Lindsay Woods had an experience she’ll never forget, for good and bad reasons, during the 2026 Mongol Derby.
Woods, who was poised to win the 620-mile horse race in Inner Mongolia, crossed the finish line, but not as a competitor. She was eliminated before the end of the race due to a serious illness and heat stroke that left her unconscious in a river.
“I originally sat down in the water thinking it was just going to be a few minutes, and then I lost consciousness,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “I don't remember a whole lot after that.”
Woods has since recovered and is making her way back to Jackson, discouraged but holding her head high after her ordeal on the Mongolian Steppe.
“The Mongol Derby is every bit as difficult as people say, and then some,” she said. “The hardest part for me has been that part of me thinks that I really could have done it. I really could have won it. Obviously, that's not what Mongolia had in store for me.”
Hospitality To Heaving
Woods was one of 43 riders in the 2026 Mongol Derby. The Jackson horse trainer proved herself from the start, using her equestrian and strategic skills to become one of the frontrunners in the highly competitive, grueling endurance race.
“I was feeling really strong,” she said. “I had been riding with Rangna Roux (South Africa) for about three days, and it felt like we were closing in on the finish. Both of us were getting to the point where we were like, ‘Holy shit. Like, we might win the Mongol Derby.’”
By Day Six, Woods was one of the top three riders. Another two days of riding, and she might have finished first.
On the night of Day 6, Woods stayed with a Mongolian family who offered her a meal and a bed without question. The hospitality of the Mongolians is a unique aspect of the Mongol Derby.
“They don't speak a lick of English, (so) we had these translation cards that said, ‘Hey, we're riding a horse race. Can we stay with you?’, and the answer's always yes,” she said. “They took us in, fed us, and took care of our horses for us. They were so kind.”
The bill of fare that night was mutton soup. Woods accepted the free meal, despite some misgivings.
“When we rolled up to this family's ger to ask them if we could camp there, they were actively slaughtering a goat,” she said. “We sat down in our gear, and they immediately gave us a bowl of mutton soup. I'm not sure how sanitary the exchange was, but I tried to keep an open mind. Unfortunately, that did not work for me.”
Woods had a severe bout of food poisoning that night. Despite the long night of gastrointestinal distress and sweltering heat the next day, Woods resolved to keep riding.
Lindsay Woods and Jarissa Sabal at the finish line of the 2026 Mongol Derby. Woods was eliminated on Day 7, but joined a group of other riders to ride the last leg of the race during "the most fun ride I had the whole time" on Day 10. (Courtesy: Lindsay Woods) 
Lindsay Woods navigating across the Mongolian Steppe during the 2026 Mongol Derby. "I think I confirmed that my strategy works pretty darn well,” Woods said. “I was pacing and treating the horses while trying to track the leaders, became friends with the leaders, and just tried to keep an eye on them. (Courtesy: Lindsay Woods)
Full-Blown Heat Stroke
After riding 3.5 legs that day, Woods was starting to feel the effects of heatstroke. She and Roux were determined to get to the next horse station, but Woods’ condition worsened.
“The whole derby was hot, but this day was especially hot,” she said. “I rode that day with almost no water in my body. I started swaying side to side on this horse, and that is not normal. And at that point, I was like, ‘I think I need to sit in some water for a few minutes.’”
Woods activated the SOS button on her Garmin navigation device and sat down in a stream. That’s when her memory starts to get spotty.
“I know Rangna rode ahead,” she said. “Rosie Bathurst, the event manager, found me first. She was an angel (and) did everything that she could to get my body temperature back down.”
Bathurst found Woods unconscious in the stream where she’d laid down. She stayed with Woods until medics arrived and transported her to the start camp.
“One of the medics stayed up with me all night, monitoring my vitals,” Woods said. “She was incredible, but they took really, really good care of me.”
However, Woods said everyone made it clear “in no uncertain terms” that she was not going to ride again. Her Mongol Derby was over.
“That was obviously really gutting, especially when I felt like I was sort of closing in on the end,” she said. “If they don't think that you're going to be able to ride out safely, they're not going to let you, and that was not an option for me.”
Lindsay Woods navigating across the Mongolian Steppe during the 2026 Mongol Derby. "I think I confirmed that my strategy works pretty darn well,” Woods said. “I was pacing and treating the horses while trying to track the leaders, became friends with the leaders, and just tried to keep an eye on them. (Courtesy: Lindsay Woods) 
Lindsay Woods on Day Two of the 2026 Mongol Derby. Woods said this horse helped her catch up with the front-runners of the race, who she kept pace with until her race ended on Day 7 due to heatstroke and food poisoning. (Courtesy: Lindsay Woods)
The Best Ride
Woods spent three days recovering at the start camp. That’s when she grasped the seriousness of the situation.
“It snuck up on me,” she said. “The food poisoning did not end with heatstroke. I went through every single symptom. I couldn’t even walk for two days afterward.”
The “scariest thing” was seeing her fellow riders' reactions.
“A bunch of other beaten and bruised riders were waiting at camp, and everyone looked at me like I was dead. Seeing everyone else's reactions made me realize something crazy really did happen to me.”
On Day 9, Laura Van Laar of the Netherlands won the 2026 Mongol Derby. Woods was in a three-way tie with her and Roux until she was eliminated due to her illness.
Roux, who had been accompanying Woods, came in fourth.
On Day 10, Woods and a few other riders were cleared to cross the finish line. They were no longer competing, but the Mongol Derby organizers bused them out to Horse Station 28 so they could experience the end of the endurance race.
“My best friend, Jarissa Sabal, was in that group, as well as some other gals that I had met along the way,” she said. “One of the poor girls had stress fractures all the way down from her knee to her foot. She could only walk and just barely sit the trot.”
Going “at a snail’s pace,” the riders rode the final leg. Despite her disappointment, Woods said the final ride was the most enjoyable of the entire experience.
“I got to experience a lot of things that I had missed out on earlier on because I took it so seriously,” she said. “I wasn't worried about our pace or navigation or anything. I was on a trail ride with my friends. Being able to end that way was really, really special to me.”
Lessons Learned
As Woods was packing her things and heading toward Chinggis Khaan International Airport in Ulaanbaatar for the journey home, she had enough hindsight to reflect on her experience.
Overall, she felt she had what it took to finish first and might have done so.
“I definitely surprised myself,” she said. “Figuring out the strategy was pretty fun, and you get into the rhythm of it. They tell you that it’s a long day. What they don't tell you is that it's just 11 hours of trotting. Anyone who rides horses knows that is absolutely exhausting.”
Riders change horses every 25 miles, which amounts to 25 horses for the entire race. They can only ride 11 hours a day, or they incur penalties that affect their time and place.
For Woods, the horses were the most memorable part of the Mongol Derby. Figuring out each horse's rhythm and how to get the best out of all of them during each ride was “right up my alley.”
“I’m going to remember the horses forever,” she said. “They are absolutely unlike any horse I've ever seen before. It's almost like they're a different species. They're so uniquely adapted to their environment. Surviving there requires that they travel for food and water, so they've got these rock-hard feet and rock-hard stomachs, and they can do absolutely anything.”
Meanwhile, she felt right at home on the Mongolian Steppe. The terrain was so similar to southern Wyoming that she felt it “absolutely gave me an advantage” in terms of navigation.
Many others, including the Mongol Derby’s organizers, noted she had successfully strategized and navigated her way to the front of the race within a few days. Had she been able to continue, she might have crossed the finish line with Van Laar on Day Nine.
“I think I confirmed that my strategy works pretty darn well,” she said. “I was pacing and treating the horses while trying to track the leaders, became friends with the leaders, and just tried to keep an eye on them. In terms of strategy, I'd probably try exactly the same thing.”
Her downfall was due to factors she couldn’t anticipate. Woods believes she could have avoided heatstroke if she hadn’t been battling food poisoning at the same time.
“I trained for the heat,” she said. “We had a hot summer in Jackson, and I would wait for the middle of the day to go out and go for a run. The unfortunate thing is that we just aren't adapted to eat many of the things they eat on the steppe.”
Woods praised the Mongolians as “wonderful and hospitable,” and doesn’t blame them for her illness. She recognized they were freely giving what little they had to strangers.
“Oftentimes, they don't have a lot of food for themselves, and they're offering what they have to you,” she said. “The issue with the food poisoning is that you have to eat a lot of food to sustain yourself if you're going to ride for 12 hours. You have to eat the mutton soup.”
'I Could Have Done It'
Woods left Mongolia with a memorable souvenir: a tattoo of a Mongolian horse she got on the steppe.
Besides the horses, what stuck with her most were her fellow riders. She wasn’t prepared for the emotional ride that she’d spent months mentally and physically preparing for.
“It's pretty indescribable to anyone that hasn't experienced it themselves,” she said. “I ended up caring a lot more about everyone that I met, and just being really touched by their stories in a way that really surprised me.”
Woods said she would already be signed up for the 2027 Mongol Derby “if money wasn’t an issue.” The entry fee is around $19,000, and she’s “already feeling a whole lot of guilt” about the family and friends who helped her fundraise the amount needed for the entry fee, gear, and travel to Mongolia, only to be stopped before the finish.
If she were to try again, Woods would be “a bit more cautious gastrointestinally” and pack some extra protein powder but doesn’t think she’d do much else differently. She’s happy to be coming home to Jackson but is confident she had and has what it takes to win the Mongol Derby.
“I’m really upset that (heatstroke and food poisoning) were the things that took me out,” she said. “I’m really bummed, but I feel I did my work. Maybe one day I will try again. I'll be a little bit more cautious when I'm eating the mutton soup, but I proved to myself that I could have done it.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
