Well it sure has been an interesting couple of days.

Camp one was flooded and all the competitors had to be evacuated to hotels. However, 4 people to a 2 man room assured that we all felt like we were in camp.

In fact our British spirit really showed through yesterday when about 20 of us broke camp (the hotel) and went for a run in the rain, much to the amusement of the other nationalities.

The first stage of the race has had to be scrapped as the tents and equipment could not rescued in time for today’s scheduled start.

But fear not, the race may be 1 day shorter, but the organisers have thrown in 10 miles of the biggest dunes around into a revised day one to keep Marathon des Sables on target as the toughest footrace on earth.

Matt Mahoney

Through knowledge comes hope
Running Marathon des Sables 2009 for Yorkshire Cancer Research

Links:

Sponsor me: www.justgiving.com/mattmds
Web: www.mahoney.co.uk/mds.php
Charity Site: www.yorkshirecancerresearch.org.uk
Official Race Site: www.darbaroud.com/index_uk.php

27th March
Day: T minus 2 – Into the desert
Excitement Level: Damp

So you thought the Sahara was hot and dry. Well Today that couldn’t be further from the truth. The entire country seems to be flooded and half the competiors can’t even get to the first camp.

What is notoriously the toughest foot race on earth is fast looking like turning into the toughest swim.

At this very moment in time we are sat 12kms away from camp and unable to get there because it’s too dangerous for the military transport.

This might be a very long damp night.

26th March
Day: T minus 3 – Fly to Ouarzazate (Morocco)
Excitement Level: Medium rare

“Training to run 100 miles is like training to get hit by a truck”
Luis Escobar

Right now I am pondering the collective noun for the throng of Marathon des Sables competitors that congregated at Gatwick this morning; an asylum, a band of mad men or maybe a hobble (probably more appropriate for the inbound journey)?

So this is it, we have all arrived on the worst self catering beach holiday on earth. Nonetheless, spirits are high and 800 MdS bores have finally released their family and friends from months of obsessive gibbering about freeze dried food, pack weight, their latest injury and the pros and con of long v short parachute silk gaiters … guilty as charged I’m afraid.

Spirits were high as dinner chat turned to pack weight and calories.
So many different tactics, the proof, no doubt, will be in the running.

So we all headed to bed early to pack and repack. 1 day to go!

Day: T minus 7 days
Status: Philosophical
Excitement Level: about 5 on the Richter scale

“You’ve got an abnormality in your heart”, said my doctor, “but it’s quite normal for an athlete”. Phew! Medical passed. Never has so much teetered on the latter part of a sentence.

So cleared as being fit as a fiddle, a bizarre expression if ever there was, the race is on!

Eighteen months of preparation including 216,000 situps, 21,000 pushups, 4,200 miles run in training and completing, amongst others, 101 miles in 24hrs, has finally culminated in one week to go.

Someone recently asked me whether I was ready. I answered, with bravado of course, “I was born ready”. But the truth be known the MdS has an awful reputation for culling even seasoned ultra athletes. Sure the 24hr marathon is mentally harder, and perhaps physically, but you’re not carrying 12kgs and running for 7 day in 50c+ heat with the much fabled problem of trashed feet.

Everyone has their Everest, and at the moment the Marathon des Sables is mine. I often say to people I train that the thinking is always worse than the doing, but when you’re there, seven days from the start line of the toughest footrace on earth, it is very hard to listen to your own advice.

There remain a few bits of kit to scrabble together over the next few day, oh and the all important crew hair cut (luscious locks are not the order of the day in the desert), but otherwise everything is pretty much ready to go.

“What are you running?” I hear you cry.
The Marathon Des Sables is a gruelling 7 day, 150 mile foot race through some of the world’s most barren desert terrain in temperatures exceeding 40 degrees centigrade.

Competitors carry all their own rations, water, cooking and sleeping equipment and are to all intents and purposes entirely self sufficient…. and certifiable.

“Why?” - For Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR) of course.
YCR is a wonderful charity that has become the most successful regional medical research charity in the UK. They fund internationally recognised research into the cause and cure of cancer at universities and their associated teaching hospitals throughout Yorkshire.

Links:

Sponsor me: www.justgiving.com/mattmds
Web: www.mahoney.co.uk/mds.php
Charity Site: www.yorkshirecancerresearch.org.uk
Official Race Site: www.darbaroud.com/index_uk.php