Just recently I received a call with the news that I’d been “blessed“ with a start number for the Marathon des Sables 2008. Those of you are familiar with this event know what quote/unquote blessed means: the Marathon des Sables is worshiped - and dreaded by all 750 starters from all over the world – including Lahcen Ahansal, 10 time winner of this, the toughest footrace on earth. I am also going back to the Sahara – I’m certainly hooked.
Those of you who aren’t familiar with but are very interested in looking into something like the Marathon des Sables, this event is a 250 km long race through the Moroccan Sahara in 6 stages with complete self-sufficiency. The average daily temperatures in the desert reach 45-50 degrees, the atmosphere is arid. Accommodation: simple Berber tents. Dunes, plateaus, dried out salt lakes, cliffs, mountains. The terrain leaves nothing to be desire by a desert runner’s heart.
Hmmm, a lot of factors to consider while training. Where to start? How does one prepare for something like this?
Factors to consider for the desert:
- heat / low humidity
- sand and many various difficult terrains
- duration – one week and 6 stages back to back
- entire body exertion
- backpack with approx. 10 -12 kg (at the first start)
- survival skills/solidarity
- nutrition
and last but certainly not least:
- mental strength.
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Thursday, 13 September 2007
MDS pictures....
Bunched together like sardines for the 2 hour ride
The adrenaline flows as the camp comes into sight!
Tent 57 - home for the next 10 nights...
Some stages just never wanted to end...
Made it - first stage done! They're already waiting... 1148
Found the tent - time to start cooking dinner
Wake up time - getting ready for the next stage
Nice view of the earth's furnace...
Helmut - won the tent snorer award
The adrenalin's cooking - time to go to the first start of the MdS
Hitting the first checkpoint
What happens if you don't manage your water well...
And.....
Water - Lifeline of MDS
One of the biggest questions is: how much water do you get an event like the MdS?
Of all the things a runner has in the desert, nothing is as important as the water he’s given. But how do you manage your water supply in that heat? Well, the water is distributed as follows:
Normal stage: 9 liters per day
1.5 liters before the start each morning
2 or 3 x 1.5 liters during the race at checkpoints
4.5 liters on arrival in the camp
Marathon stage: 10,5 liters per day
1.5 liters before the start each morning
3 x 1.5 liters during the race at checkpoints
4.5 liters on arrival in the camp
Non-stop stage: 22.5 liters per day over 2 days
1.5 liters before the start in the morning
1.5 liters at checkpoints 1,3,5,6
1.5 or 3 liters at checkpoints 2 and 4
4.5 at arrival post
4.5 at the bivouac.
You’re allowed to take or not take the water at any of the checkpoints. However, not taking the water distributed in the morning can lead to penalties. Anyone caught throwing bottles in the desert are given penalties as well. Littering is absolutely forbidden!
The salt tablets should be taken about 2 every 2 hours to keep hydrated. The water should be mixed 2 times a day with electrolyte powder
Of all the things a runner has in the desert, nothing is as important as the water he’s given. But how do you manage your water supply in that heat? Well, the water is distributed as follows:
Normal stage: 9 liters per day
1.5 liters before the start each morning
2 or 3 x 1.5 liters during the race at checkpoints
4.5 liters on arrival in the camp
Marathon stage: 10,5 liters per day
1.5 liters before the start each morning
3 x 1.5 liters during the race at checkpoints
4.5 liters on arrival in the camp
Non-stop stage: 22.5 liters per day over 2 days
1.5 liters before the start in the morning
1.5 liters at checkpoints 1,3,5,6
1.5 or 3 liters at checkpoints 2 and 4
4.5 at arrival post
4.5 at the bivouac.
You’re allowed to take or not take the water at any of the checkpoints. However, not taking the water distributed in the morning can lead to penalties. Anyone caught throwing bottles in the desert are given penalties as well. Littering is absolutely forbidden!
The salt tablets should be taken about 2 every 2 hours to keep hydrated. The water should be mixed 2 times a day with electrolyte powder
Checklist for the MDS, Sahara
Looking at the required equipment list is enough to make your hair stand on end, let alone the event description. What do you need when you go to the desert? What is one required, what else is recommended?
The organizer checks each participant’s rucksack and its content to the very bottom. A lack of one or more of the following items on this list can lead to disqualification. No runner is allowed to start if one of these is not in his/her rucksack:
Rucksack that holds everything you’ll need for a week. Or two small ones, one in front, one in back.
Sleeping bag – ultra light, ultra small, maybe a thin pad (the ground is hard and full of small rocks)
Head torch with spare batteries – for the night stage and in camp when the sun goes down.
10 safety pins (for the start numbers – and they can come in very handy for holding things together)
Compass (you should know how to use it too!)
Lighter for cooking, making fires, possible distress, lamp failure
Jack-knife with several functions
Disinfection fluid for wounds, treatment of blisters when on your own on the course
Snake bite set – you never know when little creepy crawlies can show up and bite
Whistle – should be very loud, for possible distress situations
Emergency mirror – also for possible distress situations
Aluminium blanket - protects from hot and cold.
2000 calories per day/14,000 calories for the entire race.
These items are given to you before the race starts. They are also mandatory:
Salt tablets – to be taken in pairs every couple of hours during the day!
Emergency flare for the night stage – only to be used in a serious distress situation
Florescent stick, also for the night stage
The minimum accepted weight is 6,5 kg, the highest is 15 kg. no one gets by with 6.5, but 15 is absolutely too much. Rucksacks can be and are controlled at any point in time during any stage. Anyone caught without the mandatory equipment/required calories for the remainder of the race can be disqualified.
The organizer checks each participant’s rucksack and its content to the very bottom. A lack of one or more of the following items on this list can lead to disqualification. No runner is allowed to start if one of these is not in his/her rucksack:
Rucksack that holds everything you’ll need for a week. Or two small ones, one in front, one in back.
Sleeping bag – ultra light, ultra small, maybe a thin pad (the ground is hard and full of small rocks)
Head torch with spare batteries – for the night stage and in camp when the sun goes down.
10 safety pins (for the start numbers – and they can come in very handy for holding things together)
Compass (you should know how to use it too!)
Lighter for cooking, making fires, possible distress, lamp failure
Jack-knife with several functions
Disinfection fluid for wounds, treatment of blisters when on your own on the course
Snake bite set – you never know when little creepy crawlies can show up and bite
Whistle – should be very loud, for possible distress situations
Emergency mirror – also for possible distress situations
Aluminium blanket - protects from hot and cold.
2000 calories per day/14,000 calories for the entire race.
These items are given to you before the race starts. They are also mandatory:
Salt tablets – to be taken in pairs every couple of hours during the day!
Emergency flare for the night stage – only to be used in a serious distress situation
Florescent stick, also for the night stage
The minimum accepted weight is 6,5 kg, the highest is 15 kg. no one gets by with 6.5, but 15 is absolutely too much. Rucksacks can be and are controlled at any point in time during any stage. Anyone caught without the mandatory equipment/required calories for the remainder of the race can be disqualified.
Marathon des Sables - Introduction into another dimension
„Come, Brigid, let’s run 250 km through the Sahara, only water is provided…“
With this sms, my life set sail on an entirely new course.
Just imagine – from one minute to the next your everyday life changes in every imaginable way. You own neither house nor computer, you have no mobile phone or TV, no toilet or shower. Nothing but a few personal belongings and one of 8 spots in an open-sided Berber tent made of sewn-together coffee sacks, a mere shelter that’s taken down over your head every morning at 5 by Berbers screaming „Jallah, jallah!“, just to be set up again 40 km from this spot, a distance you have to cover by foot.
„Sahara marathon, 250 km through the south Moroccan Sahara in six stages of between 28 and 90 km, complete self-sufficiency. Only water is provided. Emergency set including emergency rocket and snake bite set compulsory. Average daily temperature 50o. Accommodation is Berber tents.“
„Ya, Daniel, of course, and what else is new…?“
Damn glad the Marathon des Sables haunted my thoughts for so long. That’s the only way to tell if you really want something. It drove me to apply for a start number in September 2005 - and was I actually given one. From this point on, everything revolved around one thing – the physical, mental and material preparation for the toughest footrace on earth.
In April 2006, 743 athletes from around the globe flew to Casablanca and across the Atlas Mountains to Ouarzazate, from where we were driven deep into the Sahara in buses – and where the sand was too deep for these, cattle trucks took us on to the start - and I and 7 others to tent No. 57, our “mobile” home for the next 9 days.
Excellent tentmates, among others Anke, an engineer, who kept our laughing muscles occupied; Simon the student who had a rash between his legs even before the first start due to an intimate shave („I shaved everything down there – heard it supposedly makes shagging a lot cooler…“); Helmut, the cabaret artist from Innsbruck. He was a bit grumpy at times: „I love it when Brigid comes home – so much for a quiet time…“; Terry from LA, whose adenoids helped saw down a few imaginary forests at night; Tim, a Russian Lawyer. He kept out of mischief the whole week of the race, practiced some heavy duty „bottom’s up“ after the final finish. 8 extreme athletes, 3 of them extreme snorers.
“In the middle of nowhere.“ How often I’ve used this term frivolously. I never would imagine in my wildest dreams actually doing high-performance sports for an entire week under the most extreme conditions at such a remote place on this planet.
We were to run 6 stages within the given times. Patrick Bauer gave the infos of the day before every start, and we all sang “Happy Birthday” to anyone whose birthday it was. One time, an e-mail that was sent to the organiser was read to No. 359. A marriage proposal. We all screamed „Yes!“, but probably because we had ants in our pants and just wanted to hear one thing: “4, 3, 2, 1 – go!“
The Sahara showed what is has to offer on all stages – and, above all, what surprises it has in store. Breath-taking dunes, rock cliffs, mountains, elevated plains, dried out salt lakes, oases, impressive, vast wide-open spaces. The most fascinating thing: all problems you may face at home disappear. Everything becomes relative. The heat and powerful sandstorms, blowing kilos of sand in your rucksack and the tents thrashing in the wind shows you who’s the boss.
A logistical masterpiece, getting 736 athletes from 36 countries into the middle of the desert, leading them through 6 Marathon stages and, among other things, doctoring them par excellence throughout this tough week. The biggest problem? Blisters and getting one’s shoes on again in the morning. Our best friend? The little blue paracetemols. The coolest thing was the evening blister treatment – the wonderful selection of doctors left nothing to be desired.
Some of us weren’t exactly feeling at the top of the world. The desert has its own laws. 20% of the runners fell out of the race on the first days. Heat, exhaustion, dehydration. Two went into coma, 170 infusions were given. I once saw a Finnish woman lying on the outskirts of an immense dried out salt lake. The doctors were taking care of her so I continued my course. Later, in camp, I heard she’d suffered a stroke, causing her to her lose her mother tongue.
As there were so many emergency medical cases, the water rations were increased for the first time and for the first time in the history of the Marathon des Sables, the longest “royal stage” was shortened by 17 km. I and my 500 blisters didn’t know whether we should be happy or disappointed with that news. The ultimate running challenge had been tamed.
This, the longest stage offered everything the desert heart could desire. The Sahara at night with the full moon, hours and hours of dunes and cliffs, here and there a florescent stick lighting the way. The starry desert sky leaves you speechless. Alone on course at night in the vastness of this enormous desert. The most wonderful moment of the entire race.
Fantastic, unique atmosphere at the night checkpoint. I got my blisters treated, slept a couple of hours, knowing I was good for time. Carlos Santana and Loreena McKennitt helped me jog the rest of the 13 km into camp.
To celebrate having finishing the long stage I made a wash salon out of one of my water bottles, shook my undies in soapy water, and lay them out on some branches behind me to dry. Simon stole them all when I wasn’t looking and threw them into the neighbouring tents, to the surprise of their tent dwellers.
In the night before the last stage, I went out for a last walk under the clear starry desert sky. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I couldn’t sleep. My feet were in a bad way. It wasn’t that though. It was the thought that in just a few hours - after the unfathomable stress and strain, but also the invaluable experiences of the last week – I’d be running through the finish of this amazing event and having to say goodbye to the Sahara that let got my tears flowing.
An Arabic proverb says “Those entering and returning from the desert don’t come out the same...”
The Sahara has definitely changed me and become a part of me. I’m sure to be a second offender.
With this sms, my life set sail on an entirely new course.
Just imagine – from one minute to the next your everyday life changes in every imaginable way. You own neither house nor computer, you have no mobile phone or TV, no toilet or shower. Nothing but a few personal belongings and one of 8 spots in an open-sided Berber tent made of sewn-together coffee sacks, a mere shelter that’s taken down over your head every morning at 5 by Berbers screaming „Jallah, jallah!“, just to be set up again 40 km from this spot, a distance you have to cover by foot.
„Sahara marathon, 250 km through the south Moroccan Sahara in six stages of between 28 and 90 km, complete self-sufficiency. Only water is provided. Emergency set including emergency rocket and snake bite set compulsory. Average daily temperature 50o. Accommodation is Berber tents.“
„Ya, Daniel, of course, and what else is new…?“
Damn glad the Marathon des Sables haunted my thoughts for so long. That’s the only way to tell if you really want something. It drove me to apply for a start number in September 2005 - and was I actually given one. From this point on, everything revolved around one thing – the physical, mental and material preparation for the toughest footrace on earth.
In April 2006, 743 athletes from around the globe flew to Casablanca and across the Atlas Mountains to Ouarzazate, from where we were driven deep into the Sahara in buses – and where the sand was too deep for these, cattle trucks took us on to the start - and I and 7 others to tent No. 57, our “mobile” home for the next 9 days.
Excellent tentmates, among others Anke, an engineer, who kept our laughing muscles occupied; Simon the student who had a rash between his legs even before the first start due to an intimate shave („I shaved everything down there – heard it supposedly makes shagging a lot cooler…“); Helmut, the cabaret artist from Innsbruck. He was a bit grumpy at times: „I love it when Brigid comes home – so much for a quiet time…“; Terry from LA, whose adenoids helped saw down a few imaginary forests at night; Tim, a Russian Lawyer. He kept out of mischief the whole week of the race, practiced some heavy duty „bottom’s up“ after the final finish. 8 extreme athletes, 3 of them extreme snorers.
“In the middle of nowhere.“ How often I’ve used this term frivolously. I never would imagine in my wildest dreams actually doing high-performance sports for an entire week under the most extreme conditions at such a remote place on this planet.
We were to run 6 stages within the given times. Patrick Bauer gave the infos of the day before every start, and we all sang “Happy Birthday” to anyone whose birthday it was. One time, an e-mail that was sent to the organiser was read to No. 359. A marriage proposal. We all screamed „Yes!“, but probably because we had ants in our pants and just wanted to hear one thing: “4, 3, 2, 1 – go!“
The Sahara showed what is has to offer on all stages – and, above all, what surprises it has in store. Breath-taking dunes, rock cliffs, mountains, elevated plains, dried out salt lakes, oases, impressive, vast wide-open spaces. The most fascinating thing: all problems you may face at home disappear. Everything becomes relative. The heat and powerful sandstorms, blowing kilos of sand in your rucksack and the tents thrashing in the wind shows you who’s the boss.
A logistical masterpiece, getting 736 athletes from 36 countries into the middle of the desert, leading them through 6 Marathon stages and, among other things, doctoring them par excellence throughout this tough week. The biggest problem? Blisters and getting one’s shoes on again in the morning. Our best friend? The little blue paracetemols. The coolest thing was the evening blister treatment – the wonderful selection of doctors left nothing to be desired.
Some of us weren’t exactly feeling at the top of the world. The desert has its own laws. 20% of the runners fell out of the race on the first days. Heat, exhaustion, dehydration. Two went into coma, 170 infusions were given. I once saw a Finnish woman lying on the outskirts of an immense dried out salt lake. The doctors were taking care of her so I continued my course. Later, in camp, I heard she’d suffered a stroke, causing her to her lose her mother tongue.
As there were so many emergency medical cases, the water rations were increased for the first time and for the first time in the history of the Marathon des Sables, the longest “royal stage” was shortened by 17 km. I and my 500 blisters didn’t know whether we should be happy or disappointed with that news. The ultimate running challenge had been tamed.
This, the longest stage offered everything the desert heart could desire. The Sahara at night with the full moon, hours and hours of dunes and cliffs, here and there a florescent stick lighting the way. The starry desert sky leaves you speechless. Alone on course at night in the vastness of this enormous desert. The most wonderful moment of the entire race.
Fantastic, unique atmosphere at the night checkpoint. I got my blisters treated, slept a couple of hours, knowing I was good for time. Carlos Santana and Loreena McKennitt helped me jog the rest of the 13 km into camp.
To celebrate having finishing the long stage I made a wash salon out of one of my water bottles, shook my undies in soapy water, and lay them out on some branches behind me to dry. Simon stole them all when I wasn’t looking and threw them into the neighbouring tents, to the surprise of their tent dwellers.
In the night before the last stage, I went out for a last walk under the clear starry desert sky. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I couldn’t sleep. My feet were in a bad way. It wasn’t that though. It was the thought that in just a few hours - after the unfathomable stress and strain, but also the invaluable experiences of the last week – I’d be running through the finish of this amazing event and having to say goodbye to the Sahara that let got my tears flowing.
An Arabic proverb says “Those entering and returning from the desert don’t come out the same...”
The Sahara has definitely changed me and become a part of me. I’m sure to be a second offender.
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