MDS 2016 - Day One

Finally the great day dawned. When the day dawns people start moving and unless you are a particularly heavy sleeper that's it for your night-time slumber, and even if you are a heavy sleeper the Berbers will come and take your tent away very soon so you might as well give in and get up  - so I did. Actually I'd been getting up quite a lot that night and whilst this could point to me being well hydrated I was slightly concerned that most of my water appeared to have gone straight through me rather than being absorbed - hence my comment at the end of my previous blog entry that I should have eaten more of my salt tablets.

Breakfast this time consisted of a couple of bars rather than ludicrous amounts of granola as in 2104, and seemed a little easier to get through. The next activity was yet another trip into the desert which indicated, as I feared, that I could be a little better hydrated. I immediately started drinking more water and Tent 137 set out for the first activity of the day, making the big 31.As an aside, I had a conversation with Darren later in which he mentioned making a big 31. As he is ex-military and my brain had switched off I thought '31' was the number of some sort of military procedure relating to something else entirely and hence the term 'making a big 31' assumed a completely different meaning for Darren and myself for the rest of the week. Anyway for those that aren't familiar with the rituals of the MDS, before the start of each race all the competitors have to go and stand inside taped off areas which form the number of that particular edition so the organisers can film us from the helicopter for the official pictures and videos. This was the 31st Edition hence we had to make a 'big 31'. This done we were free to sort of mill about aimlessly until the race briefing.

While milling aimlessly I spotted a group of Belgians. I hasten to add I wasn't trying to spot all 48 nationalities in alphabetical order. If I was then being at 'Belgium' would imply I'd already spotted Australia and Austria and probably decided there were no representatives of Azerbaijan present. No the reason I was interested in Belgians stemmed back to 2015 and the Lake Balaton Supermarathon. I think there were only two of us from the UK at that race and so we had found a very friendly group of Belgians to talk to, one of whom was entered into MDS 2016 (I wasn't at that point) and was very interested in talking to me about my experiences in 2014. We had stayed in touch and hence I was keen to meet up with him in the desert. The Belgians indeed knew my friend but the news wasn't good. Philippe had been ill the previous night and collapsed whilst making the aforementioned big 31. The medics had taken him away but it didn't look good for his MDS. I thanked his compatriots for the information and returned, slightly shocked, to my tent mates.

However there was no time to dwell on the misfortunes of others as Patrick was up on his Landrover and into his briefing. Edited highlights were translated into English for those of us that assumed all foreigners could understand English if it was said slowly and loudly enough and so didn't bother with foreign languages. Then we had the countdown and as 'Highway to Hell' boomed out we were off into Stage One of the 2016 Marathon des Sables!

The first three kilometres were fairly straightforward and I set off quite quickly in order to not have to overtake too many people when we all slowed up in the dunes. This was the day's first mistake... The going quickly got a lot tougher and slower as I entered the 12 kilometre crossing of the biggest dunes in Morocco - the Chebbi Erg. As I think I said  in the prologue, today was very similar to 2014 and so I should have known when to slow down. Instead I kept pushing until my heart rate got uncomfortably high and I had to slow down whether I liked it or not. By now I was going backwards through the field, my early folly was already taking its toll of both me and my position in the race.

After the dunes came CP1 and then it was just a bit sandy until it became a bit stony as I approached M'fiss. Last time I really liked M'fiss, it's an abandoned mining village which is slowly being reclaimed by the desert. The buildings are breaking down in a way which allows you to see how they were built and generally I think its an interesting place to see. Of course if there is a sandstorm going on you can't see much of it... The sand gave way to a strange purple dust. Some of you will know I wear purple calf guards and a buff so that anyone looking for me in the pictures and videos on the MDS website have a chance of picking me out from the hundreds of similarly dressed competitors. Well my calf guards and buff were now complemented by purple gaiters and a purple hat. I suspect the rest of me had a purplish hue too but it was the previously white hat and gaiters that stood out most.

After M'fiss was CP2. Then it was a sandy passage (a frequently mentioned hazard of the MDS) followed by a stony plateau and a gorge leading to.... some more dunes. There were only three kilometres but I was wrecked. My calves were cramping, when they weren't cramping they were aching and when they weren't cramping or aching they were deciding what to do next, cramp or ache.

Unfortunately Ian Corless was in the dunes. Ian is a lovely chap and a superb photographer - if you have looked at any of the pictures on the MDS website you have probably seen his work. The 'unfortunate' bit stems from the fact I do my level best to avoid being photographed walking and so, cramping, aching and just plain knackered, I had to muster one last burst of energy to run past Ian and pretend I was enjoying it (he wasn't fooled). I could see the finish from the dunes and staggered to almost the end where another of my 'rules' dictated I had to run the last bit across the finish line.

As you may have realised I didn't have a great Day One! I was dehydrated, I set off too fast and I think I was generally a bit too arrogant because it was 'only' 34 kilometres and I'd done it before. I finished the day in 234th place, not a disaster but I had been, I estimated, around 30 minutes slower than I 'should' have been if all had gone well. However at least I had finished and the highlight of the day was that, although Sultan Tea were no longer sponsors of the MDS, I still got a cup of hot sweet mint tea at the end of the stage. It may not sound great but strangely it goes down wonderfully after a run across the desert - well for me anyway. I collected my water and went back to Tent 137.

I was the fifth member of our tent back. Darren had had a simply storming day and was well up the rankings (I can't remember exactly where but I think top 100ish) and it looked like I was in a tent with some pretty quick runners. This wasn't entirely surprising as those of us from Druids had all been fairly close in pace and Eric had also beaten both Perry and myself at the St. Peter's Way Ultra - although we had no idea who he was or that he would become our tent mate at that time. I settled down in the tent and both my calves continued to cramp so I kept drinking and swallowing the salt tablets. Eventually the cramps subsided and I started to feel I was better hydrated. Hopefully Day Two would be better...