With more than a two hour lead over the competitor currently in second place, it looks likely that Mohammed Ahancel will take victory at this years Marathon des Sables.

Heavy rain at the beginning of the week has resulted in a modified course, so with the first and the final stages cancelled, runners will have completed a distance of just over 200km.

The logistics of organising an event in a remote location are huge. To then have the re-route the course at the last minute and find accomodation for over 800 competitors is an extra nightmare that Dabaroud did not need, and no doubt they were faced with many disgruntled competitors. But they should be commended for the efforts, as for sure those 800 runners willl once again leave the desert with memories of one of the toughest challenges of their lives.

Over 30 runners have now dropped out of this years edition of the Marathon des Sables, amongst them Lachen Ahansal, 10 times champion of the race and favourite to win this year.

After reaching CP4 on the long stage, he decided that victory was unlikely to be his in 2009, so decided to withdraw. It has motivated his young brother Mohammed , who hopes to win the race this year.

The long stage was a monumental 90km, the longest ever in the competition, with temperatures reaching 30 degrees.

Tomorrow's stage with be 42km, and the organisers have decided to make this the final stage of the race this year and have cancelled the stage that was due to take place on Saturday.

Over 800 disappointed competitors have not begun their long-awaited desert challenge- instead, stage one of this years edition of the Marathon des Sables has been cancelled due to heavy rain in the desert.

Conditions were so bad that competitors were unable to sleep at the race bivouac site, in fact the coaches transporting them couldn't reach the race location, and instead everyone was lodged in hotels in Erfoud.

All being well, the race will start on March 30th.

August 2008

Marathon des Sables 2005: a diary

Why am I finally writing this diary now, more than three years after the race, basically because three friends and I have entered the 2010 MDS. A sort of 5 year anniversary to celebrate the pain and suffering of last time. I’ve been meaning to write a race report from the diary I kept, but work and a normal family life and training for the other four ultras I have entered seem to have interfered and I always seem to find something better to do, but at last here is the report of my first ever ultra marathon. It is written from diary notes made during the event, so is purely a personal recollection, it may or may not bear any relation to the official report and records of the race, but this is how it looked from way down the field.

Mencap, the UK's leading learning disability charity have a limited number of guaranteed places in the Marathon des Sables. With a few places left for 2009 and 2010 recruitment well under way, visit www.mencap.org.uk/mds to find out how you can join the Mencap team!

If you are entered in the 2008 MdS or thinking about entering this camp will help you with your final preparation or to make that entry descision.
December 13th to 17th 2007.
Venue, Tabernas desert, Almeria, Spain.
(Tabernas desert was used for filming all the Clint Eastwood westerns, Magnificent 7, Indiana Jones, Lawrence of Arabia and many more).

We had hoped to receive blogs from some of our UK runners, but once again the desret seems to be playing havoc with technology!

This year, the Marathon des Sables is taking place several weeks earlier than usual.
Perhaps its the weather, prehaps runners are better prepared than previous years, but this year so far only 5 runners have dropped out. By this stage in the race there would normally be three times this amount!

The field is still being dominated by the notorious Ahansal brothers, and the womens lead is beign held by Laurence Fricotteaux from France