The Marathon des Sables

The long day is somewhat of a legend in the world of the MdS, it’s the day when everyone has to face the fierce midday sun and when all but the very elite will spend some time moving in the dark.

It was the previous night when the British rumour mill started working overtime, the only thing we knew was that it was going to be a toughie, sure the distance may be a bit shorter than the previous year (but still as long as the MdS was several years ago) but they were not going to leave us short changed and wanting more!

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The night had been quiet cold, in fact pretty damn freezing and windy, the open sided tent left the wind whistling through. Thankfully, due partly to my almost moose like resilience to the cold and mostly my toasty warm Marmot Atom long, I was never cold and got a good 5/6 hours sleep (about normal for me) and woke after this. I laid there dozing in and out, contemplating the next day and waited for the sunrise.

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What seemed like suddenly we were there at the start line, over two years of training, we were in the desert and the only thing we had come to rely on was change, well, change and a good rumour or two.
But this was it, there lay a large and unknown amount of miles ahead of us, many people seemed to be ill and no-one was yet used to camp life… on top of that we found ourselves dropped at the bottom of the formidable Erg Chebbi.

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Admin day was held in a rather nice hotel on the edge of Erfoud were the French where sitting out the rough weather. The actual admin part went smoothly and we were handed a rather large and cumbersome flair…

In terms of actual checks I can’t speak for anyone else but I was waved through with no check of my emergency kit, a cursory glance of the ECG and difficult questions like “you done this before?”… “nope…”, “any questions for me?” and that was about it. Done, number issued, kit handed over and time to sit in the warm sun and wait for tea to be served – oh and a staple feature of the MdS, a speech from Patrick.

In the mean time, a man with a camel and a local band provided the entertainment. Unique, to say the least. 7 different instruments, one note per instrument and each one in a seemingly conflicting key to the rest! Very relaxing. Actually - I enjoyed it and the drumming was largly good (unlike most other live music we heard in the hotels of Erfoud) but the horns & singing were an aquired taste…

Patrick. Stood on a makeshift plinth instead of the usual Land Rover and delivered us in as many words as possible and through a translator the challenges that faced and the difficulty they had in simply ensuring there was a race. This seemed to go on for a long time, something we had to get used too! Old Paddy loves his speeches.

It was pleasant to hear the GBR crowd give my far the greatest cheer when the participating countries were listed, though hats off to the Kuwait contingent who made a lot of noise for a such a small group!

After lunch another storm and much talking from Patrick Bauer they ferried us back to the Salam in Erfoud know finally that we were to be off tomorrow morning, albeit with a lot of unknowns. Such as the route …

A brief glance outside confirmed that it had been raining hard all night … great.

With not a lot of news, and to be fair I am sure there was nothing concrete to pass on, the organisation informed us there would be an update at around 2-4pm. Much of the contingent decided that the best thing to do was have a good wander around Erfoud itself and see the sights.
As is often the want of many of the general populous in countries like Morocco wanted to sell us top quality items for best price but like the determined bunch of ultra marathoners like ourselves were not going to be strayed and we each purchased much plastic sheeting. We may not have packed for rain in the first instance but hell we were not going to be caught out twice! Sadly it didn’t really rain again.

After a dip in the pool and an excuse for a game of volleyball later the update finally arrived and boy what a revelation … the first day was curtailed and another announcement would be made at some point.
Finally news came that we were to be ferried to another hotel for admin day (usually carried out at bivouac one) and probably given some more news then….