The Marathon Des Sables - Day Seven and Epilogue

Day Seven

The end of the competitive section of the MDS was marked with an evening of prize giving and Paris Opera. For reasons unknown this was all set up some distance from the camp. As a result I spent around 30 minutes hobbling down, watched the prize giving and started hobbling back before the opera on the grounds I may need all night to get back to my tent. The sounds of the opera singer drifted over the camp and provided quite a surreal soundtrack to my last night in the desert. I didn't see the opera singer so I have no idea what size she was but even if the fat lady was singing it wasn't quite over yet...

Unlike 2013 we were still self-sufficient on the last day so I had to face the last round of the granola challenge in the morning. Fortunately I had tried to keep the weight of the last days calories to a bare minimum and so only had 100g of granola to contend with and a similar quantity of macadamia nuts to eat during the last stage.

The last day of the MDS was changed in 2013 to be an untimed ‘charity’ stage in which friends, family and sponsors could take part. Patrick had judged this to be enough of a success to repeat the format for 2014. I would have to say I didn't meet anyone among the competitors that was hugely enthusiastic about it. I did think at various points it might be nice to spend some time trotting through the Sahara where I wasn't being timed but by the time the opportunity arrived I really just wanted to be clean and have a nice cold drink. On the subject of nice cold drinks I forgot to mention that I was rewarded for my willpower in not visiting the restaurant on Day Four with a cold can of Coke, which the organisers kindly gave us all on Day Five.

There were a few other annoyances with the charity stage. The first was that we all had to queue up for an unreasonably long time to be given a very cheap blue cotton t-shirt with ‘UNICEF’ on it that we would have to wear for the stage. Would it really have broken the MDS budget to have given us a decent technical t-shirt that wouldn't instantly become soaked in sweat as soon as I put it on? Also those of us that were still technically competing in the event were kept milling around for what seemed like forever while the ‘family, friends, sponsors, etc.’ were gathered together and provided with water. This, followed by another very long speech from Patrick, almost led to rebellion as a countdown from ten was started by some of the runners towards the front of the start area while Patrick was still speaking. However eventually we were allowed to depart for a slow amble through some dunes.

The walk was pleasant enough; I spent some of it with my tent mates and some of it talking to Sue, who was still wearing the donkey ears which had allowed me to spot her on the rest day. This time she actually knew which Colin I was but seemed happy to talk to me anyway.

By the time we reached the finish line our tent group had split into two - this was in no way indicative of any falling out between tent members but simply caused by the fact that some of us were able to move much faster than others. It wasn't a deliberate act but by this time I, and I suspect most of the other members of my tent, didn't have much left in the way of mental capacity and so keeping track of seven other people was beyond my limited thought processes. I was part of the second group and the four of us crossed the line together, handed in transponders and flares, and went to find a coach.

I will skip over the coach journey, suffice to say not only were we not on a coach with the other half of the tent but we were also on a coach predominantly filled with French people. This was absolutely fine until they started singing…

I will also skip over the hotel check-in process, if only to save the blushes of those that had clearly failed to even slightly organise this part of the event. I ended up checked into two rooms, one of which was very nice, and after a shower, and another shower, then a third… went to find cold beer and hot food for the first time in over a week.

As you may have realised I found the end of the MDS a slight anti-climax. If the charity stage is to stay it needs to be better organised so that it can be given a more upbeat feel. The prize giving and party the night before could have been held in the middle of the camp, possibly accompanied by more Coca-cola and even the odd beer or two maybe to create more of an atmosphere. However to be fair it is an evolving part of the MDS and as such perhaps it will be better next time.

Epilogue

The event is what it is and so I’m not going to dwell on how I think it could be improved, it has to be considered in its entirety, if you want to do the MDS that is what you get. I will however dwell on what I could have improved with regard to my part of it. Firstly - you've probably already guessed - the granola would definitely not be part of any future MDS adventure, not in the industrial quantities I was trying to eat it in anyway. I would probably replace it with cereal bars, nuts and seeds. I know that isn’t in many ways dissimilar to the ingredients of granola but it’s a world away when you are trying to eat it, trust me, I know!

My only other food issue was that, whilst not taking electrolyte tablets was a good decision, it would have been nice to occasionally have something to flavour my water with. Apart from the mint tea and my daily recovery shake I only ever had lukewarm water to drink. This may not seem a problem and it wasn't a huge one, but some variation would have still been a big boost.

I didn't miss having a stove. It might possibly have been good after the long stage as I had to delay my meal until the next day when the sun came out, but even if I had had a stove I would still probably have not bothered with it and stuck to the Peperami and cereal bars I had for my ‘evening’ meal that day.

As far as the rest of my equipment went I had no real complaints. The lightweight pillow would have been a lot more of a problem if it had been windier. As it was I always had to stuff it into to my sleeping bag if I got up in the night to be sure it would still be there on my return, however the only way to avoid that would have been to have had something heavier.

Whilst on the subject of weight, if there was one piece of advice I would give to any future MDS hopeful it would be keep your pack weight down. I'm fairly sure that some of the Day One drop outs could have been avoided if they had had lighter packs. My guideline would be definitely no more than 10% of your bodyweight (or the 6.5kg minimum if you are less than 65kg). Don’t forget on the start line you will have an extra 1.5kg weight in water and around 0.5kg of flare, road book etc. I did take an optimistically large number of Wemmi-wipes. By Day Two I realised that being clean would be something that happened to other people until I was out of the desert. This doesn't mean I neglected hygiene - that would have been a very bad move - just that much of my body was permanently covered in fine sand. I also took twice as much sun cream as I needed. I proved this by losing one tube within the first 5km of Day One and still having enough for the week. I could have done without the MP3 player too, I don’t run with music and apart from half an hour on the rest day I didn't use it.

My sleep system worked perfectly. A fiver’s worth of foam was a more than adequate mat and I was never cold in my very expensive sleeping bag. As previously mentioned keeping the pillow under control was challenging but it did the job. The night of Day Two was actually the best night’s sleep I’d had for weeks!

So how do I feel about it now I’ve had time to reflect? My overriding feeling about the MDS is one of great achievement. As those of you that have followed my blog from the beginning will know I put a lot of effort into this journey, both physical and mental. It’s immensely satisfying to feel that it paid off - or I got lucky, I’ll never know. A top 200 place is so much more than I ever dared hope for and my performance on the long day was everything I wanted it to be.

Would I do it again? Absolutely, I enjoyed it. I'm not sure I've met anyone that can really comprehend that but I did genuinely enjoy the event. Not every minute of every day - I could have done without the ‘river’ episode for a start - but as a whole I enjoyed it. My biggest concern about doing it again is whether or not I could do as well. I need a 10% improvement in my performance to move up to top 100 which I guess would have to be my target for next time.

However, regardless of whether there is a next time, this is where our journey ends. Thank you so much to all of you that have followed my journey, whether you have been there from the beginning or if you joined along the way, thanks for staying until the end. There will be more adventures and I may continue blogging under a different title but the MDS journey and blog is at an end - I hope you enjoyed it, I did!

The Marathon Des Sables - Day Six

Stage Five was the final competitive stage of the 29th Marathon Des Sables. To round things off we would run a marathon distance across the desert. Physically I was in good shape to do this apart from one small problem - well two small problems really - my feet. I had trimmed off ‘excess’ skin and taped them up on the rest day after allowing them to ‘air’ for a while but they were really getting quite painful, my speed around camp wasn’t what it should have been to say the least. I don’t want to make too much of it as others were in a far worse position, Paul for instance was on antibiotics as his blisters had become infected and his feet had swollen so much he didn’t dare take his socks off and had to remove the insoles from his trainers to get them on. The things that were on my side were paracetamol and the fact that all that was left after today was a 7.7km untimed walk to the end on Saturday.

As with every other day I needed a plan. Today’s plan was to ‘leave it all in the desert’. By that I meant that I was intending to give it everything and try and hold on to my top 200 position. If I lost it then it would be because there were 200+ people quicker than me, not because I’d held back because my feet were sore or any other pathetic excuse like that. If it all went horribly wrong I was still fairly likely to finish top 300, which had been my original target anyway.  I was also fairly certain that anyone in position 200 - 250 was likely to have top 200 aspiration so it wasn’t sufficient to simply finish in front of a few of my fellow late starters in order to retain my place. If I really wanted it, it was time to ‘man up’ and get on with it.

The slight fly in the ointment as far as I was concerned was the ‘Elite Start’ I appeared to have gate-crashed. Starting an hour and a half after the main field meant I was potentially spending longer running in the hotter part of the day. However my more immediate worry was that so far ‘navigation’ consisted of following the person in front. I had a vision of 199 people disappearing over the horizon in front of me…

Ok, so I’ve moaned, whinged and complained (not necessarily in that order) about being on the elite start - it’s time to tell the truth. It was possibly the best moment of my running career up to that point. I’ve never been ‘special’ (not in a good way anyway) whilst running. I’m usually in the pen behind the elite athletes at the Great North Run. My local 10 mile event hands out gold medals to the top 50, silver to the next 150 and bronze to the rest, I’ll never forget the year I came 201st… Not only was I starting with Mohamad Ahansal,  Rachid Elmorabity and of course Danny Kendall, I could actually see them at the start - OK this wouldn't last long once we started running but every other day I had been too far back in the crowd to even see them lining up. I felt like it was my first day at ‘Big Boys’ school, I had to nail it today, if for no other reason than to prove I deserved to be there.

Also at the start were some of the people I had been passing and been passed by in the previous stages. Again I didn't usually see these people until sometime further into the day so it was nice to be able to exchange pleasantries and take a few photographs.

I actually can’t remember if we did the ‘Happy’ dance or not! Otherwise I think everything was fairly standard and at ‘ZERO!’ I set off for my last competitive run of the 2014 MDS,  I was nearly as emotional as I was for the first.

The first 12km to the first checkpoint were reasonably flat, not too much sand and generally reasonably conducive to running. As we settled into our stride I was pleased to find I wasn't at the back and estimated my position to be somewhere between 150th and 170th, a position I was very happy with. Being overtaken by Great Uncle Bulgaria was slightly demoralising until I realised he was hitching a ride with Julia Donovan, the top British female. Julia would finish in an excellent 110th overall and fifth in the ladies category.  I know I have a slight tendency to mention the achievements of Danny Kendall quite a lot but it would be very remiss of me not to also point out that three of the top ten ladies were British. Julia was carrying a Womble to proclaim her Wimbledon roots. I’m sure there are those that would tut loudly at the idea of the top British Female carrying 90 grams of superfluous weight but I salute her, we don’t run for the money so why shouldn't we be allowed to inject some humour into the event? My only issue with Great Uncle B was that I nearly came a cropper photographing him whilst still running.

By now I had caught and was passing the walkers from the earlier start. The cheers and encouragement made me feel like a real athlete and further strengthened my resolve to give it everything today. If you are reading this and you, on this day or any other, gave any words of encouragement or cheers to runner number 641, thank you.

It must be time to mention my feet again. The situation was that on reasonably smooth ground they hurt but it was just a constant pain I could live with. The problem came on stony ground when a small stone in the wrong place could send me into a whole new world of pain. Should I have worn trail shoes that gave a bit more protection against that sort of thing? Possibly, but then I could have had a whole different set of problems - or none, I’ll never know.

Coming up to around 20km I started to feel not quite right, not really bad but definitely a little strange (stranger than normal that is). I decided to try and sort myself out straight away and so I slowed to a walk and ate a couple of Clif Bloks, and had some water and a couple of salt tablets. After a few minutes I felt better and started to run again. 600m later I was at CP2. According to my GPS that was at least 1000m earlier than it should have been and if I had realised I would have continued to the checkpoint rather than stopped before. Anyway such is life and I doubt it really cost me much time and at least I did get myself sorted rather than hope for the best.

One absolute rule of running is never ever try something for the first time on an event. As I had lost a little time on the run up to CP2 I decided there would be no messing about so I unscrewed the lids of my water bottles as I arrived at the checkpoint, quick refill and I would be off. That was the plan… The reality was that I was given two bottles of water. I leant forward to put one of them down, my bottle lids fell out of the bottles, flipped over onto the ground, everything  got covered in sand… Fortunately I only really needed one bottle of water so using the other to rinse off my bottle lids wasn't a great hardship - it just took much longer than every other bottle refill that week.

Apart from one somewhat uncomfortable rocky gorge, much of CP2 to CP3 was wide fairly smooth tracks. I ran along one of those tracks towards a large hill; however this time I was to go round it rather than over. A marshal, strategically positioned to catch those that had become conditioned to run over rather than round things, told me that as I rounded the next corner I would be able to see CP3, and that from there to the finish was only 10 more kilometres. I could have kissed him but I think that it says somewhere in the MDS rules that the only official anyone is allowed to kiss is Patrick, so in order to avoid any potential time penalty being added I patted him on the back in a manly sort of way and thanked him profusely.

Sure enough there was CP3 and after that the last piece of running I would do in the Sahara this year.  I seem to remember a lot of sand after leaving CP3. Usually I would have walked it, as most people were doing. However my feet were such that walking was very slow and I still wanted that top 200 place. Also I only had 10km to go, full stop. No need to save anything for the next leg or for tomorrow, nothing; so I continued running and continued trying to overtake people.

This was OK in the sand, however when I got onto the final stony plateau and hill things were a little different. Across most of the stony ground on the event there were small paths, one person wide, and this was no exception. By now I’m passing people that have been out for an hour and a half more than me and they are, for want of a better word, knackered.  Due to the aforementioned narrowness of the path, in order to overtake I had to run onto the more stony parts of the ground. After a couple of overtaking manoeuvres I decided it was time to stop being brave and so all subsequent overtakes were accompanied with yelps of pain that probably gave the impression that the stones were red hot and I was running barefoot. To anyone I passed and probably nearly knocked over in my haste to get back on the path, I apologise profusely.

At 39km I arrived at the top of a stony hill that gave my first view of the finish line. In keeping with the general theme of the 2014 MDS, ‘sandy terrain’ led to the finish and it seemed entirely appropriate that the final instruction in the road book read ’B5 Finish line after some dunes’. By now I was simply running as hard as I could to cross the finish line, which I did, just after 2 pm on the 11th of April 2014, 5 hours, 24 minutes and 7 seconds after I started. It was my fastest average pace for any day of the MDS, but would it be enough?

Before I could find out where I finished I had to queue for around 30 minutes to get my medal and the obligatory photos. I waved at the webcam and became quite teary at the thought that people back home might be watching me - fortunately the camera picture was sufficiently blurry that no-one noticed. I picked up my mint tea and my water, went back to the tent, went back to clap some of my tent mates home and then went to the email tent. According to the computer there I was 190th! This later changed to 192nd but that was good enough for me, I’d come in 218th on the day and held on to the same position as I started the day in, a  top 200 finish, a hundred places up on my most optimistic pre-race hope - I was absolutely elated! As the adrenaline and paracetamol wore off walking became more and more of a challenge but it didn’t matter, I was a top 200 finisher in the 2014 MDS!

Saturday was the 7.7km charity stage, surely I couldn’t fail to complete that?