Before I start describing my run in the Sahara I want to make one thing very clear – it’s my run. Every person will have a different experience depending on how prepared they are, how the conditions affect them and - probably most significantly – where they are in the pack. For instance on Day One there were reports of some interesting games being played by Mohamad and Rachid, when they realised the rest of the top runners were simply following them through the dunes rather than navigating their own path. I was 239th so obviously I have no idea what was happening among the top ten. Equally I only know from others about the difficulties faced by those running further back. Some had problems with running out of water; some became disorientated in the dunes. Being on the small side and generally not taking more than a couple of hours to get between check points, I never had significant issues with water. Also I was fortunate enough to always be able to see sufficient runners ahead of me that navigation was never an issue. Those that have followed my journey to the MDS will be aware that had that not been the case the story you are about to read could have been very different and would probably have involved a helicopter. As a result I'm afraid mine is almost certainly not the most interesting story of the 2014 MDS but it’s the only one I can tell with any conviction so I will try and at least make it entertaining.
The day started with my first self-supplied meal, 150g of granola with powdered milk. Just add water and stir for a delicious breakfast, 700 calories and lots of carbohydrate, what could be better? Well by Day Three I was giving serious consideration to seeing if I couldn't catch a lizard or two and eat those instead. It’s not that there is anything wrong with granola but 150g is a lot – it’s around 3 times what you would have for a ‘normal’ breakfast. And granola is, well, chewy, it takes a lot of eating. Even on Day One I was wondering about the wisdom of having made this my start to every day; however it was all I had so I was going to have to stick with it – I couldn't afford to lose that many calories per day.
All my snacks for the day were distributed around various pockets on my pack and my bottle holders. I didn't want to have to take my pack off once I was running, partly to save time but mainly because it was a bit of a faff as to comply with MDS rules on number placement the chest strap had to be fastened under my front number. I even had my compass and sun cream readily to hand, although if I became lost I stood as much chance of finding my way with the sun cream as I did the compass.
Anyway given this is supposed to be the abridged version I seem to have written an alarming amount about the MDS before reaching the start line so let’s move on to said start line.
We were told to assemble at the start for a 7:45 briefing for an 8:30 start, or possibly a 9:00 start, I was never entirely sure. At 7:45 everyone was still milling around the camp until, much like birds flying south for winter, first a trickle and then gradually a flood of people moved towards the start. Well to be precise first we all had to stand inside a series of tapes to form the figure ‘29’ as it was the 29th edition of the MDS. Then we had a briefing from Patrick of which around 50% was translated/paraphrased into English. Then we had to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to some people. Then we had to dance to Pharrell Williams ‘Happy’ for a while. Finally Patrick started to count down (in French naturally, fortunately without translation or we would have heard ‘Ten…six…some numbers…zero). At this point I became quite emotional as it was dawning on me that when he got to zero (same in French and English as it happens) I would be setting off on the journey I had trained and planned so hard for – this was the moment my entire life for the previous two years had been leading up to. ‘ZERO!’ – and we are off with much cheering and waving. The atmosphere at the start of every day was incredible. For me the whole thing was given a greater sense of urgency and excitement by the first low passes by the camera helicopter, itflies sideways about 50 feet above the ground (maybe, I'm not good at judging heights, definitely very low) straight along the stream of competitors leaving the start, then comes back over us and then does some circuits. Personally I loved this part of the day as for me it really added to the atmosphere. Strangely I didn't find ‘Highway to Hell’ as big a part of the start as I expected, possibly because I generally got across the start line fairly quickly and so didn't hear much of it.
I am now running the 2014 MDS! I am also running towards the biggest sand dunes in Morocco, 3km over flat ground, through a small valley and into 12km of dunes before I reach Checkpoint One, the longest single leg in the 2014 MDS. Well we were told the first stages would be ‘surprising in their difficulty and length’. I tried to keep a steady pace for the ‘flat’ section to put myself into a reasonable position but also one that I felt I could maintain, so not too far forward but ahead of all the walkers seemed about right.
As we entered the dunes everyone around me (including me) was still running. Then we stopped running and started walking when things took an uphill slant, back to running on the flat and downhill though. Gradually what constituted ‘up’ became flatter and flatter until very little running was going on and we walked more or less in single file through the dunes, a long unbroken line as far as one could see in either direction – which admittedly often wasn't that far due to the up and down nature of sand dunes, but at times was a vast string of humanity stretching several kilometres. This was I suspect the only reason I didn't get lost in the dunes, I was part of a great chain of people, all moving at roughly the same speed and fortunately with a person at the front that knew the way (more or less, apparently we didn't exit the dunes quite where we were supposed to but we were in sight of the checkpoint).
The section from CP1 to CP2 was rather less sandy, indeed as I left CP1 I couldn't shake off the feeling I was running across a car park. It was a very stony car park but I just couldn't get the idea that I was crossing a car park back to the dunes out of my head. It may have had something to do with training at Fuerteventura, where there were some parking areas at the edge of the dunes, I don’t know but looking back on it, it seems a strange illusion to be under – maybe the heat affected more than I realised.
One thing the Sahara is not is a flat, featureless, sandy landscape. There is a lot of sand, which is occasionally, but not often, flat. There are a lot of plateaus, hills, mountains, river beds, and of course there are villages and structures made by man. Some of these villages are entirely abandoned like M’Fiss, once a mining village, now completely uninhabited, its buildings being slowly reclaimed by the desert as the sand erodes the mud bricks. A rocky climb up past the old mines led us to CP2, the final checkpoint of the day, only just over 8km lay between us and the finish.
Of course it wasn't going to be that easy, more sand and a few rocky climbs were in front of me before I caught my first glimpse of the bivouac. Patrick seems to like to position the camp such that it can be seen from some distance away. On this stage there was still the matter of 3km of the Dunes of Znai’gui Erg to be negotiated before I had finished, nowhere near as daunting as Chebbi Erg but still a challenge after 31km of hard effort across the preceding dunes and climbs. However the real key to being a successful ultra-runner is to simply keep putting one foot in front of the other until you reach the finish line. I always try and make sure I’m running as I cross the finish so despite having been forced to walk much of the last 3km I made sure I ran the last 500m to the finish to complete the day in 5 hours 43 minutes and 43 seconds and more importantly in a very pleasing and scarcely believable 239th place!
So what was my first stage of the 2014 MDS like? Hot, obviously, however there was a slight breeze for much of the time in the dunes which, although not even slightly cool, did at least aid evaporation and so provided a small but welcome cooling effect. Running on sand was taking a toll on my feet; flat sand was OK, its energy sapping, slow and wearing but not too damaging. Running across sand slopes however pulls at the layers of skin and was starting to cause some soreness under my big toes – this was just a small taste of things to come. The climbs were probably the hardest part, especially when combined with soft sand later in the stage. I had to pause once or twice as my legs burned with the effort of pushing on up a seemingly endless slope, the sand making every step more of an effort and less of an achievement, what should have taken two steps would take three, then four, five.. However despite all this I never felt it would beat me, it would slow me down, it would make me work harder than any of my training runs but I would not be beaten.
Amazingly I was first back out of my tent group – just! I lay immobile on the floor of the tent, water bottles lying where they fell, for a while - until I mixed my recovery shake, drank it and lay down some more. Tomorrow appeared to have less dunes and more opportunity to run, had Day One left me in a state to take advantage though?
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