Here is the official site from the organizers:
Marathon des Sables Official Site
Saturday, August 25, 2012
It's official - I've signed up!
Marathon des
Sables – Marathon of the Sands
It's funny how things work out sometimes.....an idea forms,
and somewhere along the line it becomes a reality. It kind of sneaks up on you
and when you least expect it, things fall into place. A little more than 2
years ago, a crazy friend of mine started writing about this amazing event in the
Saharan desert where you carry your own supplies and complete gruelling marathon
days, day after day. At first I thought he must have eaten an apple that fell
from the funny tree, but the more I started reading about it, the more I became
intrigued. What if I could also do this? Can I even try or will I quit after
day 1?
The Marathon des Sables is widely known as the world’s toughest footrace. The course for the event varies each year, but the distance covered is generally about 153 miles (245 Km) which is run or walked (or both) over 6 stages of roughly 25, 34, 38, 82, 42, and 22 km. This is a self-supportive race with competitors carrying everything they will need for the duration on their backs in a rucksack (food, clothes, medical kit, sleeping bag, etc). Water is distributed every 10 km. Each competitor will be carrying a backpack of around 13 kg through the whole race. Lovely, so we don’t have to complete insane distances, in very hot weather (40 degrees Celcius), with high humidity, but we have to carry our own supplies on our backs?
The Marathon des Sables is widely known as the world’s toughest footrace. The course for the event varies each year, but the distance covered is generally about 153 miles (245 Km) which is run or walked (or both) over 6 stages of roughly 25, 34, 38, 82, 42, and 22 km. This is a self-supportive race with competitors carrying everything they will need for the duration on their backs in a rucksack (food, clothes, medical kit, sleeping bag, etc). Water is distributed every 10 km. Each competitor will be carrying a backpack of around 13 kg through the whole race. Lovely, so we don’t have to complete insane distances, in very hot weather (40 degrees Celcius), with high humidity, but we have to carry our own supplies on our backs?
I’m not by any means an endurance athlete. I’m not even a
marathon runner yet. I’m just a recreational runner who has decided to listen to that
little voice that started talking to me 2 years ago! For most people this is
something that they build up to, and rightly so. Friends and family are asking
me ‘You haven’t run a marathon yet. Why in the world are you signing up for the
world’s toughest foot race?’ Honestly, I don’t really have an answer except for
‘Why not?!’ Well, that would be the first answer I would give jokingly, but when
I think about it, there are actually a lot of reasons.
There you have it, and I’ve signed up! I just have to wait for the organizers to send me my race number and Bob's your uncle...no more excuses not to start preparing!
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