That is the challenge my two friends Lauren and Mike, authors of the blog Abandon the Cube, will be facing this year as they embark on this crazy rally, but their goal isn’t necessarily to finish the race.  It’s for the sake of charity, and the country of Mongolia is in need.

Mongolia, like northern Xinjiang, has been hit with one of the deadliest winters in decades, and although this type of news isn’t as eye-catching as earthquakes in Haiti or Chile, the needs are just as real.  They have a goal of donating almost $2,000 to Mercy Mongolia, which for the rural residents of the area is a fortune.

What they need right now is support, and if you or your company is in a position to help please head over to their Mongol Rally page to get more details:

This doesn’t really have much to do with Xinjiang other than Mongolia is our neighbor.  This isn’t an ad or a paid post, this is just me hoping to help out some friends who I think are involved in a pretty cool race.  I became convinced this was something I wanted to endorse after I got an email from them telling me that “Even if we don’t raise the money, we’ll do the rally”.

Hopefully it won’t come to that.  Best of luck, guys.