The Marathon Des Sables is an iconic multi-day race in the Sahara desert which requires the 1,000+ competitors to cover around 150 miles on foot over 6 stages/7 days in semi self-sufficiency (bottled water for drinking and an open-sided 8 man “tent” are provided). Extreme temperatures are to be expected and 50C+ is not unusual. Food for the week and various bits of equipment must be carried in a backpack weighing anywhere between 6.5kg and 15kg and includes the long list of compulsory stuff such as a minimum of 2,000kcal per day, an anti-venom pump, signalling mirror and of course tropical disinfectant (causing many debates on the forums as to what it actually is!).
The MdS is often dubbed “The toughest footrace on earth!” and many documentaries have been made about the race featuring celebrity runners such as Ben Fogle, Jack Osbourne and more recently James Cracknell who ran a fantastic race and finished a then British record 12th place in 2010 as shown on the Discovery Channel. The event has a high profile for an ultra among the wider population due to the media exposure from the various documentaries and books written, quite often it will be the only ultra a non-runner has heard of. Because of the associated hype regarding how “tough” it is and also the high cost (around £3,500) the race does sometimes come in for criticism from the ultra community but it is a great adventure and good fun! In reality the race is as tough as you choose to make it and if you want to go eyeballs out from the gun Cracknell style you will be able to suffer quite nicely or alternatively the organiser has set the cut off times generously enough to allow most runners and walkers with the right level of commitment and determination a decent shot of finishing. The event is amazingly well organised with 450 support staff, 57 medical staff, 300 tents, 120 Land Rovers, 4 quad bikes, 2 helicopters, 1 Cessna plane and 4 camels, all needing to be moved from camp to camp each day!
The 2014 race was the event’s 29th edition and my 6th. My previous finishes were in 2007 (85th), 2008 (92nd), 2009 (55th), 2012 (23rd) and 2013 (10th) so excluding the 2008 blip my rankings had been on a upward trajectory.
After the 2013 race I did an interview with Talk Ultra (about 1:19 in):
Coming into the 2014 race my training had gone well over the past year since the 2013 event. The last 18 weeks of focused training had me averaging around 78 miles per week including lots of quality sessions. My races in the build up included Amsterdam Marathon (2:37 PB), Beachy Head Marathon (3rd), Druids (2nd), Country to Capital (2nd), Pilgrims (2nd again!) and Steyning Stinger Marathon (finally a win!). My peak weeks were 3 and 4 weeks out and consisted of 115 – 120 miles per week with a track session, tempo run and back to back long runs (20M to 31M). See training log:
A week before the MdS I had a final tune up race at the Paddock Wood Half Marathon that I was planning to run as a controlled tempo run (only a fool would race a half marathon hard just a week before their “A” race!) but on arriving at the start line I saw a few familiar faces such as Ed Catmur (who beat me at Country to Capital) and Ben Shearer (a sub 2:30 marathon runner who I train with at the Cambridge Harriers weekly track night) causing my competitive streak to kick in and common sense to go out the window and I ran the race flat out for a 1:10 PB. I knew I was in good shape and was aiming for a top 5 finish in the desert.
Just before heading out I did another Talk Ultra interview (about 1:48 in) and one with iRunFar to discuss the upcoming race:
Pre-race
So, on April 4th I kissed Rems, my unbelievably supportive wife, and Ben and Nina my young kids goodbye at the train station and headed off to the airport. On arriving at Gatwick I was greeted by the sight of 300+ British MdSers killing time whilst waiting to board the flight to Morocco. It’s easy to spot your fellow competitors at the airport as they are the ones wearing shoes with Velcro sewn in and carrying a grubby backpack (OMM Adventure 20L for me). If you check your pack in and it gets lost you are in serious trouble. We all board the two Monarch flights chartered just for us for the 4 hour flight to Errachidia with me on the earlier flight.
On arriving in Morocco this year, getting through immigration was quicker than usual as we just handed our passports over and were told we would get them back in the desert which was a bit unusual but nobody seemed too fussed! We were then transferred straight to the desert unlike in previous years where we used to get a night at the 5 star Berber Palace beforehand. It’s a fairly long drive but those of us on the first flight arrived before dark (unlike the second group!). We are fed for the first couple of days before the race begins from which point we have to survive on our own meagre rations. Being a French organised event the food at camp was actually pretty good and definitely no need to bring extra freeze dried meals which I believe some did!
The next day was Admin day which is a pain but obligatory. All the runners need to go through medical and kit checks which are generally pretty lax unless you are on the “VIP list”, unfortunately for me my 10th place last year meant I was on the list. The positive was I got to queue jump rather than wait in the midday sun as we have our own special section but the negative was each of the 20 or so on the list took forever to be checked so it ended up taking longer than going in the main group! It was pretty quite cool hanging around waiting for the checks with the big boys as it’s still a bit of a novelty for me after years of finishing further down the field! A lot of people get quite nervous about the checks but there really isn’t any need as 95% of runners get through with nothing but a couple of simple questions such as “do you have all your compulsory items?” and a quick flash of the ECG print off. Meanwhile in the special tent I had every single item on the list checked and ticked off which in a way is good because it means you know your kit choices have passed before the race begins rather than after. For the record, iodine does pass as tropical (or more accurately topical!) disinfectant!
Once the admin checks are done and the big bag is sent back to the hotel it is a case of hanging around the tent and getting to know the people you will be living in close proximity to for the next week. My tent had already been formed beforehand and could be referred to as a RaceKit tent as it consisted of Colin Barnes (one half of the RaceKit duo, the other being Elisabet), Team RaceKit which was made up of Mark “Ironmate” Kleanthous a well known hyperactive Triathlon coach, Flash who is in the Military engaged in 007 type activities and Steve Hodges a PE teacher at a Sarf London secondary school and fellow Cambridge Harrier. RaceKit (http://www.myracekit.com/) were also kind enough to designate me a “myRaceKit Athlete” and to donate some kit to me including their excellent gaiters. We also had Darren who I had met at a heat chamber session at Kingston University (highly recommended, ask for Chris Howe who can sort you out), Jim a restaurateur from Dover who I had previously shared a tent with in 2012 and finally Jayne the token female of the tent to keep everyone in line. You will be spending a lot of time with your tentmates so it helps to find people you get on with and build up races like the Pilgrims and Druids challenges or the MdS Facebook forum are great places to find people you like and also to work out who to avoid! The tent is a great part of the MdS experience and quite common for tent groups to stay in touch long after the race is over and to meet up for annual reunions.
(Ironmate, Jayne, Jim, Steve, Darren, Flash, Colin and Me)
Finally the race arrives!
Stage 1 – 34km Dunes!
Erg Chebi near Merzouga is the location of the big dunes that have made it into the race nearly every year I’ve entered although putting them on Day 1 when we have heavy packs is a bit off! The route is the same for everyone so no point complaining. Well actually, it wasn’t exactly the same for everyone on the day as the dune section became pretty chaotic bordering on a farce!
First, back to the start. Each morning we all get in position on the start line ready to race and like a leader of some strange cult, Patrick climbs up onto a Landrover or Truck and starts his routine that involves first in French then translated to English an overview of the stage, some warnings of it being hot, reminders to take salt tabs, followed by some singing of happy birthday (with a thousand runners it is always someone’s birthday), then some camp pop music is cranked up (Happy by Pharrell was this year’s theme tune), all the lycra clad runners start dancing along (Happy Desert indeed! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttTqiIEhybc…as camp as Christmas), then usually highway to hell comes on to raise the tension before a countdown from 10 to 1 with helicopters buzzing above filming the circus and then we are off! We start at a silly pace but things then settle down fairly quickly.
A question I get a lot is whether it is hard to find the way in the desert and the answer is not really as the Moroccans lead the way and everyone just follows in their footprints which is fine assuming that they are willing to lead…On stage 1, halfway between the start and CP1 we were still running as a lead pack of around 20 which was a bit unusual as one of the Morrocans or the 2012 winner Jordanian Salameh Al Aqra would normally have broken away by now.
Once we hit the massive dunes there were no route markers in sight but we had been given a compass bearing to follow (I conveniently keep my compass at the bottom of my bag along with my roadbook and never check either!) but everyone was just using the trusted tactic of following 5 time MdS winner Mohamad Ahansal until he suddenly stopped to tie his shoelace which caused 20 runners in the lead pack to also stop dead before carrying on at a snails pace waiting for him to take the lead again which he did until he stopped again, this time for a toilet break and then a while later things got silly when Mohamad and Rachid who are locals and know their way around the dunes stopped at the top of a dune and started debating with lots of pointing in different directions about which was the correct way to go. Everyone got the message and broke up and started to navigate themselves with groups heading off in all directions with about 5 or 6 Europeans lead by a confident compass wielding Christophe Le Saux heading to the right, Salameh, Abdelkader El Mouaziz (previous winner of London and New York Marathons) and my “Free Life” teammate Italian Antonio Filippo Salaris heading off to the left. I wasn’t sure who to follow so decided to split the difference and go down the middle followed by Steve Hodges the only other Brit in the lead group.
After another 30 minutes or so of running we came towards the end of the dunes and CP1 popped into sight but not where expected but way over on the left which meant that for all 3 groups we had to run along the CP1 to CP2 section in the wrong direction to get to the CP1 before turning around and running back the way the way we just came to continue on our way to CP2. The extra distance was less for the group of 3 and more for the group of 5 or 6 (who ironically were actually using a compass!). It all added up to a fair bit of extra running and still no sign of Mohamad or Rachid.
The rest of the stage was easier going and less eventful except for a couple of European runners catching me around CP2 where I then picked up the pace to drop them again and a bit towards the end where we got some more dunes and I managed to catch Salameh who was clearly having a rough day. I thought I was in 3rd which was a nice but it turned out that Mohamad and Rachid had taken a route through the dunes to the far far left and made it through CP1 before the other 3 groups hit the flat section on the way to CP1 and in the end they finished over 7 mins ahead of 3rd place El Mouaziz who had mistakenly thought he was 1st until arriving at the end. There was some confusion and rumours of official complaints and talk of people going home if something wasn’t done but of course, it had all blown over by the start of stage 2! I finished 5th in 3:19 and 15 mins behind the winner.
Unfortunately for me, my team of 3 who on paper were probably favourites to win the team event (as we had 3 runners who had previously finished in the top 10) crashed out of the race at the first hurdle as although we had a 4th and a 5th place, our 3rd man Italian Lorenzo Trincheri had to throw in the towel after crossing the line in 89th due to a groin injury that he had picked up prior to the event that he was hoping would clear up but didn’t. That was a bit of a shame as I could have done with my share of the €4,000 prize money for the winning team!
Stage 2 – 41km
(Not something you see out of the bedroom window every morning!)
25 Miles is not much short of a marathon but I was feeling good so pushed hard and after running in 5th and 6th with teammate Filippo for most of the race I saw a target on the horizon of Mohamad and couldn’t resist trying to catch him which I did at the top of a short hill with about 1km to go, as I passed he stopped for a pee. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself and with the camp now in sight I upped the pace to close the stage off. Annoying a couple of minutes later Mohamad came back past me…oh well, it was fun while it lasted! Another 5th place in 3:23 and only 9 mins behind the winner today.
Stage 3 – 37.5km
The day before the big one. In 2013 I had cramp on stage 3 which forced me to run slower than planned which I believe helped me feel fresh and do well on the long stage. This year I decided to skip the cramp but still take it easy to save something for the long stage. Around the middle of the stage I hit some dunes and then wasted quite a bit of time going off track a few times before deciding to slow down to wait for Steve and a couple of French guys to catch me to then work out the route together. I picked up the pace more than planned on the flat wadi section after the dunes to try to catch the Portuguese runner Carlos Sa who was just ahead. In the end I couldn’t quite catch Carlos without having to up the effort level to above what was sensible which made no sense in a multi-day race so was happy to finish a minute behind in 9th which was 21 mins behind the stage winner.
It was interesting when talking to people after the stage, as I could see they were not always convinced when I said I had taken it easy to save myself for the long day but I was feeling good and confident that it would go well!
Stage 4 – 81.5km
The big one. If you mess up the long stage you mess up the race. The first 3 days are just a warm up. As is the custom the top 50 are held back for 3 hours on the long stage and we get to watch the mass start which is good fun and had the added drama of someone collapsing on the start line just before the start. Then we hang around in the handful of tents left behind trying to stay relaxed and not waste too much energy before our race begins and we set off to catch as many of the field as we can.
The start for the top 50 is quite different to the mass starts as it’s a no fuss affair, we just line up side by side 50 across as if waiting for a firing squad to end our misery which Patrick eventually does without any music or happy birthdays. I run the early part of the stage with Christophe Le Saux (who seems to race a big ultra every week of the year and is easy to recognise by his trademark hair) and a Morrocan first timer Ahmed Tahiri. Early in the stage we hit the notorious Jebel El Otfal (the bit with the rope in the Cracknell documentary) with it’s 30% slope and then descend down one of the few technical bits of the race where we start to pass lots of the runners from the earlier group who kindly step out of the way and shout encouragement including tentmate Jayne who promises me a cup of coffee in the morning.
It is one of my favourite bits of the race when passing fellow Brits on the long stage, I always try to give a bit of encouragement as I pass and I really appreciate the encouragement and banter coming the other way. As the Brits number over 300, I think all the attention I was getting may have started to annoy the others as Christophe gave me a bit of stick about being famous and started cheering me as well…I think he may have been jealous!
Fairly early on our group passed Mohamad who didn’t look on top form and it seemed like it wasn’t going to be his year. A bit later I edged away and started to run with Carlos Sa who had won Badwater in 2013 so I knew he was going to be strong on the long day but I had around 20 mins of a buffer on him built up from the first 3 days. We ended up running together for a few hours and despite the heat which is tough on the long day due to starting at midday (instead of finishing at this time on some of the shorter days) I was feeling comfortable and the k’s were ticking down.
At some point around 50k Filippo caught up with us and I knew the top European runner (which is it’s own little race) was going to come from our group of 3 so things were starting to get interesting. Soon after we hit a checkpoint and Filippo stayed there a bit longer and after I found out he was suffering and starting to feel sick and dizzy and ended up losing a bit of time that dropped him down from 4th to 6th in the general classification.
Up until about 65k I was still running with Carlos but starting to feel it, but with only 10 miles to go I was still feeling positive. It was from this point onwards that I started to struggle and at first it was just a bit of fatigue on a rough sandy section where I decided to ease off the pace and let Carlos go as I was working too hard to keep up and then it was stomach issues slowing me down as I think all the food, water and salt of the last 6 hours plus started to catch up with me as I started feeling sick and had to unclip my waiststrap on the pack and ease off the pace a bit more. I was still maintaining a decent shuffle but it was frustrating to see Carlos disappear off on the horizon.
I was now in 4th and feeling really hot and guess my core temperature was too high but hopeful that once the sun went down I would cool down and be OK. Unfortunately, my stomach was still playing up and it wasn’t long before I spotted Mohamad looking revived come past me which wasn’t really an issue as he was way ahead in the rankings and I was more focused on not falling too far behind Carlos and or letting Filippo pass which I expected to happen at anytime.
The terrain in this section was quite flat but soft sand and tough to run on so when we finally turned a corner just after it got dark and moved onto firmer ground with the camp finally in sight (although still a good 5k away!) I managed to pull myself together and get a decent rhythm going. About a km or two from camp I noticed 2 torch lights catching me which I wasn’t pleased with but tried to stay focused on keeping a steady pace and then when one passed me I realised it was a French guy who was way behind overall so no need to worry there, just try to keep the other headlight behind me which I managed to do for some consolation and a 6th place on the stage but more importantly still in 5th overall. My time was 8:04 for the 50 miles which was 50 mins behind the winner. Disappointingly, Carlos had run a great last section of the stage and had taken 24 mins out of me in the last 10 miles which meant I was now 6 mins behind him and only 1 min ahead of Filippo so it would be all to play for on the last stage!
Stage 5 – 42.2km
The Marathon stage. With 4th to 6th separated by just 6 mins it wasn’t going to be a ceremonial jog for the last stage but a flat out race! Beforehand I spoke to my team mate in 6th place who said he was going to take it “tranquillo” which I think meant just settle for 6th (I didn’t believe a word of it!) so had to decide how to play it, whether to man mark 6th and protect my 5th place (which was my goal before the start of the event) or go for it and see if I could make up the 5 mins on 4th place with the real risk that I may blow up and finish 6th overall…only one choice, go for it!!
For the first time the marathon stage was being run with 2 starts similar to the long stage but with a 1:30 gap. This meant a group of us were to be held back and would pass through the field similar to the long stage but today with it being a “just a marathon” carrying an almost empty backpack (nearly all the food had been eaten by now) as opposed to a 50 mile stage with heavy pack the intensity would be much higher as we passed through the field and there would be no time for chatting to people as I passed but just a grunt if that!
I took the first 10k or so at a hard but sensible pace and was maybe around 10th early on and ahead of both 4th and 6th overall but before long Carlos decided to pass me and the race was on. I had 6 mins to make up which over a marathon isn’t that much and last year the marathon stage on the last day was my highest ever finish at the time so I thought I had a reasonable chance so started to push the pace and Carlos just tucked in behind me and followed. I kept on pushing the pace to see if I could drop him but he just stayed glued to me and together we started to work our way through the field until eventually catching some of the Morrocans who we started to run with for a few minutes but I realised the pace wasn’t going to be quick enough to make Carlos blow up so I’d need to push harder and on we went. The top runners had a time buffer on us and seemed to be settling for their positions from the end of day 4 and didn’t try to keep up.
Probably about 25-30k in we were going up a rocky hill with lots of slower runners to pass who were walking casually two or three abreast and I had to jump off the route on to the rough patch at the side to pass them where I trod on a thorn which I tried to run off whilst swearing loudly. Very sportingly Carlos offered to stop and wait whilst I took the thorn out of my shoe which was really nice of him and made it seem inappropriate to then continue trying to drop him…at least for the next 10 minutes when normal service then resumed with me pushing the pace and him just sitting in behind me and following. At the last checkpoint at 32k I realised that fourth place was looking unlikely so eased off a little and focused on just getting the last 10k done. Reports from runners we were passing seemed to suggest that we weren’t too far behind a 22 year old French runner Michael Gras. A couple of km from the end, Michael popped into sight moving slowly up the final hill and with someone to chase the adrenaline kicked in and the final push to the end began with me catching him maybe 1km from the end but Carlos still on my tail.
The last section was through a dune field where I was pushing the pace ridiculously hard for the last few minutes of such a long race. I crossed the line with nothing left for 2nd place in the stage around 11 mins behind El Mouaziz and 46 seconds ahead of Carlos which confirmed my 5th place overall in 21 Hrs 30 mins which was 1 hr 2 mins behind Rachid who won his 2nd MdS. I received my medal along with a kiss from Patrick before heading off to the admin tent to collapse whilst waiting for a full kit check.
For the sixth time all my tentmates had finished the race and Steve who I did lots of my MdS training with had a fantastic week and finished 11th overall.
Job done.
Post Race
Later that night there is a slightly long winded presentation where I receive a trophy for coming in the top 10. Then there is one last night sleeping under the stars on the rocky ground before we finish with the 10km charity walk for the final untimed stage followed by a long coach ride back to civilisation. As you can imagine a coach full of 50 odd unwashed runners doesn’t smell great! We are given a bag of food for the journey and it feels great to eat something different after a week of surviving on lukewarm freeze dried meals cooked by the sun eaten from cut in half plastic bottles!
We then have 2 nights relaxing at the Berber Palace destroying the buffet in an attempt to put back on all the weight we have lost over the past week and it feels great to sleep in a bed again after the hard desert floor with no sleeping mat! On Sunday there is some free time to mooch around Ouarzazate and watch Mo Farah run the London Marathon. In the evening we have a UK group dinner which is a nice end to the week. On Monday morning it’s time to fly home and readjust back to the real world…
It’s taken me 5 months to get round to writing this race report as it’s so long and already my focus is on next year for the races 30th birthday when I will be heading back to do it all again…but faster!!!
Post race Talk Ultra interview (around 1:34 in)
Final Results
|
Time |
Delay |
Average KM ph |
||||
|
1 |
Rachid |
MAR |
20H27’37 |
0H00’00 |
11.68 |
|
|
2 |
Salameh |
JOR |
20H37’09 |
0H09’32 |
11.59 |
|
|
3 |
Mohamad |
MAR |
20H50’58 |
0H23’21 |
11.46 |
|
|
4 |
Carlos |
POR |
21H24’58 |
0H57’21 |
11.16 |
|
|
5 |
Danny |
GBR |
21H30’16 |
1H02’39 |
11.11 |
|
|
6 |
Antonio Filippo |
ITA |
21H56’04 |
1H28’27 |
10.90 |
|
|
7 |
Abdelkader |
MAR |
22H07’49 |
1H40’12 |
10.80 |
|
|
8 |
Michaël |
FRA |
22H29’42 |
2H02’05 |
10.62 |
|
|
9 |
Jean-Sébastien |
FRA |
22H35’59 |
2H08’22 |
10.58 |
|
|
10 |
Christophe |
FRA |
22H49’26 |
2H21’49 |
10.47 |
|
|
11 |
Stephen |
GBR |
23H08’33 |
2H40’56 |
10.33 |
Links to race coverage by iRunFar and Talk Ultra with some good photos:
http://www.irunfar.com/2014/04/2014-marathon-des-sables-interim-results.html
http://iancorless.org/2014/04/08/marathon-des-sables-2014/
http://iancorless.org/2014/04/08/marathon-des-sables-2014-stage-2/
http://iancorless.org/2014/04/08/marathon-des-sables-2014-stage-3/
http://iancorless.org/2014/04/12/marathon-des-sables-2014-stage-4-the-long-day/
http://iancorless.org/2014/04/11/marathon-des-sables-2014-stage-5/
danny kendall 
Excellent blog entry Danny. Really looking forward to my own experience in 2015.
Thanks Jon, See you there!
Reblogged this on My Million Miles and commented:
I’ve been dreaming about running the Marathon des Sables for the a while now. It’s on the bucket list…so just a matter of time.
In the mean time I enjoy reading about other runner’s race experiences and learning as much as I can about the race to prepare myself for the event 🙂
So how do the the elite train and run Marathon Des Sables?
Sharing Danny Kendall’s MdS 2014 race experience (placed 5th – highest place achieved by a Brit in the history of the race!)
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience & congratulations on all your MdS achievements! All the best with your training and upcoming races, I already have goosebumps thinking about your 2015 race 🙂
A great race report and atmospheric pictures. It’s really good to hear what you focus on during the race. We are all really excited to see what will happen at the next showdown.