Marathon De Sables

I raced the Marathon De Sables in March 2007. Considered by many to be one of the toughest footraces on Earth, it is a 135 mile, 6 day stage race across the Sahara desert in Morocco. The race definitely lived up to expectations and was truly spectacular. During the race, I was able to update my blog, and wrote daily updates after each race stage. I decided that the race report would basically be a consolidation of those daily reports, as they best reflect what I was feeling at the time. There’s one addition of a post that wasn’t received for some reason, titled “Recovery Day”.

The race was won for the 10th consecutive year by Lahsen Ansahal, a Moroccan runner who has built a great legacy at the MdS. Lahsen’s overall time was 17:25 hrs. His brother Mohamad came in 2nd, only 11 minutes behind. The women’s winner was the French Laurence Fricotteux, with a overall time of 23:28 hrs.

The following are the posts as written in chronological order during the race. Click here for more picture from the race:

March 25 – First Update From Race (ranked 119)

So much to tell since i wrote last we traveled to the bivouac, got checked in, got our tents and spent most of Friday and Saturday waiting in lines for food, water, gear checks. I have a great group of people in my tent – Tim, Tom, and Leo from the US, Pete and Nick from Australia, Liz from the UK, and Patrick from Italy.
The stage today was 30km. I planned on being out for 4 hours. The beginning was nice, with a cool breeze, but the heat became oppressive soon enough. I ran the flats and the downhills and walked all the uphills. The dunes are something else – you’re slipping and sliding as you walk up, trying to walk in the footsteps of those behind you. The second checkpoint was at 19km, where I caught up with Jay – and we ran the last 10km pretty much together. I came in at around 3:50, I wasn’t timing so I’m not sure.
Until tomorrow!
Elad


Our tent. Top (L-R): Elad, Tim, Patrick, Pete, Nick
Bottom: Leo, Liz, Tom


Everyone excited before the start

March 26 – Second Day (ranked 98)

To all those who sent messages – thanks! It’s great to get them in the evening, puts you in a good mood.
Last night we had a sandstorm like you wouldn’t believe – blew our tent over, and sand was everywhere. I tried crawling into my sleeping bag but it was no use. My teeth, my nose, it was unreal. In the morning it was scorching again as we set out for 35k. This was a hilly section, and the first 20k were up and down, which was good for me, since I’ve trained a lot on hills. From 20k-30k was a long flat section- ‘the death march’. It was only 10k, but completely featureless, I was bored stiff and that took its toll. I ended up walking most of the last 3k. Checkpoint 3 was at 30k, and from it we had to climb a monstrous 800 meter sand dune – straight up!! It took about an hour just to get to the top. I finished at 4:40, which put me in 78th place for this stage. Tomorrow is a 30k day, I’ll take it easy to prepare for day 4.

Elad


View from the top…

March 27 – Third Day (ranked 103)

The bivouac is huge circle of tents, there are no toilets. People walk 30ft from their tent, whip it out and do their thing, men, women, doesn’t matter. If they don’t cover their toilet paper with rocks you could have shit (literally) flying at you. Every morning the berbers rip the tent off of us at 6am, with us inside. We then have to get our stuff together quickly before they pull the rugs from underneath us. We then have 3 hours until we start.
Third day went OK, I was slower, 32k at 4:07. Tomorrow is 70k and it’ll take at least 11 hours, so you won’t hear from me for 2 days.Thanks for all the letters, they’re great :-)

Elad


The berbers taking our tent as Patrick tries to save his stuff

March 28 – The Long Day (ranked 79)

It was… Dunes. Miles and miles of dunes as far as the eye can see. Deep, soft sand that crumbles as soon as you touch it and sinks beneath you. Long river beds. Sharp uneven rocks that pierce your shoes and force you to tiptoe across the terrain. Flats. Endless, featureless sand flats that expel soft super fine powder dust that forms a layer on your body. Heat. The sun beating down all day with no mercy and no shade. Blisters. People limping and hobbling in agony trying to finish.
But it was a good day. A wonderful, glorious day. I spent it with my family. We watched a movie, read books, wrestled, I ate ice cream with my wife on the porch, and before I knew it the day had ended. Truly a day to remember.
70k, 9:50 hrs – I SMOKED IT!!!
Roll out the carpet, bring out the band, 53K and I’m coming home…Elad


Giles, Fulvio and Jay scramble to the top of a dune

March 29 – Recovery Day (not posted originally)

Yesterday’s email was a bit emotional…I had just crossed the finish line and was a bit overwhelmed. An hour later, after the adrenaline wore off, I was a wreck – laying in my tent, my whole body aching, barely moving. As the night wore on, more of my tentmates arrived, until 12:30am, when Nick finally came in and completed the roster.
The first 20k of the stage were relatively flat, with some undulating hills, but nothing too impressive. I ran those at an easy pace, to get warmed up to the long day ahead. From 20k-40k it was all dunes, miles of dunes. They were very impressive on the one hand, but after 4 hours in them you get the point…I got to checkpoint 4 at 42k at around 3:30pm. From here, it was flat running until km 64, and this is where everything suddenly clicked. My mind separated from my body, which went on autopilot – liquids, calories, elecytrolytes, forward motion. All the training finally paid off. I put in a good pace until checkpoint 6, and then just hauled myself as fast as I could over the last 6km of dunes to the finish line. I met up with Jay 1/2 mile from the end and we ran in it together. A great day.

March 30 – Marathon Day (ranked 88)

I WILL NEVER EAT ANOTHER CLIF BAR. Having one for breakfast every day is just as hard as running. I should have been more creative with my food. Luckily, others brought too much, so I was able to replace 3 afternoon bars with good food. My tentmates know that any uneaten food goes to me, I’ll take almost anything :-)
The stage today was flat and fast,and people took off at a blistering pace. I quickly realized that I just didn’t have enough gas left in the tank for an all-out marathon, so I settled into a decent pace and saw it through. I ran 4:35,which put me ~125th place. The good news is that I don’t think it will affect my overall ranking too much, finishing times were close.
Tomorrow we cross the infamous Marzouga dunes on our way to the finish – 11k away. Then it’s a 6hr ride (imagine the smell on that bus…) back to Ouarzazate.Thanks again to all those who’ve written, it’s been great to receive encouragement. It really helped and put a smile on my face whenever I thought about them.
Cheers,
E

April 2 – All Good Things Come to an End (Final Ranking – 83)

I’m writing this from home, after the 14 hour flight back from Ouarzazate. The last stage on Sunday was a mad dash to the finish which I completed in 1:12, 62nd place. My final position was 83, with an accumulated time of 28:17 hours. I’m very happy with the result,
I had a great week, met some amazing people and had a lot of fun. It’s hard to relay everything that happened in short posts, but I hope I managed to get some of the spirit of the race across. I’ll post some of my pictures soon, as well as a consolidated race report. It takes a few months before the race supplies me with their pics, so that’ll have to wait.Again – thanks so much to everyone that wrote, it was great to receive emails every night at the tent and I’ll keep them with me as memorabilia.
Happy training and racing,

E


135 miles and 28 hours later…