So the position so far then was that Day One had been a bit disappointing but Day Two had been pretty good. The most important thing however - from my point of view - was that I was still going. Sadly this was not the case for quite a number of my fellow competitors. Day One had seen eighteen people either drop out or get timed out and that was after the cut-off was extended by an hour. Even then a few competitors that were just over the time limit had been allowed to continue with a one hour time penalty. If the cut-off had been the original 10 hours 30 minutes we would have lost another twenty-two people. As I mentioned before the stage was very similar to the first one in 2014 which also had the cut-off extended so it's fair to say the original time limit wasn't generous, especially in view of the sand and dust storms. Unfortunately anyone taking the full time to complete the stage wouldn't finish until 8:30 in the evening, leaving them just over 12 hours to eat, sleep and do it all again. This is quite probably why the drop-out rate for Day Two was even higher at fifty-six. In 2014 Patrick had warned us before the race that we would be straight into it, no gentle introductions. As the start of 2016 was very similar I think it's fair to say a similar philosophy was being adopted.
Anyway I was still in the race and hopeful I could maintain some of the momentum from Day Two. Of course one of the things that has to be remembered about Day Three is that it is followed by Day Four. This isn't difficult to remember and is even quite logical, the point is that Day Four is the long day (84.3 km this year) and so it's not a great idea to leave it all on the course on Day Three.
Day Three looked to be quite a varied course. Inevitably there were dunes, dunettes, mounds of sand, sandy terrain, a sandy passage, and a sandy descent. In 2016 the 'Marathon des Sables' was going to be quite safe from any attempts at prosecution under the Trade Descriptions Act as it was undoubtedly shaping up to be a real 'Marathon of the Sands'. However there was also some stony terrain and a jebel to break things up a bit.
The reason I've put so much preamble in this blog entry is that there isn't a great deal to say about the running! The day was hot but the scenery was spectacular and varied as the road book hinted and so I had a fairly uneventful but quite enjoyable run through the desert. The finish rounded the Ba Hallou ruins and I was left with a bit less than a kilometre to run. I finished 137th on the day and moved up to a slightly improbable 141st overall.
One thing which was significantly different to 2014 at this point was my feet. In 2014 my shoes were too wide and so my feet moved about and sheared the skin on the balls of my feet. This had been the biggest issue for me for 2016 - what shoes to wear? I went through several possibles before settling - slightly last minute - on a pair of Hoka Huakas. Somewhat against accepted wisdom I had bought these in my normal running shoe size and even had two sets of insoles in them. This was a slight accident - I'd put both sets in when I used them in the UK to simulate slightly swollen feet and then forgotten to take a set out when I got into the desert. However two sets of insoles and some quite tight lacing meant that my feet didn't move in the shoes and so I had got through three days of the MDS with my feet pretty much intact. My sock choice may have also helped. Being an engineer (well that's what my job description says anyway) I tend to be quite sceptical about the 'scientific' claims manufacturers make for their kit. For instance I think X-Bionic clothing is very good and used the same set for both desert adventures. However if the claims on the pack are to be believed I would be cool, calm and sweat free through the whole event - which hasn't quite been my experience. Hence when a pair of socks has non-stick PTFE fibres my first thought is do I put them on my feet or am I meant to cook my food in them? However said non-stick fibres seemed to work since as I said before, after three days my feet were fairly intact. I had a had a slight hot-spot on my arch after Day Two but as that was where the non-stick bit of the socks wasn't I put a bit of Gurney-Goo on it and everything was fine for Day Three. In fact the only significant rubbing that I was getting was on my back from the heart rate monitor strap and around my ankles where the tops of my socks and the bottoms of my calf guards wouldn't play nicely. I put some tape on the HRM strap and folded up the bottoms of my calf guards to stop those little irritations. The gaiters covered my ankles so the gap between sock and calf guard would cause any problems. I never did fully solve the HRM problem and I still have the marks on my back to prove it. However it never became a significant problem during the race. Since I've been back I've discovered I could have moved the adjustment buckle to under my arm and fixed the problem that way...
So the next day was the Long Day and the first stage that was completely different to 2014. It did still promise to make me climb the El Otfal jebel again however...
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