The Marathon des Sables

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….

If anyone ever says that it doesn’t rain in the desert, then they are either lying or they haven’t been. When it does rain, boy does it rain.
After a nice evening and dull morning in Ouarzazate we set off on coaches into the desert, not an hour down the road the rain started. Rain, thunder and lightning and a leaky bus were ours for the journey. The leak started over Coleman and whilst I was busy smiling to myself at his wet paper hat, it started leaking on me …

When we arrived it felt like we were still in the mountains, but alas, this was it and it was getting wetter by the minute. We heard that many of the coaches had not made it this far and were unlikely too with the roads getting cut off with overfilled wadis and cut off roads. After about an hour or so sat on the coaches we bailed into covered army trucks and bounced up and down the few miles into camp.

The scene at camp was worse then I could have imagined and we were told to pick a tent, any tent. With a river running through the middle and many tents under several inches of water and offering all the shelter of a broken sieve, we chose one which fitted the criteria of “not under water” shored it up a little and contemplated a trench. We kept finding slightly better tents and continued to shore them up until the organisers informed us that the press tents were much drier and as the press were not going to make it near the camp we could use those. We found a dry one and waded off for tea which we ate on the bonnet of a land rover.

Finally news came that we were to be evacuated and a cheery Patrick Bauer spoke of hot showers and buffet food aplenty, so after another ball crushing ride in an army truck we were bailed into the Hotel Salem in downtown Erfoud for food, beer and a warm bed … the saga had just begun.

I have uploaded the initial batch of unedited, rough and ready photos to picasa, enjoy.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/MikeBlamires/MarathonDesSables2009

Well, that’s it, it’s done and I am back home and back to some sort of normality. The amount of messages I have received here, in the desert and via the blog has been awesome and a great boost.

It was a truly amazing, tough and painful race the likes of which I have never experienced before. It pushed me in every way I could have wanted and threw a new suprise around almost every corner (and a Jebel at 30 miles).

I will compile a race report and sort out the photos and videos shortly. In the mean time I am left only to thank my Dad for his stirling work on the blog!

Received very late last night the following message;

Hi all, today was it, I collected my medal at about 3 o clock in the searing heat after the most amazing marathon distance run ever!

Sadly I had a real wobble in the middle and a bad few miles but had a great finish, picked right up and provisional results show me at 288, I have beaten all my wildest expectations and am so happy! There have been many tears of joy and much crying today!

Thanks again for all the messages, they have been a great boost!

I hope you are all well and I can’t wait to see you all and regale you over and over and over and over again with stories of the desert.

I will speak to you tomorrow.

Mike

There will be a party tonight back in town and a presentation ceremony on Sunday before arriving home late afternoon Monday.

If there is anything further of interest (apart from the whole story!) after Mike has phoned us I will update the blog. Stay tuned folks!