Day 3 (38km):

I Felt really good this morning. Today’s stage was 38km with temps climbing to only 40°C, but the humidity was increasing reaching 18% which was very unusual. A total of 68 competitors had retired prior to the start of today’s stage and a further 11 were to retire by midday.

This stage was to be the hardest stage for me, not physically but mentally. There were several climbs and long stretches of open ground. The long stretches provided no points of reference so although you could see a checkpoint in the distance it never appeared to get closer and this really messed with your head. Care had to be taken to drink at regular intervals whilst at the same time making sure you managed the amount of water so you wouldn’t run out before the next checkpoint. I saw several flares go up today. Passed one competitor who had collapsed and was fitting on top of one climb, another competitor collapsed as they came alongside me and I had to guide another towards a check point as they started to wander off away from it completely oblivious as to where they were going. Running out of water seemed to be the common factor amongst those that were suffering but I was managing mine fairly well. Drinking litres of warm water is a task in itself. During this day and after completing one climb and seeing another in the distance I felt particularly low and dug a hole in the sand near a rock and climbed in for a brief respite from the sun. A brief 20 minutes later I was off again wishing I hadn’t lost my MP3 player prior to leaving the UK as I faced another 8km slog to the checkpoint just visible in the distance.

Up hill slog


There was one major highlight to this day and that was passing a solar powered water pump. There was a row of taps outside the building that provided ‘cold’ running water. I cannot begin to tell you how good it felt to turn on this tap and soak my head for a few minutes. The finish was only a few km’s away and as I approached I burst into tears whilst singing Robbie Williams’ Angels!!! I crossed the line after 8hrs and 39mins, but felt remarkably good considering and trotted back to the tent to check on my blisters and cook my evening meal.

Cold, running, water... mmmmmm

That evening rumours were circulating of a record number of competitors withdrawing including a few serious causalities. These rumours were soon confirmed by one of the admin team and we were also informed that the distance was to be cut the next day because of the severe weather conditions and that the number of withdrawals was stretching the medical team to the limits. All made for a restless night. I managed to drift off but was woken by shouting from a tent across from ours - the tent had been put up over a nest of camel spiders and at least three were running rampant around the tent. One came to an unfortunate end and the others dissapeared. Needless to say the occupants of that tent slept outside under the stars that night.

One ex camel spider

Day 4 (57km):

Today’s stage was to be 72km but we were told in the briefing that morning that the distance had been reduced to 57km because of the extreme conditions and difficulty of today’s stage. Up to this morning 123 competitors had withdrawn, to put this in perspective last year saw only 50 withdraw throughout the whole race. Nevertheless this was to still be a long day that would see competitors completing the stage in the dark of the night or camping out and completing it the following day.

Physically I felt really good at the start and ran for the first 30mins and then settled into a walk. On the long day the top 50 competitors start 2 hours after the others and shortly before checkpoint 2 one of the chaps in my tent came flying past which, although knowing that he would be back at the tent long before I was, was a great morale boost as I cheered him on – I also knew that he’d have the tent sorted by the time us normal people got back. I met up with a few other members of the tent at checkpoint 2 and we decided to stick together for the duration. Time seemed to go quickly. We had the usual afternoon sand storm, with temperatures reaching 39°C and a humidity of 13%. As the sun started to drop and things began to cool down, relatively speaking, morale was high and we fast walked through to checkpoint 5 arriving in the early evening guided in by a laser . From here there were two more checkpoints spanning a distance of about 13.5km. After a rest and some food and surviving a camel spider attack I decided I felt great and left the others to run the remainder of the stage. It was a fantastic feeling running through the last few stages in the dark, the road ahead illuminated by the moon. Every now and again you’d pass by the shadowy figure of one of the local children stood by the side of the track – where they came from I’ll never know. After 14hrs30mins I arrived at the finish feeling great with a huge smile on my face. An official commented that I looked really fresh (HA!), I collected my water and headed back to the tent. A quick recovery drink then into my sleeping bag for a well earned sleep.

Run into the light!


5 mins rest

Day 5:

This is known as rest day although some competitors were still finishing the previous day’s stage. At 2pm that afternoonthe last competitor came in just ahead of the camels that trail the event - it's said that if you are overtaken by them you are out. Admin staff and all the other competitors ran, walked or hobbled to the finish to applaud her over the line. Emotions were high and several tears were shed. That evening we were rewarded with a warm can of coke and issued new (i.e. clean) race numbers for the marathon stage the next day, it was then back to the tent to sort out the evening meal and an early night.

Gotta beat those camels


Big smile


Product placement!

Day 6 (42.2km):

The marathon stage, 42.2km. Today was noticeably cooler at around 30°C and made for higher spirits than on previous days. We were told in the briefing that morning that so far 146 competitors had withdrawn with two seriously ill. But these thoughts were soon put out of my mind as ACDC was pumped over the PA, I was feeling extremely good and was jumping and clapping to the music like I was at a pop concert – don’t know what was in the coke last night but it worked :d.

I decided that today I would run as much as I could and as it turned out ran the whole of the stage. At times it felt like I was flying across the ground and can’t begin to describe how good it felt to be running and finished in 5hrs52min a personal worst for the distance and at the same time the best marathon I’d ever run.

Coming in relatively early made for a relaxing afternoon with only an 11km sprint to the finish to look forward to tomorrow, although the highest dunes of the event so far were still to come, spirits were high. We were treated to classical music and opera that evening before settling down for our last nights sleep in the desert.

Nice!


Dune section