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Updates 24th April 2010 It's now two weeks to the day since I crossed the finishing line of the 25th Marathon des Sables. After running (haha - jogging more like) and a lot more walking over 7 days and 6 stages and 250 km of sand, scree, rocks, hills, wadis, salt-plains and tracks my finishing time was 68hrs 32 minutes and 58 seconds (with no penalties for extra water or IV first aid assistance). I finished 878th out of a starting pack of 1015. Below are the stats:
It's hard to put into words what participation in an event like this means to those who have trained and prepared for months or years in advance and who have made both financial and personal sacrifices to ensure that they have a fighting chance at completing the event. For me this has been a 4 year rollercoaster adventure. The highest point was undoubtedly crossing that finishing line on the 10th April and having the race director place the finishers medal around my neck. I'm happy to admit that I might have had a bit of an emotional moment after that was hardly surprising after what had been a week of massive highs and lows. i'm going to try to give you a flavour for the event but I think the pictures speak for themselves. I would also highly recommend having a look at the various videos that have been posted on YouTube. 1st - 3rd April 2010 The majority of the UK contingent descended on London Gatwick on the morning of Thu 1st April. It wasn't hard to pick those who were heading to Morocco as almost every competitor had the same red and grey Raidlight pack. this made going up to complete strangers to say hello quite easy. Needless to say once we had boarded there was more than a little confusion in remembering which one of the crammed overhead luggage bins held your bag!
Our charter flight wasn't the most comfortable but after a relatively short flight we arrived in Morocco and were taken to the hotel. The city of Ouarzazate is well known for its part in the international film industry and many a blockbuster has been filmed in the surrounding countryside or film sets. As such there are some very nice hotels around and ours was no exception. One night of luxury with a great pool and delicious buffet dinner and breakfast set us up for the long bus journey the next day to get to the first bivouac site. During our first night in Morocco Team Bob was brought together for the first time. During the race the competitors form into tent groups of 8 and over a few beers and having met people on the trip from Gatwick a group of 7 of us formed. Team Bob, as we came to call ourselves, included a New York based Irish trader (Peter), a silversmith and watch designer (Simon), a policeman (Dan), a Network rail employee (Adrian), a geologist (me), a remote sensing specialist (Phil) and the head of an NGO (Nikki). We were later joined at the bivouac by our final team member, James, who works in the City and was our only MdS veteran. After an early start and a 5 hour bus journey we finally arrived at a large flat patch of desert and a row of army trucks. We transferred ourselves and our kit and then sped off across the desert to the first bivouac site which we could see in the distance. We arrived and made our way to the open Berber tents that had been set out in a large circle. We grabbed tent #111 (nice and easy to remember) and settled into our admin routine and kit preparation.
Everyone had spent considerable time and effort in the UK preparing their kit and it was remarkable how much more admin we all had to do having arrived and shared our knowledge and tips. Veterans passed on advice and everyone tweaked their equipment and had those realisations that they didn't really need so much of this and that. Food, equipment, luxuries and other excess weight was quickly cast aside and by the time we all checked into the race administration on the afternoon of the 3rd April we were race ready, in our kit and said goodbye to our main luggage which we wouldn't see again until we'd finished the event.
During the admin phase the anticipation was building. Everyone was excited. Competitors arrived from over 40 countries and the bivouac site grew busier and busier with more and more charity and national flags being unfurled. We had the briefings and were issues with our emergency equipment but all to soon it was down to the final sleep and then the big start... 4th April 2010 - Stage 1 - 29 km Yikes, it's here! Only 29 km but this was it. the big start. From the morning of the first stage you were self-sufficient so all around the camp there were little fires with competitors heating water for drinks or rehydrating their rations. At around 8:30am we all moved over to the big start line where the race director, Patrick Bauer, gave his traditional race brief from the top of a Landrover. Another tradition is the singing of Happy Birthday to any luck competitors. The anticipation was electrifying. The temperature was already starting to climb and without me even realising the race started with the helicopter camera screaming past at low level. I had the H4H flag on my trekking pole and ran along for a bit feeling on good form with the flag streaming out in the breeze. It was a great feeling to be finally underway and to see over a thousand like minded nutters racing over the desert towards rocky ridgelines and dunes.
Stage 1 went pretty well but with hindsight I maybe went off a bit too quick. My kit felt comfortable and apart from a short blister patch stop I made good progress during the day and kept a good pace. That evening in bivouac 2 I had my first evening meal and quickly realised that my food strategy might not have been so good. The heat has a huge effect on your appetite and ultimately this might have been a major part in some of the difficulties I had later in the event. After this first night I really struggled to consume the calories that I really should have been. The race rules require each competitor to carry a minimum of 2000 cal per day but given that the event, climate and terrain really require over 4000 cal per day I was always going to be using excess onboard reserves (of which let's face it I had quite a lot!). 5th April 2010 - Stage 2 - 35.5 km I didn't sleep too well but rose without too many aches and pains so was happy with my kit choice of compression leggings which appeared to have solved the nagging calf pains that I'd had during training. The usual morning brief, more Happy Birthdays and then off again. The pack had already started to stretch out. We started crossing some stunning ridges before a long flat tab into the first check point (CP). Each CP comprised several Landrovers with shades and some Berber tents to provide shade and to act as a field hospital for the infamous Doc Trotters medics. Each CP had a 'gate' where the sensors we all carried around our ankles beeped as we crossed a large mat. This beeping grew to be one of the best sounds as you grew close to a CP to could hear it in the distance and you knew there was some shade and a water replenishment ahead.
Water management is one of the key strategies in an event like this. Each day each competitor gets 11 to 12.5 litres split down through the day. Each bottle is accountable with the organisers writing your race number on both the cap and bottle. Penalties were applied to competitors who didn't tow the environmental line and dispose of their empties correctly! This water had to cover all your requirements: drinking, eating, washing, cooling off! There's an irony that the longer you take per stage the longer you are out in the sun and therefore the tougher it is compared to those who can race through each stage in a fraction of the time. The leading pack, once more led by the Moroccan 9x winner Lahcen Ahansal, were coming in hours ahead of me and rest of the tail-enders.
On this stage, CP1 preceded a steep climb onto a ridgeline which gave some amazing views. The track then dropped down into a wadi before eventually reaching CP2. The next leg was to be my first real challenge. The track left the wadi and crossed a huge exposed lake bed. The track just ran on for kilometre after kilometre and in the distance all you could see was a huge escarpment which everyone knew was the first obstacle after the next CP which was at its foot. Crossing this flat expanse seems to take forever and at the height of the afternoon sun and with little in the way of a breeze I was just cooking. I eventually made it into the CP and all I could do was just collapse into some shade and try and get water down my neck. It was tough both mentally and physically and with the steep climb ahead morale was wavering a little.
Still, onward and upwards. A slow slog up the track turned to a very slow slog through the sand and then a scramble up the steep face of the escarpment. I kept thinking about mountaineers on Everest doing step by step and thinking that I was doing the same with a lot more oxygen available! It was a little disconcerting to see two competitors half way up the scramble with a medic and dangling IV drips in two competitors but I just kept my head down and pushed on for the summit. The final stretch was protected with a rope rail and then finally I was on the summit. The climb was over 300m and had taken me a good hour. The leaders had done it in around 15 minutes! The added bonus from the summit was seeing bivouac 3 in the plains below and more importantly having a mobile phone signal! Morale soared after a call back to the UK. It took a while to get down the hill but after several bouts of retching I finally crossed the finish line. After collecting my evening water ration I stumbled off through the gloom of dusk to tent #111 before dropping my kit and wandering off to have another retching session and to have a quiet word with myself. I felt horrible, I felt sick, I was miserable and had no appetite. But life goes on and so I wandered back to the tent and got what I could down my neck. A bottle of water and a pack of dextrose tablets had a remarkable effect and after an hour I felt almost human again. Still no appetite though... 6th April 2010 - Stage 3- 40 km (uploaded 10 June 2010) I had a pretty rough night but in the morning managed to get a small amount of food onboard. By now I was already burning through around 4000 calories per day and consuming maybe only 1000 to 2000 so was already burning into my body fat stores. Granted I was carrying a few extra pounds (especially for the occasion of course) but this still leaves you feeling rough and shattered. The mental part of this event is just as important as the physical part and the ability to just keep on plodding is critical. Today's stage was only just short of a marathon distance and as the next two days were to run into each other I was keen to try to get in with a reasonable time and hopefully feeling slightly better than the day before! Before the start gun this morning all the competitors formed up to form the race edition numbers '25' in what has become another MdS tradition. Then we started off with the ubiquitous 'Happy Birthday' sing-along and the dulcet tones of AC-DC 'Highway to Hell'. The course director, Patrick, was as jovial and enthusiastic as ever. I should think so given the fact that he gets to rider around in his own helicopter! The crowd was again buzzing with excitement and all too soon we were off again once more heading off across a large flat section of ground before climbing some small hills and then reaching CP1. I say small hills as after yesterday's escarpment all hills looked small! I reached the CP at a good pace, walking with Nikki and Adrian who were walking at a similar pace. The next section was quite flat and wound along some stony wadis and gravel plains before reaching the edge of a large salt-pan lake. Along this section, as the heat built, more and more of us sought brief respite from the growing heat from the trees and bushes along the path. Once we'd reached the salt-pan there was nothing but mud and some rather pathetic looking grass. CP2 was in the middle of the salt-pan and was already busy with resting athletes by the time I plodded in. Having learnt an invaluable lesson the day before I chose to take a short stop and cool myself down in the shade of a rest tent before shouldering my pack and heading off into the mirage that hovered over the horizon.
This was quite a dull and featureless section. This really was a section where all you could do is get your head down and just walk. Looking around me I could see some competitors quite happily plodding along whilst others looked like they were at deaths door and had pained expressions on their faces with winching every step. Some of the latter had likely already had the pleasure of visiting Doc Trotters and having blisters, IV drips for rehydration and other aches and pains dealt with. Doc Trotters provides all the race medical support and as well as roving medical teams, provides a medical tent at each CP and what effectively amounts to a small field hospital at each overnight bivouac site. There are numerous rumours about Doc Trotters, most involve extreme pain and the wielding of scalpels with gleeful faces but from hearing from my fellow competitors their services were top class and on many occasions were quite literally lifesavers. This stage had a deadline for reaching CP3 and so I pressed on as best possible along the flat muddy track. Eventually some vegetation grew up and there was the opportunity to sit in a little bit of shade. By now it was mid-afternoon and the high heat of the day was starting to drop off but with several kilometres still to go, and a deadline within which to reach the final CP I had to be careful not to linger. My water management worked out quite well. There were time penalties for taking extra water and you could only do it a few times. There were many of us that felt that the high temperatures, at times pushing the high 40's were extreme and that extra water should have been provided. Thankfully that evening we were given an extra bottle.
CP3 arrived and after another rest I pressed on with some fellow Brits including Holly who used to work for one of my charities, Help for Heroes. Being ex-military herself she was also running for H4H and was making good progress despite some growing blisters. This final section was a bit dull with a few dunes and then some more open ground. The lack of calories was really starting to hurt by the end of this stage and as the camp fired up the green guide laser I was just a short distance away from the day's finish line. After a steady push for the line I grabbed by water ration for the night and wandered/hobbled off into the gloom to find my tent. By this time it was dark and there were small cooking fires all around the huge double circle of +100 tents. Some cooked using hexamine fuel tablets whilst other scavenged the surrounding area for twigs and scrub to set fires. Some of the local labourers found a huge pile of scrub and carried it into the centre of the tent circle before getting a bonfire going and starting an almighty racket as they banged drums and chanted away in what was initially an interesting cultural entertainment but which quickly became and bit of a noisy bore. I felt pretty rough and once more spent a while resting, sorting my feet and admin and rehydrating before contemplating trying to cook something. I dug out some pasta and knowing that I was well down on my intake spent a time ensuring that it was well cooked. I even had some Heinz ketchup sachets to spice it up but in the end my broken appetite defeated me and I couldn't even force it down. Just the simple issue of the wasted effort, let alone the wasted food was quite a kick in the nuts to morale. I did manage to eat some sweets and peanuts but felt frustration as well that my food strategy was unravelling before my eyes. Banter
in the tent was good. I was the last one back again and everyone had
already established quite a good routine and tuned into each other’s
moods and needs knowing when to offer support and when to just let
someone deal with their daemons in their own personal way. 7th April 2010 - Stage 4 - 82.2 km (Part 1) Ok, around 107 km done and only a small matter of 80 km to do over the next 48hrs before a marathon and then a 'fun-run' to the finish... Yikes! Another sunny and clear morning as the tent dropped around. The 1000 yard stares of the previous few days had grown to 2000 yards with the only respite being that as the days went by everyone's pack got lighter as food was consumed or dumped. Several members of my tent did very well from my uneaten rations with Pepperami sticks being a popular choice. I suspect that Phil was permanently on 'receive' for the words of "Does anyone want a...". He was closely followed by Nikki who between them accounted for the majority of my ration disposal. The 50 leading athletes had a 2 hour delay to when they started so while they sat around with the temperature building the fourth en-mass start sent us off on what was undoubtedly going to be the toughest of stages in terms of both the distance and the terrain as the road-book guide showed huge dunes systems and long wadi sections. The first stage was a tad dull with sand and gravel plains. The CP was at the base of a row of hills and here the course turned sharp left and led over these hills before descending into a series of dune fields and dry wadis. It was while I traversed the largest of these wadis that the leading pack ran past at a fair old lick. Nutters. I was hanging out just plodding along with trekking poles let alone running a 4hr marathon pace! Amongst the top 15 male runners was James Cracknell and fair play to him, not built as a runner, he was getting on with things with gritted teeth (and as it turns out a rather strong cocktail of painkillers).
As the temperatures climbed I was getting close to CP2. The final section of the stage was particularly nasty as a series of ridges and dunes seemed to last forever before I descended from a ridge turned around a rock and saw the CP tents. I crossed the electronic race tracking gate in a bit of a daze and was very conscious of the fact that whilst my water strategy was pretty good, that I was slowly cooking and at risk of going down with heat exhaustion. I stood, head hanging, in the walkway where the race staff stamp your race card and hand out the water. A voice was saying "Well done, keep going, be strong" and then I felt a blast of cold air and water on my face. I looked up to see Patrick Bauer with one of those cooling aerosols. I'm not sure whether I should have hugged him for the encouragement and cooler or stuck him on his arse for coming up with such a horrible event! I really was suffering. I sat down in the shade and looked across to the Doc Trotters tent where there were around a half-dozen competitors with IV drips. Other competitors right next to the rest tent were loading their packs onto a Landrover having either voluntarily withdrawn or having been medically binned by the Doc. This was probably the lowest point of the event for me. I felt horrible. I was hot, hungry and just wanted to lie there doing nothing. I wet a large piece of cotton that I was using as a shemagh and wrapped it around my head in order to try to cool off. I kept doing this and laying the cloth over my chest to try and lower my core temperature. I was also trying my best to get energy onboard and went through some Energy Beans as well as some other sweets. Slowly I could feel some energy recovering and as it was late afternoon by this time, every minute I spent in the tent led the sun closer to the horizon and the cool of the evening. In the end, with a deadline for CP4 to make I had to press on. I had to have a quiet word with myself and steeled my resolve for a walk across an open mud plain that led into a steep wadi canyon. I also chose this low as the first time to break out the iPod. I'd saved some playlists for exactly this moment and as I walked across the cracked mud to the sounds of hits like 'Eye of the Tiger', 'Everybody Hurts' and 'Stronger' a smile crept across my face. It might sound clichéd but it worked and as I entered the canyon I'd recovered some momentum and was catching other runners who had left earlier. I started to break it into small steps; catch that runner, make it to that rock, drink more water here, eat her, etc.
At the end on the canyon there was a small oasis and a small guest house. I was walking with a couple of other Brits at this point and I flippantly posed the idea of grabbing a Coke. Suddenly that idea didn't seem such a silly idea and having asked the Moroccan stood under a palm tree quickly conspired with the other to grab a sneaky cold one! We rushed them down as we were worried of the repercussions of being caught. Although a little warm this was like the best thing I had ever drunk - sugar, caffeine and water - exactly what my body was craving. With a new found spring in our steps we pushed on for CP3. The trail became little more than a rabbit track and was covered with stones and sand. As darkness descended the head torches came out and for the first time I was walking in the total darkness with just the distance light of the CP several kilometres away and a cylume light stick every 200m on the route markers. This stretch seems to go on for ages. The lights of the CP never seems to get closer and the only indication of getting close was when I could hear the 'beep' of the electronic race tags as each competitors crossed the CP line. CP3 looked a little like a triage centre at a large scale disaster. There were bodies everywhere, some grabbing a quick nap, some cooking food, some digging out their trainers and taping their feet and others queuing to see Doc Trotters. By now the temperature was quite cool and to sit around too long might have resulted in hypothermia so after sorting my feet and having a cup of tea I pressed on for CP4 which had a cut-off deadline of 16.5 hrs or 01:30am on the 8th April. (Photos below courtesy of Adrian).
With cooler temperatures and my morale music I made excellent progress across the next stage which crossed a wide wadi plain covered in mud, stone fields and small dunes. With just a head torch and little ambient light it was hard to put your speed in context. Also with the line of competitors so strung out there was little to do but push on. When other competitors were ahead you could make out the cylume markers that we were also carrying attached to our packs. Occasionally without dunes or vegetation in the way you could see a long line of yellow dots stretching off into the distance. I felt much better in the cooler air and as well as taking on as much water as I could (thankfully now not a tea temperature) and chomped my way through mint cakes and peanuts. Finally
with time to spare I made it to the CP where the large inflatable
markers used at the start of the event had been set up and illuminated
to stand out from even some distance away. Once more there were bodies
everywhere at the CP. Most had crashed out for a few hours of sleep
before pushing on through the next stage which contained a large expanse
of large dunes. I opted for food and a snooze and found myself a quiet
tussock of grass to shelter by and made camp. 8th April 2010 - Stage 4 - 80 km (Part 2) All too soon my alarm went off and it was back into the swing of things. It was around 3am and as I entered the dunes I knew that this was going to be sapping and likely tedious. Dunes can be stunning in the daytime but at least you can gauge your progress and see to some degree where you are going. In these dunes, often greater than 60m high and with only a head torch for light they seemed to go on and on and on. As I was well back in the pack I could follow the tracks of others but this meant treading in sand that had already been disturbed and was therefore hard going. Fresh sand wasn't too bad. At some points I was literally on my hands and knees getting up slopes. I don’t think this was part of the actual route but we found that some little buggers had possibly moved some of the light stick markers during the night. Thankfully in the distance was a flashing red LED marker and we made for that. As I reached the LED marker and thankfully the edge of the dunes the sun started to rise. The scenery really is stunning and as I came down off the dune field the terrain opened up onto a wide dried up lake surrounded by jagged mountains. It really takes your breath away (not that there was much left anyway) and really opens up your eyes to the beauty of the natural world. I'm not being sentimental here in any way but this really was stunning scenery. I've worked in many deserts and this is certainly one of the most interesting. The next CP again had a rag tag bunch of sleepy stragglers who had grabbed some sleep and more often than not awoken with eyes, ears and mouth full of dust and sand. I took on more water, had a brief rest and emptied the last of the sand out of my trainers. In order to get around the problem of sand most competitors wear some form of gaiter around their feet and lower leg. It looks a bit daft but makes a huge difference when ploughing through the dunes. The next section was yet more dines but thankfully they were flatter. They did however seem endless and now in the daylight this was very frustrating. Only those with GPS watches or the like had a true appreciation of their progress. Eventually I reached the last CP. By now the sun had risen and the late morning temperatures had started to climb. I'd been at it for over 24 hours and both mind and body had reached a comfortable state of numb.
More
water, some more sweets and off for the final leg of this stage. This
was along a decent enough path and after a short time I could see
the camp in the distance. This last section got tougher as the heat
grew and yet again the camp just didn't seem to get any closer. Finally
however I jumped over the finish with a big grin. This was the biggie,
the 80km, longer than I had done in any one event before and I was
pretty stoked! I caught up with the rest of the team and got stuck
into some water and whatever I could stomach. It was now the early-afternoon
and with most of the competitors back in there was general air of
excitement with just two stages to go. 9th April 2010 - Stage 5- 42.2km Having already put my body through 5 days of Hell I was about to run what was to be my first ever official marathon distance event. The others had mostly done at least one marathon and thought I was nuts. I hasten to add here that I had already run several ultra-marathon distance events so it wasn't as if the distance was the issue. With two days to go more and more excess food and kit was jettisoned and either picked up by Phil (for the food) or the camp labourers. I'd managed to get some good sleep but had had to visit the bushes a few times with a low grade dose of the trots. Thankfully with little in my system the experience wasn't too bad. Others had the same and indeed worse and in order to avoid the terrible open pit latrines most had resorted to the classic 'surface laying' technique more commonly associated with laying mine fields. Not too bad an analogy when wandering around in the dark with just a head torch for safety!
As so with the roar of the helicopter overhead we were off once more. The first section was quite flat with some minor dunes and wadi sands but I made good time to the first CP. The next leg was a bit longer and with the growing heat my pace slowed. We hit some larger dunes and ridges before crossing another dried up lake bed. Again I sort of dropped into an autopilot model and just kept my arms and legs pumping.
CP2 was busy as more and more competitors where starting to feel the physical and mental drain of the previous 5 days. I sat in the shade for some time with a wet rag around my head. Once more I wasn't in any great rush and knew that a steady pace would get me to the next CP before the cut-off time. I set off again and plugged into the iPod once more to help keep some rhythm. We even had some downhill sections on this leg which was a welcome respite. The track eventually opened up onto a massive gravel plain that went on for many kilometres. When you could see far enough ahead all you can see are the stunning views and long winding snake of red and grey rucksacks with a smattering of flags and banners whipping in the breeze. On many of the days we were blessed with a light breeze which really made a huge difference in helping to keep the temperature down. Thankfully we avoided any sandstorms which were notorious in the region. During a previous event an Italian policeman had gotten lost in a sandstorm and wasn't found for around 10 days. By this time he had almost walked to Algeria and had survived by drinking his own urine and eating bats that he found in a shrine. This year there was one competitor that got geographically embarrassed and it was during this stage. This was an elderly British woman but thankfully she was found safe and well the following morning.
As we neared the end of the event we gradually noticed more signs of civilisation. Upon seeing a mobile phone mast I sat under a tree in some shade with my wet rag over my head and got out the phone to contact the UK. I got a surprise when I looked up at one point to see several approaching competitors who, thinking I'd lost the plot, had come over to find out why I appeared to be talking to myself! Eventually CP3 arrived and with time to spare I sat in the shade taking on water and some food. We'd be told that the final 50 competitors in that day would start an hour earlier on the final stage to try to ensure that the finish was more compressed. At this time I didn't care and just wanted to finish and so once more took my time and took the opportunity to take in the views and experience of the event for the final afternoon. As dusk fell into darkness the green laser shone out from the camp and the helicopters rattled overhead.
The final night in the bivouac is quite special. With all but a fun run to do on the final day morale is high and every competitor is shedding those last few bits of kit and food for the 'sprint' finish. A tradition of the final event is also quite a remarkable convert that is put on by a string orchestra and opera singer that the organisers bring in from Paris. It's quite surreal lying in the tents listening to this with the stars shining in all their glory above and the low murmur of competitors busying themselves and enjoying the moment with their tent buddies. I'm
sure every one of us slept well that night. 10th April 2010 - Stage 6 - 21.2km Having finished in the final 50 the day before I had the opportunity to be one of the temporary race leaders on the final day. As the lucky 50 set off I found myself 2nd from the front and with my H4H flag raised aloft made a steady pace across the camp site to the cheers and encouragement of the rest of the field. This was quite a moving experience which brought on two feelings. First was the incredible pride I had in that with just a mere 20 km to go I was all but sure of finishing the race which in the end was my sole objective albeit that in turn provided the impetus to enable the fundraising. The second was sadness in that this whole horrible and yet wonderful experience was coming to an end and that I wasn't with the team with whom I shared a tent over that past 8 nights. On reflection I wish I'd pushed hard on that penultimate day so that I too would have started with the main pack. Hindsight as they say is a wonderful thing but in the end leading the pack had its own benefits.
The first part of the final day was the crossing of a large dune field. Thankfully as a pace setter I had the luxury of walking on fresh sand and also seeing the dunes prior to the thousands of footprints that were about to obliterate the wonderful natural sculpture of the wind and Mother Nature. It wasn't for around an hour and a half before the ultra-athlete leaders sped past in their quest for top places.
The dunes game way to stony plains and even a small iron ore mine (just to keep me happy of course!)) before a slog across rolling wadi plains to the final CP of the race. A final bottle of water and then it was off to the final and probably most stunning section of the race. The XXXX dunes rise up to over 100m from the plain and extend over many kilometres. The crossing of these dunes was the final test of mental and physical endurance but I think by this time, to every man and women, not even a vertical ascent could have stopped everyone. Smiles spread across faces as the final sight of those inflatable markers were spotted for the first time in the distance. The metres rolled away and in next to no time there were crowds of well wishing locals and friends and relatives who had travelled to meet loved ones at the finish. I stopped short, unfurled the flag for the final time and briskly set off the finish line. With that final beep of the race chip and I leapt in the air (breaking my front pack in the process) and was presented with my medal by Patrick Bauer himself. It's safe to say I was a tad emotional at this point.
4 years of planning and preparation. 100's of kilometres of training. Several thousand pounds of expenses. Race fees and equipment. Aches, pains, physios, a knee operation and rehabilitation... and it all boiled down to getting a bloody great medal around my neck! Was it worth it? - Yes! Hell yes in every way! It was worth it for the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. It was worth it for the thrill of the race, the pain and the suffering, the worry and the despair, the elation and joy, and the awe at seeing so much of such a stunning country. A final thanks for all the support to all my family, friends, colleagues and comrades. Your support helped me achieve a lifelong ambition and also helped two very worthy causes and behalf of both the H4H and Euan’s Fund I would like to thank you all once more for your support and encouragement and your generous donations - the current tally is at over £5,560 between the two charities which is fantastic and I have more monies to collect.
Would I do it again... for about 24hrs after the race my answer would have been “No bloody way!”. Two
months on... watch this space!!! 
31st March 2010 Well the time has finally come to grab my trainers, sunhat and bag and head for Morocco to participate in what has been widely acknowledged as being the original and still one of the toughest footraces on Earth! On 4th April, Easter Sunday, myself and another 1049 competitors will cross the start line of the 25th Marathon des Sables. We will have 250 km (155 miles) of sand, rocks, mountains, river beds, salt plains and tracks to navigate over 7 days and six stages. Days one to three will cover around 30-35 km per day on what are known as a ‘liaison’ stages. We then have a two day ‘non-stop’ stage of around 80 km before an official distance ‘marathon’ stage of 40 km on day six. Day seven, 10th April, is the final ‘liaison’ stage of around 15 km to the finish line (fun run!). This endeavour has been in planning for over 4 years but now (after several pairs of trainers; a knee operation; hundreds of training km on road, track and treadmill; a not-insignificant amount of kit and equipment) I have raised or have had pledged a total of just over £2,800 for my chosen charities: Help For Heroes and the Euan Macdonald Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research. Thanks on behalf of both of these charities for your generosity and personally for all the words of encouragement and support. Please, if you have not yet sponsored me and you can do so, even for the smallest of amounts, please help me to support two very worthy causes. Every penny of your money will go to these charities as I’m self-funding my race fees and equipment. I’ve been rushed off my feet and haven’t had the chance to update my website with details but will do so upon my return with photos of the event and a diary of my experiences (http://www.rocklore.co.uk/mds_index.htm). In the meantime, here are some links to help you follow my progress: The main event webpage: http://www.darbaroud.com/index_uk.php - this will have live updates of the race once we get started. Competitors list - http://www.darbaroud.com/resultats/participants.php?epreuve_id=2010&langue=en I’m carrying a SPOT GPS locater which should track my live progress - http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0iaYdNgv6RNvpVSsELcELoNTevMCgi7Bi (hope fully this will work as it’s a new gadget!) If you’d like to send me any words of encouragement/banter (and please do!!!!!!) you can email me by following the instructions on the race website link above. There will be a section labelled as "écrire aux concurrents/write to competitors". The organisers will then deliver our emails to our tents in the evenings between the 3rd April and the 9th April. You will need to include my details at the top of your email and it can only be text. CRAIG, ANDREW, #813 After 9th April, this email service will no longer be operational. Only messages with surname, first name and race ID number will be transferred. As a good friend has reminded me, “Pain is just weakness leaving the body”. 13th February 2010 The London 50km Ultra event went well. A cold start but with a pack and some warmer layers we were off early in the morning to run from Streatham Common to Wembley via Richmond, the Thames and Harrow Hill! In the end it took just short of 7 hours with a pretty sharp finish. I came in near the end of the pack but given that many of the competitors were not carrying packs I was quite pleased... more training to do! 3th February 2010 Sorry, it's been a while since my last update... work has been manic and training has made slow and sometime painful progress. I've been working in Kazakhstan quite a bit and with the mid-winter temperatures reaching -20 it's been hard to get out covering miles. The local gym has at least provided a treadmill but it's clearly not the same! My calf problems appear to have abated but a recent back spasm has led to a week of no running. We're less than 60 days away now so the pressure is starting to mount both physically and mentally. I've started to pull all the gear together and an determined to keep the weight down as much as possible. A milestone event last week was the issue of race numbers. My race number is #813 out of well over 900 competitors this year. Looking at the names posted online I noticed a friend, Phil Cooper was #811 and that a certain Mr James Cracknell was #812! There appear to be a few other celebs running but still no confirmation on the rumours from last year that Madonna was running! 12th October 2009 Now a week or so on my calf muscles (now both) are tighter than a very tight thing and I’ve not run for some time now. I would like to get stuck into some pool work but having had a slight slip with a Stanley knife on Saturday I now sporting a rather comedic bandage to my left index finger now that the terribly nice consultant has stitched a tendon back together – doh… so a short enforced rest will be frustrating but perhaps good all round… with time ticking away I am however getting anxious and the prospect of all those cold, wet, winter training hours is not the most appealing… stay tuned for more news later this month. 5th October 2009 Well it’s a week or so after the Rat Race and my calf muscles are still off in a world of their own! After the half-marathon I had some tightness which progressed into outright pain after just a 10 min jog a week before the event. Several sessions of physio later and I was wondering whether I'd manage the Rat Race! The Rat Race Weekender, as the name suggests, runs over the whole weekend with a Saturday afternoon run around London followed by an eight hour slog by foot, bike and canoe on the Sunday. Despite copious amounts of painkillers, stretching and strapping, my left calf blew up about 15 minutes into Saturday's activities. The next 2 hours were a killer but with the support and encouragement of my team we made it to the end having amassed a respectable number of points. During the ‘run’ we’d eaten fiery hot pizza, kayaked along a canal, had a hair-cut and searched for hidden control points in a bouncy castle!
I didn’t sleep well that night and with the prospect of 8 more
hours of ‘fun’ I had mixed emotions when I rose at 5:45
to make my way back to the start at Tower Bridge. Thankfully the Sunday
programme was more geared to the bike but before that we still have
to run to the City of London via the Millennium bridge and navigate
to some control points. The rest of the day had us on the bikes, travelling
out to Epping Forest and back again via the canal tracks and roads
of NE London. Check points included all manner of tasks such as orienteering
by foot, abseiling, kayaking, climbing wall traverses and a Landrover
pull. It was nearly 6 hours before my team and I made it back to the
transition area where we still had to complete a 3D navigation task
on HMS Belfast and then conquer a short obstacle course whilst carrying
a pint of water! For the record, we also managed to raise well over £1,600 which BP has kindly offered to match! Awesome effort and thanks to BP!!! 5th August 2009 Ran the Eton-Windsor-Dorney half marathon today - 2 hrs 4 min 14 sec. Fabulous sunny conditions and a flat course (four laps of the Dorney Lake rowing facilties). First two laps went okay then fatigue started to kick in and was disappointed not to make a sub-2hrs time. Ongoing training objectives: loose weight and sort out feet to prevent blisters. 3 weeks until the Rat Race! 1st August 2009 Yikes, less than 250 days to go now. Website up and running now so that's one less thing to worry about. Training going well. Starting to build up the distances now. Will move onto adding a rucksack with weight over next few weeks. I also have a few training events coming up. The main one in the near future is the Rat Race in September.
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