Diary - The Marathon des Sables 6th-12th April 2014

Pre-Race build up

I first signed up for the MdS more than 18 months ago - without really realizing what I was getting into. I had heard about it, and thought it sounded quite exciting - so rang for details and was told that entries for the 2014 race would open the next day and would sell out in about 10 minutes. So without much thought I went on-line, paid my deposit, then belatedly started a bit of research. That is when I discovered you had to carry all your food and kit, and started reading accounts of the race with scary photos of blistered feet, and the requirement to carry a venom pump in case of a run-in with any of the nasty local wildlife. But they had my non-refundable £500 by then, so there was no going back.

Training gradually built up with the London and Sydney marathons in 2013, then from December onwards running 60 to 70 miles a week round the streets of Fleet through the wet and dreary winter. Finally running with a loaded backpack and discovering the horrors of chafing.

The other main preparation was deciding what to take, All the advice was to do all possible to keep the weight down, so after much agonizing I got my basic backpack down to 8kg - half being equipment: the pack, waterbottles, stove, pan, sleeping bag etc. The other 4kg being 18,000 calories of food (about half of what my body would actually burn). So along with 1.5 litres of water that would mean starting the race carrying 9.5 kg.

A weeks worth of food

The Race

On Fri 4th April the 350 strong British contingent were all flown out on 2 charter flights from Gatwick to Errachidia in southern Morocco, and driven to the first base camp in the desert. The Saturday was spent going through the race bureaucracy - checking that our doctor's certificates and ECGs were in order and that we had all the compulsory equipment.

It was immediately obvious on arrival at the camp that day 1 was going to be brutal - although relatively short at 34 km, it was to start through massive sand dunes, that we could see towering, dramatically but forbiddingly near the camp:

Base camp, with the dunes we would face on Day 1

Stage 1

The shortest day at 34 Km, but really tough. After a easy 2 km across a rocky plain, we ploughed straight into the largest dunes in this part of the Sahara, rising several hundred feet for a distance of 13km. After a checkpoint at which we got a bottle of water we faced 10km of a relatively flat plain, a 2nd checkpoint and then a rocky climb through hills before another few km of sand dunes and arrival at camp 2.

It is hard to describe the dunes - absolutely spectacular to look at and absolutely horrible to try running through (at least the uphill bits). Running down dunes is tremendous, it is possible to go really fast taking huge strides and sinking down knee deep.

At the finish, after 5 hours 32 minutes, I was amazed to find myself in 175th position overall and 24th out of 210 in my age group. Still feeling good, and wondering if I could possibly hold onto a top 200 place. 20 runners failed to finish the day.

Stage 2

A much longer day at 41 km, just a fraction under full marathon distance. A fair amount through dunes, but much smaller ones than yesterday, and one steep and rocky climb over a 'jebel' (small mountain), with 3 checkpoints at which we would get water. The weather was getting hotter - up to mid 30's C today.

After Day 1 this felt quite straightforward, and though 10 km longer I finished the day 10 minutes quicker in 05:22. To my astonishment that was 89th on the day, and took my overall position up to 125th. I was worried that I must have been going to fast, and would end up suffering later, nevertheless I felt reasonably strong still, though had the first small blisters on my toes. A further 26 runners dropped out.

Stage 3

A 38 km day today with long stretches of sandy terrain and small dunes, and a couple of jebels to negotiate. The weather was getting hotter - up to 39'C A lot of drop outs today, suffering from the accumulated exhaustion of the last few day - a total of 43 runners didn't make it, some in a very bad way having had to release their emergency flares to get rescued and being helicoptered out. One guy very nearly died, and was evacuated to a hospital in Casablanca and put in an induced coma for a week - he is still there nearly 2 weeks later, but is on the mend now.

However for me all was still going unbelievably well. I completed the course in 4:36 in 45th position on the day and overall had moved up to 89th. Suddenly I was wondering if I could possibly manage to maintain a top 100 place, that seemed incredible to me.

Stage 4

The day we all dreaded, double marathon distance - 82 km, impossible to finish in daylight, so night time running with head-torches would be required, and many runners would not complete until well into the next day. To ensure that everyone would face running in the dark the 'elite' runners (ie those in the top 50 places) would start 3 hours later than the rest of us. So us ordinary mortals started at 9am, the superstars at noon.

The course started with a nice flat 10 km before we had to tackle the biggest climb of the race, up a really steep mountain side of maybe 1000 ft or so, with fixed ropes near the top to help us safely across a steep sandy drop that would have taken us all the way back down if we slipped. Then a steep rocky descent followed by yet more dunes. There were then many miles of fairly flat rocky desert, then a long flat run though a 'wadi' (dried up river bed) into the next camp, but through deep soft sand - so safe terrain for night-time running, but very heavy going. Six checkpoints with water today.

Well, this was a truly extraordinary day for me. After negotiating the mountain and going through the dunes I found myself leading the race (admittedly this was a bit artificial, as we had a 3 hour start on the elite), but for several hours myself and a Swedish runner swapped the lead - at the 4th checkpoint I was actually about 1 km ahead of anyone - I thought I was hallucinating ! This also meant that my navigational plans (ie to follow the runners in front) was scuppered and I had to be careful to look out for the route markers. However I started running too fast and could not keep it up, and by the last checkpoint the top runners had started to pass me, and although I was about the 6th runner at that point, I could no longer run, and soon afterwards I could hardly walk and it all got quite unpleasant. Over the last few km as I trudged slowly to the finish a load more of the elite passed me, as well as a few of the others - and I was eventually 26th over the line having taken 11.5 hours to complete the distance. Once the final times were all reconciled I was 51st on the day, and my overall position had gone up to 70th. Suddenly a top 100 place seemed a real possibility - I would just need to make sure I could safely negotiate the final marathon day in a reasonable time.

Having arrived at 8.30 pm meant the next day was a very welcome rest day for me, and an opportunity to deal with the rather nasty looking blisters that had appeared on my toes. Many runners had stopped to rest/sleep en-route and they trickled in up until early afternoon the next day, another 15 failed to complete bring the total of retirements to over 100.

Stage 5

The last day of race - a standard marathon of 42.2km. The first 30 km were mostly flat and firm terrain, with just one ridge to climb and descend, then several km ploughing though deep level sand, really hard to run in and finally a last rocky climb up to a plateau (I lost count of how many rocks I accidentally kicked, to which my sore toes strongly objected), then eventually a long descent down to a final couple of kilometres of sand dunes to the hugely welcome finish line. Like everyone I was ecstatic at crossing the line (though an unfortunate 9 people having got so near to completing the event had to drop out). The race organiser - a Frenchman called Patrick Bauer then insists on personally adorning each runner with their finisher's medal, and we each received a big hug and a Gallic kiss on each cheek ! This is quite an undertaking for him - standing in the hot sun for many hours hugging 1000 runners who have not had a proper wash for a week !

This last marathon took me 4:47, which was 89th on the day. A total time of just under 32 hours for the entire course (which to put in perspective was more than 10 hour behind the amazing Moroccan winner, while the tail enders completed in over 50 hours).

This result moved me a further 4 places up the table of overall results to 66th position overall. This was massively better than I dreamed possible.

Race Over !!

Conclusion

So having started the race slightly concerned whether I would be able to complete it (with slight hopes that I might manage to finish in the top 500), I finished 66th overall out of 1029 starters and 4th out of 210 in my age category, which I found utterly astonishing.. Probably the most extraordinary week of my life - one of the hardest, but immensely satisfying. A great experience, but never again !

Through this run I have been raising money for WaterAid who do fantastic work providing clean safe water to poor villages, primarily in Africa - many people have very generously contributed to this - over £4,000. http://www.justgiving.com/Jon-Cross2 is the link for anyone else who would like to contribute to this worthwhile cause.

jpcross@gmail.com

Jon Cross