appalled at the lack of care: “You couldn’t swing a cat and hit a medic over there. I don’t know what the holdup was, but I was definitely blown off for whatever reason.â
Dede Anders knew she was too sick to ride 620 miles across Mongolia, then was abandoned halfway around the world Wednesday. The Wyoming woman was there to compete in the Mongol Derby, but race organizers left her in a hotel room without medical care.https://t.co/lEDSdqkm2B
â Cowboy State Daily (@daily_cowboy) August 7, 2024
Her will is still a testament to the human spirit in jumping on the opportunity a year before she planned to.
Moreover, how many of us could find ourselves terribly sick in another country where English is not the native language and make our way back to the U.S. alone?
Anders told Cody Enterprise in July that competing was a lifelong dream.
That month, she visited her father who suffers from dementia to tell him the news. Anders felt he knew how impressive the pursuit of that dream when he said to a passerby, “Sheâll do things that most men wouldnât do.”
This was definitely not the way she meant for that dream to unfold.
