Race diaires from EventRate.com members

18th Marathon des Sables–Southern Moroccan Sahara

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At 9.30 on Sunday 6th April 2003 the 18th Marathon des Sables got under way. Race inventor and master of ceremonies Patrick Bauer eloquently communicated his enthusiasm for us its participants and for the race itself, which he conceived 19 years ago after undertaking a similar distance across the desert himself.
This year 661 competitors from 30 different countries started the race, 69 women and 51 official 4 person teams. The race is run in 6 stages over 7 days. In 2003 the race was made up of the following sections:

Stage 1- 6th April -25km –(15Ѕ miles)
Stage 2 - 7th April -34km incl 14k dunes–(21 miles incl8Ѕ miles dunes)
Stage 3 - 8th April - 38km – (23Ѕ miles)
Stage 4 - 9th and 10th April - 82km – (51 miles)
Stage 5 – 11th April – 42km – (26 miles)
Stage 6 – 12th April – 22km – (13Ѕ miles)
Total - 243km – (151 miles)

Training –
I signed up for the race in Mid October 2002, and began a training program on the 22nd October which was planned as follows:
Monday
Tuesday Rest day
Road Work 5-10k
Wednesday 1hr up & down 1-2k hill & upper body work
Thursday Road work 5-10k
Friday Rest day
Saturday Warm up day moderate plod 4-6k & upper body work
Sunday Distance day 20- 80k tri weekly inc by 7.5k Total 20k

The plan was to increase the long distance Sunday run by 7Ѕk every third week. Building up in this way, by the 7th December I ran about 29k with my pack. The following Sunday I followed the same course but only ran half of it. By the 17th December I had become ill with the worst bout of flu for 10 years, I think I had over trained.
During the course of my search for relevant literature I read Jon Ackland’s book on Endurance Training and I remembered reading in the back about Performance Lab, that write tailor made 12 to 16 week programs for athletes. So I wrote them an e-mail asking if they could help me. They did! On the 13th January I embarked on the program, which was written specifically and individually for me, which ultimately led me to success.
At the moment I feel like I would like to have another go at this race, however also I get the sense that I’ve achieved what I set out to, and at my stage of life it’s time to count my blessings. I’ve achieved something quite unusual. I took a courageous decision to have a go at this event and with much help and support from family, friends and Performance Lab, I somehow go to the start line.
If I attempt this race again, some aspects of preparation would not have to be revisited, though I would want to be confident about jogging in the heat and this would involve acclimatisation. However to quote mountaineer Chris Bonnington, you have to make the most of your environment. So unless I can somehow get access to elite environmental training facilities or am prepared to spend an extra week in a hot climate, it would be very difficult to cover this aspect of training.
I have no doubt that the hours spent running on a sandy beach were well spent, much of the terrain was very similar (soft sand). On week days when I could not get to the beach, and when my program specified to be training on the same terrain as in the desert, I ran on ploughed fields which during the dry weather matched the desert quite closely.
As a tribute to my training, race strategy and mental preparation, not once during the course of the race did I feel physically as if I could not go on nor did I ever feel thirsty or hungry. Nor did I ever face any serious doubts about my ability to complete the race.
Mnemonic
I kept up a 15-min cycle of:
Food (a small mouthful), usually a cereal bar but occasionally nuts & raisins.
Exposed Skin, Factor 30 Sports sun lotion (that allows the skin to breathe properly) applied first thing in the morning was perfectly adequate. But the mnemonic worked much better with an E.
Navigation, A compass would have been fine but it was good (and interesting) to know pace etc from my GPS.
Drink, On the infrequent occasions that I did run I would change my drinking to about 4 mouthfuls every five minutes, when walking I would have about 8 mouthfuls every 15 minutes. Before the first checkpoint of the morning I would routinely be ditching excess water from my camelback, to take on fresh water. Later on in the day when losing more water through sweat this would not be so noticeable. Once or twice I came near to running out of water, but didn’t ever need the 500ml of “emergency” water that I carried. If you’re passing water often, you may be ingesting too much at one time, the body is only able to digest a small part and by passes the rest. To resolve this try drinking less, but more frequently.
Observe fellow competitors (and lie of the land)
Feet ……they’re like gold dust.
Diary

Thursday 3rd April.

I had a dreadful nights sleep and Mum & Dad saw me off on the train to the Airport at 6.30 a.m. I arrived with plenty of time to spare and as I waited, gradually more and more people with rucksacks passed where I sat.
In the aeroplane, I was seated next to one of the team of eight people who were going to do the entire event inside a rhinoceros costume for charity. They successfully completed the event which was a phenomenal achievement, I think most of them pushed themselves beyond the limit and ended up with various injuries.
After a 2Ѕ hour flight we were met at a hot Ouarzazate airport and transferred to our lovely hotel. It was not too much of a crush or wait and I was obliged to share a room with a lawyer from Singapore called Paul.
In the afternoon we explored Ouarzazate and I bought some flip-flops and some Tuareg headgear. In the evening Paul prepared his race provisions, he had mountains of food including tins! That night Paul snored like a demon so I was grateful for the sleeping pills I’d brought with me.

Friday 4th April

After an early breakfast we packed our gear, and as we boarded one of the four coaches were issued with the road book. The road book details your itinerary over the next 11 days and, as well as maps and details of terrain for each of the six race stages, it covers topics such as how and when to e-mail, meal times (before self sufficiency) and how to conserve the environment. I was eager to learn on which stage the dunes were placed and was quite relieved to find out that they were at the beginning of the second.
Once we were all on board we departed at about 10.30. We stopped briefly to rendezvous with a coach load of American competitors, then, in convoy, and with a Police motorcyclist clearing the road ahead of us, we swept our way through Ouarzazate and on to our final destination 340km away at Erfoud. The native inhabitants generally regarded us with keen interest. The older houses are small square affairs constructed out of a mixture of straw and mud. The more modern constructions are concrete.
After stopping for a packed lunch in the middle of the day we arrived at our destination at the edge of the desert at 4p.m. There then ensued an organised scramble to clamber aboard tuareg trucks for the 4k transfer to our first bivouac.
As the bivouac came into view we could see the low black Berber tents that were to be our shelter for the next 8 nights. The British competitors were allocated tents 73 to 83, I found a spare place in tent 75 with seven others. Two of them had not really bothered to train at all (so they said) and during the course of the next two days managed to come up with some quite effective gaiters.
That evening, dinner, provided by the organisers, gave the opportunity for some of the members of our tent to get to know each other a little better over a bottle of beer or small bottle of red or white wine. The meals provided by the organisers were superb, even if there was a bit of queuing to endure.
After dark at about 7.30 the Tuareg tribesmen lit the campfire in the centre of the competitors circle of tents around which some unintelligible chants were sung to the delight of the spectators who crowded for warmth around the campfire.

Saturday 5th April

Day of technical, medical and administrative checks
TEMPERATURE : 36°C
WEATHER : dry and hot. Light winds. Quite cold at night.

We were awoken early by the general hustle and bustle, I had not slept well, having gone to bed at about 8.30 p.m. After breakfast we queued to receive our 4.5 litres of water (in the customary 1.5 litre bottles) quota for today.
The Loo
There were some portaloos…but it was better to go behind a convenient tuft of grass or dune etc, this was a process that took a bit of refining during the early stages. Fortunately I did not suffer any stomach or bowel difficulties. It is worth noting however, that anti-inflammatory drugs which I started taking at C3 on the 50 mile section do give you constipation when taken during the day.
Equipment inspection was arranged throughout today and was allotted according to your race number. Forms were issued in the early morning on which you had to detail your food by calories per day and in total for the week. You also had to declare that you were in possession of all the mandatory kit list items e.g. signal mirror, compass etc. Food and the rest of your kit were weighed separately, and providing it was less than 15k in total you were then issued with flare and salt tablets. You were then passed on to the medical desk where they looked at your medical form (make sure your Doctor authenticates it with his stamp) and ECG. You were then issued with your medical record card and water punch card.
In the heat of the day the Berber tents were noticeably cooler than the surroundings, despite their crude construction (old coffee sacks sewn together with farmers twine).
The afternoon was then spent reassembling your rucksack contents and preparing for the next day, some lucky souls took the opportunity to sunbathe, personally I found it a bit too hot!
In the evening Patrick Bauer made a stirring speech (ably translated) all about the race. He then introduced (and we applauded) each one of the 30 or so Nationalities participating, from Australia to Ethiopia. In the evening we were again treated to a delicious meal, prepared by the French chefs, and a choice of beer or wine to accompany our last one before self-sufficiency.
Leg 1 25km Sunday 6th April

STAGE: 1 (DAYA – ERG CHEBBI)
DISTANCE: 25km
ROUTE : 2 cp (checkpoints) at 11km and 21km, crossings of small dunes, sandy wadi, small village of Tisserdimine, stony plateau, 2km crossing of Erg Moulay Amar (bigger dunes up to 12m)
TEMPERATURE: 27°C in the shade at 11h30, 20% humidity (60% in Paris)
WEATHER: A cool start with moderate winds. By 11h the wind has dropped and it’s very warm and sunny.
NUMBER OF COMPETITORS: 661
STARTING TIME: 09h30
We were awoken at about 5.30 the usual time that the camp roused itself. Oddly enough while others moaned about waking up early it did not bother me. The Tuareg tribesman would routinely start dismantling the tents at about 6 a.m. after which we had about half an hours grace before the carpets under us were removed as well.
After breakfast a group of Koreans made a great show of doing some co-ordinated aerobics; press ups, star jumps, squat thrusts and so on, all led by a cheer leader with a whistle. They would shout and clap in time to their movements much to the amusement of the whole camp, a couple of spectators even felt moved enough to join in on that first day……
It was a rush to get myself all packed up and ready for the congregation around the start line at 9.15 .
Before the start Patrick Bauer had asked us to form the shape of a globe for the helicopter to film from above. We all waved as they filmed from above.
Everybody successfully completed the first stage although it later transpired that one unfortunate competitor broke his arm in collision with one of the race vehicles. Just before the off we shook hands amongst ourselves and wished each other good luck. And at 9.30 a.m. we were started.
I started slowly and at one stage was last with only the two camels and their Tuareg handlers behind me. Fairly soon I speeded up to a fast walk.
Initially the terrain was sand with a thin crust of fine gravel, which in places, gave way underfoot.
I got talking to one chap who said that he had trained entirely by walking and it was his intention to walk the whole event. He told me that he’d shared a dinner table at the hotel with a person who’d retired from last year’s Marathon des Sables. This person related the tale of his retirement and how, no sooner than he made the decision to retire and had sat down in the Landrover, he felt good enough to carry on.
As we made progress on this first day, I felt the first twinges in my feet. Well it was not surprising really, here was I, walking, having done all my training at a trot. My pack was three or four kilograms heavier than I had trained with.
The result was blisters, three after the first day and a dozen or so by the finishing line on the final day. For pro-active blister treatment I had put on tape in the predicted areas and true to form I did not have any problems in those areas. Early on in this first stage, I stopped twice to tape over some “hot spots”
After a long flat plain we crossed a few mini dunes. On arrival at the first check point I reloaded my electrolyte drink and set off again as soon as I was ready. Some people took time out at the checkpoints, personally I always like to get on with it.
Ascending the first little sandy bit at K13.5 we came across some children who were watching. They launched into their “donne moi le gateau” or “bonbon, bonbon” and put out their hands. Throughout the week I only came across 2 of these children who had extended their mastery of the French language beyond this simple plea and it was good to be able to speak a few more words to them.
The last section of the day was a long flat stony plain the backdrop for which was the range of dunes comprising the beginning of the second day. I was more relieved to get to the finish line on the first day than on any other day. I had started the race with about 13 kilograms plus 1.5 litres water, by the end of the day, unused to quite such a heavy pack, my shoulders felt bruised from the weight, I had 3 blisters and a headache.
After collecting the 4.5litres of water (that you get at the finish of each stage) I walked back to the tent and got on with the routine of a basic wash, rinsing my clothes (I had four pairs of socks for 7 days) cooking up my evening meal and dealing with my feet. To lighten the weight of my pack I ditched my three stoves which together weighed a total 600 grams.
The plan for blister treatment was to deal with them in two stages, the first of which, to drain them of fluid, I started on this, the first evening. I feel that if I had run more (rather than walk, which is what I did for the vast majority of the time), then I would have been using those parts of my feet that I had conditioned during training, and would therefore have suffered less with blisters. Ben, my natural opposite number in the tent (the other six were in two groups of three) was good enough to share boiling water from his kettle with me, so I usually had the essential cup of tea. I resolved to either eat my food cold or collect a few twigs to make a little campfire. I was told that the abundant kindling was easy to light, so from then on this was how I cooked and on every evening apart from the second, I had a hot meal. In the evening my tent mates were the very model of jokey optimism and were a pleasure to be around.

Stage Race Position Stage Time Time behind leader AvSpeed
1 620 5hm 3h33’ 4.7

Leg 2 34km Monday 7th April

STAGE : 2 / DISTANCE : 34km
ROUTE : Erg Chebbi – Erg Znaigui
ROUTE: 3 checkpoints (cp 1 at 6.5km in middle of dunes), cp2 at 15km (at end of dunes), cp3 at km25. 14km of big dunes (Erg Chebbi – up to 300m high) then stony plateau. 3,5 kms of dunes (erg Znaigui) to finish.
TEMPERATURE: 37° at 12h, 17% humidity
WEATHER: dry and hot, slight breeze in the morning, stronger winds in the afternoon
NUMBER OF COMPETITORS: 660
STARTING TIME: 8h30 (half hour ahead of scheduled time due to high temperatures)

The camp rose at the usual time and my usual routine was to pack up my sleeping bag, then eat breakfast and drink a dioralyte sachet. There was usually a gentle breeze in the mornings and it could be a bit chilly after getting up, so some people got back in their bags to keep warm & grab more rest. I did not want to puncture my sleeping mat or get my bag full of sand so once up, I stayed up. When there was not a breeze, it got noticeably hot, even first thing in the morning.
I spent such a long time on my feet this morning, disinfecting, applying compeed (a proprietary hydrocolloidal blister dressing) to three toes, then taping them, that I was nearly late for the start.
The previous evening, Ben had said that he would do the dune section with me. Before the dunes themselves there was a 1Ѕk flat lead in. Along the way we passed the predictable dead camel bones which I was fairly convinced had been deliberately placed there (well I would).
The dunes were challenging but at the same time exhilarating. A group of three or four people insisted on climbing a massive 300m dune to our left. The main body of runners followed in the footsteps of Moroccan leaders of the field. Two helicopters buzzed over head filming our progress and there was some superb flying, the pilot would fly sideways 50 or so feet above our heads up and down the range of dunes, so that the camera man could film from the doorway. After 6.5km C1 we stopped to receive 1.5 litres of water and reload with electrolytes. The path of least resistance was sand that would not crumble under foot and it was possible to avoid crumbling some quite steep inclines by using flat feet. At other times soft sanded climbs were unavoidable and in these instances I found the easiest method was to place your feet exactly in the imprint of a previous walker. If you tried making new tracks in soft sand, progress was slow. At C2 15km we got water and I asked someone with green war paint (sun cream) on his face what he thought of the dune section “Fantastic” came this heroes reply. “ How about your feet” I asked, “Yeah” he replied, and with a hint of an antipodean accent and a beaming smile he added “I’ve got a few foot challenges”.
Shortly after C2, which was somewhat crowded and in the shade of a tree, I stopped to assess my feet. On inspection they appeared to be in reasonably good shape. So I put some tape in the relevant sore spots and carried on.
During the latter stages of this leg I decided to break into a gentle jog for exactly 15 minutes and then monitor how I felt. Having jogged a little I didn’t feel great and my pack still felt enormously heavy.
Ascending what appeared to be a simple little sandy hill, there was a sting in the tail. A photographer said, in all innocence probably, “nearly there mate”, as it transpired this was a little understated, for there was 3Ѕ k of wind blown dunes to contend with. As you got to each crest the wind would whip handfuls of sand in to your face.
About half way through this last section of dunes I began to feel a bit dizzy, which I took to be the early signs of dehydration so I immediately upped my fluid intake.
Eventually the bivouac came into view. On arrival at the tent, Eddie, in typical with uncanny intuition, as a comment on the dune section said “cheeky”. I was not feeling well and lay down feeling queasy and with a throbbing.
I must have lain fairly inert for an hour or so before the lads in the tent became a little concerned about the lack of signs of life emanating from me and eventually Paul said “Andy you’ve got to get up and do something”. Still feeling unwell I got on with the business of cleaning myself up, preparing my evening meal and generally looking lively. They went off to send some e-mails and I forced down about a 1/3 of my evening meal and 2 or 3 more Dioralyte sachets. I also started to take the salt tablets that we were issued with on the first day.
In the hot conditions it soon became apparent that the special blister dressings were not adequate. When I had used them in the past, they had worked extremely well, in these conditions they became jelly like and did not adhere to the skin as they are designed to. I therefore removed the old ones, disinfected the damaged skin and then replaced them with new ones the following morning.
I retired to my sleeping bag early.

Stage Race Position Stage Time Time behind leader Average Speed
2 548 7h27’ 4h57’ 4.56
Leg 3 38km Tuesday 8th April
Stage : 3 / DISTANCE : 38km
Route : Erg Znaigui – Oued El Jdaid
TERRAIN : Difficult stage. Few remaining small dunes of Jebel IHMAME. Passage through dry river bed ZIZ is very uneven, full of crevasses. Stoney ground. Crossing of oasis and JDAID village. Dunes and Jebel EL ABHET. Steep ascent (between 650 and 780 metres) including crossing of small dunes.
TEMPERATURE: 37,2° at 12h, 12% humidity
Weather : Hot and dry at first, headwinds. Stronger winds in late morning. Occasional rain in early afternoon.
COMPETITORS : 655 (D293 and D464 pulled out this morning before the start of the race due to fatigue)
Start : 8h45, time limit 11 hours

Before checkpoint 1 I had a little jog to relieve the feet which were really beginning to irritate me. I could see c1 not far off and I promised myself a foot check when I got there. But immediacy was always part of the foot care plan, so I stopped to attend to them. With my back to the wind blown flurries of sand, I put some new tape and compeed on the balls of my feet. It was hot today and the wind continued to stir up the sand so I was reaching for my goggles from quite an early stage.
Patrick Bauer in his daily rousing pre-start speech had cautioned us against the many crevasses that there were on this stage and he’d also reminded us that if visibility were to be reduced to just a few metres then we were to stop in our tracks – no heroics. We crossed a series of dried up river courses, dissected by dried up water-cut gullies and rivulets covering approximately 4 miles. As we traversed it, up ahead in the distance our fellow competitors would occasionally disappear in clouds of dust and sand kicked up by the wind.

I had my GPS on so I was not terribly worried even if the people in front disappeared. Halfway across a group of children clapped as I passed them by. After the dry river beds we started along a vehicle track which ran along the wide valley. The route was punctuated occasionally by outcrops of vegetation clinging steadfastly to a dunettes. When you were in the lee of the wind it felt quite hot. Silas’s advice kept ringing in my ears “You’re feet are like gold dust...imagine if you’ve got gold dust in your shoe and it’s trickling out little by little”.
Sheltering from the sun as best I could beside one of these vegetated dunettes, I stopped briefly to attend to one of my feet. I was also sheltered from the breeze and the smell of my own hot skin filled my nostrils. However I had, as usual applied factor 30 first thing in the morning and so sunburn was not a problem. As I sat, I over-heard some of the other competitors on the track who’d spotted the next squall moving down the valley so I quickly put my shoe back on, only to take the other one off 30 or so metres further on, once the squall had passed.
At checkpoint 2 (after 22km) I stopped to fill up with water but the sun was just too intense so I took shelter briefly in the Berber tent. Somebody in the tent said “just think, this time tomorrow we’ll be over a quarter of the way there” at which I groaned inwardly. A doctor kindly asked me if I was ok, which was nice. Looking at a prone person in the tent I recognised her as being one of the brits shortly after she walked to a Landrover, her race obviously over. (she told us later that day that she had suffered two bouts of epileptic fit, the second series of which manifested right in front of the checkpoint, so the medical staff decided to retire her).
Three hundred metres after leaving C2 I felt for my sunglasses and found that they were missing. Panicking slightly I asked some people following me if they were dangling off me somewhere that I could not see, they were not. Visions of pinprick pupils and unbearable sun induced headaches began to fill my head as I decided that I had probably dropped them at the checkpoint, so I turned around and headed back towards it. Passing some others in the wrong direction gave rise to mutterings about my being a brave man or something. Fortunately, the great sunglasses god in the sky was feeling beneficent today and I found them on a rug in the tent.
So for the second time that day I set out from checkpoint 2, the wind had been threatening violence for most of the day and it became increasingly strong. Suddenly the air filled with sand and it became impossible to breathe without a scarf, or see without goggles, however there was no constitution to it and pretty soon it fizzed out.
A long drawn out straight section followed and way in the distance a more a interesting vista appeared. The plain dragged on and half way across it began to rain, so I jogged a little. The rain spattered intermittently and then the sun reappeared. At the end of the plain there was a sort of rim known as a jebel about 50metres high which we climbed. Descending a fairly treacherous descent the other side, across jagged rocks and sand there was a landrover keeping watch. In the shade of the vehicle a competitor appeared to be resting or receiving a drip.
At the end of the plain we entered the outskirts of a little village where I was briefly lost but soon picked up the route markers. A group of three little children, busily playing on a little pile of sand watched me as I walked, a group of men cast moody glances in my direction, the women and girls gathered in a huddle in the shade against the side of a house and a group of boys gathered around a bicycle.
After leaving the village we approached the base of a jebel, and made a steep, oblique, soft-sanded130metre slog up the slope. I always enjoyed the climbs, usually gaining ground against my fellow competitors. Atop the climb, a marshal observed us climbing, a wise precaution I thought, after a long day in the heat and then quite a stiff climb. Just over the brow was the next checkpoint.
As I filled up with water in the (C3 33k) tent I noticed that one of the competitors had blood on his face. “Och that’s nothing, I get a bloody nose for a living” he said, when I commented on it. As I left the tent he walked off in the opposite direction, I presumed he had gone to relieve himself, until an American who spotted him wandering off in the wrong direction yelled out “hey, we’re going this way!”
“I only hope he does the same for me someday” said the American as I walked past.
The last 4.5k (3 miles) seemed to drag on and it rained for the second time that day. I collected a few pieces of wood to cook with, but I had underestimated the remaining distance and spent the next kilometre or so with thorny twigs scraping my legs and digging into my hands. When the bivouac came into sight the American let out a yell of delight.
Later as the evening drew on I wandered out to look over the hill in the direction from which a few competitors were still coming, soldiering on towards the finish line in the fading light. After I had settled down for the night there was a huge cheer from a big crowd gathered round the finish line as the last competitors came in accompanied by the camels and their handlers.

Stage Race Position Stage Time Time behind leader AvSpeed
3 606 8h32’ 5h42’ 4.45

Leg 4 82km Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th April

STAGE : 4 (non-stop)
DISTANCE : 82km (maximum time limit 36h)
ROUTE : Oued El Jdaid – Rich Bel Ras
TERRAIN : Crossing of series of wadis and little valleys. Cross dunettes of NOU HAOUAR erg between km 10 and 11.5. Salt flats at km 20. Tricky passage through Oued JOUIJEL at km 23 then OUED RHERIS at km 28. Beginning of JEBEL RAS KHEMMOUNA at km 32 then crossing of JEBEL ZIREG at km 45. Leave Jebel and go onto further salt flats at km 55. Zone of small dunes at km 62. Very uneven ground at km 63 and areas of vegetation. Wadi and small dunes (km 68) of MA DER BOUZIANE. End of wadi and arrival at bivouac km 82.
TEMPERATURE : 9th April 37° at 11H30, 12% humidity
METEO : 9th April hot and dry. Light to moderate winds, sometimes strong
TEMPERATURE : 10th April 44° at 12H : 14% humidity
METEO: 10th April very windy at times. Increasingly hot.
NUMBER OF COMPETITORS : 648 (13 have pulled out the race up to now)
START TIME : 9H10 for the majority of competitors, 12h10 for the top fifty runners in general ranking plus top 5 female runners (group 2)

At about 9am we set off as usual. A number of the fastest runners, thus far, started 3 hours after the main body of competitors. The leaders of this late starting group overtook me just as I had begun to cross a rock hard bobbly dry salt lake nearing c2. From a distance it had shimmered in the heat. At the check point (K21) I met up with a mate for whom at last I’d found a really good fossil. He had also had some luck fossil hunting and had half a dozen impressive looking specimens which he intended to give to his son. I advised him to keep just the prettiest one and ditch the remainder to save weight. We teamed up and climbed the jebel behind C2 before descending into the stony flat plain beyond. We both noticed the incredible variety of rock which littered the plain. After an hour’s walking Rob stopped for his hourly break, whilst I carried on.

After the long plain there was a curious raised section of ground that was covered in bushes about 10 to 12 feet high. With no one immediately in front of me to follow and no route markers visible to me, I struck out on the appropriate bearing using my GPS. I heard a marshal call out to me to follow the correct course, he told me to stop where I was, which I did, but he then made no move toward me and silently disappeared. So I continued on my chosen course and quite soon also found some training shoe imprints confirming that I was on the right track.
The wind was gusting the occasional face full of sand so at times I quickly put my goggles on. In previous years some runners had serious difficulties with sand in their eyes and I was keen to avoid this. I passed a team of runners who were resting through the fiercest heat of the day and eventually, in the distance saw the third checkpoint.
At C3 K32 and with dusk 2 or 3 hours off we were issued with light-sticks. My feet had been hurting with every step for some time now, but I knew that the best cure for aching feet, less than half way through an 82km walk, was more walking.
As I collected my thoughts, the words “voiture ballet” crackled aloud twice, like a mythological siren, from a marshal’s radio. Preparing to leave the checkpoint, and purely by chance, I linked up with another competitor. Vincent, a Brazilian, spoke good English and together we struck out for C4 K45. Contrary to expectations, walking and talking did not really take the pain away but it did cure the boredom and was more interesting than my own company. We compared notes about our ailments, he had “dead legs”. As the heat of the sun faded in front of us, Vincent predicted our ETA at the next checkpoint. My original intention was to stop at checkpoint 4 for about 1.5 hours to have something to eat, digest it and then press-on through to the finish. However as we made our way, Vincent presented a convincing argument for continuing to C5, resting for a few hours and then carrying on to the finish. His rationale was that C4 would probably be crowded with people of the same mind and was only just over half way, C5 on the other hand was at 56.5K. I decided to go along with Vincent’s plan.
Our pace was about 4Ѕkph which would be very slow in the normal course of things…. A gentle upward slope gave way to a pass about half a mile wide. We kept pace beside a man of 65- 70 years. At times it was impossible to avoid the soft sand, but often you could pick a route slightly to the left or right over undisturbed sand that held firm and offered more purchase.
As it began to get dark a four track vehicle with two marshals drove past us and enquired as to whether we were ok. Later it drove past us in the opposite direction, stopping at every 500m marker post to crack the lightstick into life. We cracked our own and later as we looked behind us, we could see a procession of lights wobbling into the distance as people made their way in the dark.
The terrain became progressively more rocky and would have been tricky to cover even in daylight, so I was grateful for the bright light that my LED headlight gave. It’s illumination was much more effective however, when held at arm's length by my side, where it revealed the contours of the terrain and accentuated the rocks and general rubble.
We arrived at C4 and I reloaded my electrolyte dispensing bottles from my main supply and restocked my camel back. We had the choice of 3 litres of water at this checkpoint but I opted for 1Ѕ , as we had a hilly section immediately after C4. We both put on an extra top to keep out the cold. There were quite a few people at C4 eating and some climbing into sleeping bags. As we left a Korean film crew asked Vincent why he was n’t stopping at c4 for the night “because checkpoint 5 is the best place to stop” he replied simply. The curtain of night had fallen and it was a starry, moonlit, windless night. Leaving c4 we quickly came to a steep climb and it was not long before we were taking off the extra layer. Without exception, I always enjoyed the hilly sections and much preferred them to the endless flat plains. I found this next section at times, pure exhilaration and there was a great atmosphere among the competitors.
As we made our way up and alongside the inclined ascent, Vincent seemed to get more and more tired, his pace slowed quite a bit, and he wandered from side to side. As I was not tired I was able to keep a watchful eye. In the night sky, high above our heads, the spectacular green laser lights shone, illuminating the way from c4 to C6 in what appeared to be an unbroken arc. The long climb smoothed out to a plateau, ahead of us and way, way into the distance joggled the lights of other competitors. We stopped for Vincent to eat a couple of handfuls of nuts & raisins and rest briefly. By the time we had begun to descend from the plateau and cross the salt lake most other lights in front of us had accelerated away and dissolved into the blackness. As we descended, Vincent frequently stumbled on the uneven footing, and we stopped once more for him to empty his shoes of sand which compressed his feet uncomfortably. On an outcrop of rock nearing the dry lake bed and salt flats, we made a further stop so I could put some micropore tape over a new blister on the side of my heel. A German walked passed and muttered something incomprehensible.
Once we were again on level ground, Vincent’s stride reasserted itself and we made reasonable progress toward the next checkpoint and our resting place for a few hours. At long last the distant glimmer of lights at c5 came into view.
On arrival, a marshal asked what we intended to do. Vincent’s plan was that we should rest here for a few hours, rise at 4.30, have breakfast and then set off at 5ish. The two or three tents at the checkpoint did not have much room to spare so we found an empty patch of the dry lake bed.. Always a stickler for the methodical approach I had a very simple blanket bath and gave my feet some attention before climbing into my sleeping bag. I coaxed Vincent into heating up some water for a freeze-dried meal, but it was tepid and tasteless.
A marshal was good enough to wake us at 4.30, but we both turned over and went back to sleep. We woke again at 6 o’clock, breakfasted and were on our way again half an hour later.
It was a beautiful cool morning with clear blue skies morning as we crossed a plain, peppered by dunettes. We were joined briefly by a person who, despite severe difficulty with his feet, was somehow able to keep up a reasonable pace. He had a very severe limp, and I could not help but wonder what kind of state I must be in if he were able to match my pace. As we went through the gate at C6 68km , he agreed when prompted by a marshal, to see a doctor. (When he got back to the bivouac later on that afternoon his tent mates give him a great reception).
Vincent spoke to a marshal at C6 who advised pressing on before the heat of the day turned the last leg into a cauldron. The next 14 k m was very tough. Mostly along a dry river course, occasionally the mud had been baked into crunchy brittle clay plates about an inch thick. It got increasingly hot and progress was ponderous. We passed one participant lounging under a tree who announced casually “only another 10k to go.” 10k to me is a comprehensible distance, it’s six miles, and in the UK, very quick road runners can do it in 33 minutes, I have run it in 38 minutes. Today however, for reasons which I need not spell out again, it probably took us another two and a half hours walking as we were at about 4k an hour.
It was a hot windless day and the sun’s heat seemed to be concentrated onto us by the concave shape of the river bed. We eagerly awaited the appearance of a well shaft landmark after which, we had calculated, there would only be about two kilometres to go.

Centred on the well, a family was gathered around a few ramshackle dwellings, which had been cobbled together with driftwood salvaged from the river bed. Just beyond the old well, a second had recently been sunk, and over this reinforced concrete headed well, two native inhabitants kept a watchful eye.
Shortly after the wells, route markers led us up and out of the river bed and in sight of the control point and bivouac. We were thoroughly elated, and on cue, a couple of hundred metres from the finish, Vincent and I squared our shoulders, laughed, joked and generally tried to make our ordeal look as effortless as possible that “for the enemy” would get no pleasure from our pain.
On return to the tent I met up with the chaps, one or two of whom were dozing. They finished the stage had all arrived at the bivouac at about midnight and had spent the day resting. After a rest I got on with the business of serious eating, drinking and cleaning myself up, rigging up a rudimentary shower by piercing the lid of a bottle of water left out in the sun to warm. I ate my evening meal at about 6 or 7 p.m. I now had blisters on my blisters which meant, said the lads in the tent jokingly, I had acclimatised. I had begun to run out of small blister dressings, and discovered coincidentally that it was probably better to leave them in place, as is their design, (even in their gelatinous state) than to replace them. The only draw back being that they got dirty from the dust.

Stage Race Position Stage Time Time behind leader AvSpeed
4 609 28h13’ 20h39’ 2.91

Leg 5 42km Friday 11th April
RICH BEL RAS _ TIZI N’IZELGUENE
ROUTE : A beautiful stage, enabling fast pace with short crossing of JEBEL RICH MERZOUG at km7.5. Descent into valley with trees and crossing of very sandy wadi with occasional well shafts, dwellings and casbahs in ruins. Stoney ground. Crossing of villages and oasis at 32km. Stoney piste to finish.
TEMPERATURE : 46,5°at12h, 6% humidity (a record)
WEATHER : Very hot and dry. Slight breeze
NUMBER OF COMPETITORS AT START OF THIS STAGE : 638
START TIME : 8h55
I jogged for about 7 minutes before arrival at C1. I got my water card punched, collected my 1.5 litres of water and swallowed two salt tablets. I then continued to jog for the next 8 or so minutes before deciding that this was not the time to throw caution to the wind. There then followed a long and interesting ascent through a number of villages as the sun climbed in the sky. Early in the afternoon I had to make another stop to address some “foot challenges”. About 3 or 4 k out from C3 I became so irritated with the tap, tap, tapping of ski poles on stones behind me that I stopped briefly to let the grey haired, bearded German gentleman, all dressed in black, pass me. We crested a rise and there snaking away into the distance in front of me was the inevitable “endless” track. The prospect of patiently covering yet another set of predictable tracks at a snail’s pace just did not appeal to me today and the fact that I’d signed up for this race as a run, so I set off at a gentle jog. As I overtook people, they were frequently encouraging, “great” or “well done” “looking sharp” from the non- stop talking yellow tartan kilted American (whom I never passed nor was passed by when he was not talking, by all accounts he talked all night too) or “hey Andy what happened?” “I just got bored” I replied.
Just as I left C3 I saw my friend Vincent in the tent having a rest, I waved bye bye to him as I was determined to get this last section under my belt.
I set off at a moderate jog from the check point and was soon glad that I was running this section because the sand for the next 5k was soggy and it was more “horizon running” as we termed it.
As I ran toward the check point gate, a couple of women (who obviously had access to the Christian names of competitors) shouted out my name and made some wild compliments. This will be remembered as one of those special moments in my life.

Stage Race Position Stage Time Time behind leader AvSpeed
5 504 8h27’ 5h33’ 4.96

Leg 6 22km Saturday 12th April

STAGE N°6 : TIZI N'IZELGUENE – village of TAZZARINE (22 km)
COURSE : Fast moving stage. Few dunes then stoney plain allowing for a good pace. Slight upwards slope at km 10. Crossing of Tazzarine palmgrove. Sandy terrain then tarmacked road from km 20 to finish line.
TIME : 13h GMT
TEMPERATURE : at 10h 39°C, 10% humidity.
WEATHER : Hot and dry. Light breeze.
NUMBER OF COMPETITORS AT START OF THIS STAGE : 632

The temptation was to run the entire 22k of this last leg. I did not however and in a way I was glad because it gave me the opportunity to savour the last leg of this marvellous competition. It could so easily have been over in the blink of an eye. Rob and I swapped book stories for most of the first leg before he resolved to go his own way.
After C1 (9km) I chatted briefly to an elderly German competitor in French whose “doucement” tactics for the last 13k seemed entirely appropriate. Having crossed the last plain for the foreseeable future, we walked over the remains of an abandoned village before entering the outskirts of the town of Tazzarine.
Boys on bicycles and on foot alternately hounded for gateaux, or just about anything that wasn’t attached with skin and bone, and offered congratulations. Just metres before the finish line a marshal said “bonne contrфle” to me which was a compliment. Patrick Bauer looked genuinely emotional as he and I exchanged a hug, and I told him that I thought the race was “fantastique”.

We were all presented with a medal and a packed lunch before being whisked back to the hotel in Ouarzazate where a hot shower was very welcome indeed.

Stage Race Position Stage Time Time behind leader AvSpeed
6 602 4h32’ 3h10’ 4.84
Overall 588 62h32’ 43h36’ 3.89

General

The Blisters
One sore area on my right foot between the big toe and the next gave me trouble for about two and a half weeks after the event. I still have a “shin issue” a month after the event.
Retirements
Contrary to some of the deliberately misleading reports I’d read, these people were treated with the respect they deserved, most of them deciding to stay with the main body of the caravan as it progressed, rather than go to a hotel.
Weight & Training
My pack weighed too much, I’d want to make strenuous efforts to lighten the load. Most of my weight was food, not to compromise on the food was part of our strategy, crucial for maintaining energy and morale. My tent mates commented on day 2 about how much I seemed to be enjoying myself.
Kit
I wore New Balance 805 training shoes, 1 size bigger than normal. I bought 2 pairs exactly the same and alternated them during training. On one pair, Jimmy the local cobbler, a friendly & imaginative Scotsman, stitched Velcro around the lower outside edge. After much trial and error I eventually came up with a workable design of gaiters which I made out of material called “sanded cordura” purchased from a very polite and helpful outdoor fabric company in America www.rockywoods.com I did not get any sand in my shoes.
Socks were 1000 mile double layered. Swimming trunks for underwear, easily washed at the end of the day. Polypropylene LIFA SPORT white long sleeved top & ordinary running shorts. Saucony top for evenings and night wear. Sleeping bag “Rab combination top bag” and a Thermarest ѕ mattress. Moletracks II rucksack with front pouch and a 2 litre camel back.
Nutrition
200g Alpen premixed with milk powder for breakfast + desert spoon apricot jam, washed down with a Dioralyte (rehydration sachet in 200 ml water). Throughout the day a mouthful of cereal bar and drink of electrolyte drink every 15 minutes. Evening meal approximately 900 calories of Cous cous of various varieties and one or two Dioralyte rehydration sachets.

I remain extremely buoyant and enthusiastic for this race, it was presented as a life changer and thus far it has fulfilled all that was promised.
Stevie B from our tent summed up the feelings of all of us about the week, “Patrick Bauer has managed to achieve something really special”

Posted by: Admin on Jun 24, 03 | 8:53 pm | Profile