Thoughts about the Marathon des Sables

There are more and more people asking me for advice about completing the MdeS.

 I was asked by my accountant’s son for some help and information for the 2007 race and he duly came round to our house where I told him all I could, showed him the videos, photos offered him some of the gear he might need and gave him what advice I felt appropriate regarding his training. Bugger me - he only finished in the top 20! He was obviously keeping his abilities to himself when he came round and I felt a bit daft at having presummed to be able to give him advice on his fitness in light of his performance in the desert. However, I take some comfort from the fact that some of the advice I gave him must have made his daily routine easier and allowed him to get on with the running aspect of the event. I also had positive feedback from some of the other 2007 runners to whom I’d given sdvice about how usefull the notes I prepared for them were.

In the hope that some of the lessons I’ve learnt may be of use to others I attach the notes I made for those who took part in 2007.

A few thoughts about completing the MdeS 

You’re not going to win it so focus only on finishing – however long it takes. 

You won’t run all the way, so don’t be worried about walking whenever you need to – if necessary, walk all the way! 

Make sure you’ve got some kind of gaiters. Make sure that you can get at your shoes to do them up – some gaiters make this awkward – by day four getting shoes on in the morning can be a problem. Lots of people stop taking them off because they’re worried about not getting them back on again. If you can find a lightweight aluminium shoehorn it could make life a lot easier and less painful. It can also double as a small shovel for toilet holes. Bury bog paper – people get really grumpy if shitty toilet paper gets blown into their tent! 

You will have to share a room in the hotel when you arrive and when you return from the desert – if you can pair up with someone before you get there it makes life easier. Also, you will have to share a tent with eight others – same principal, if you’ve already made connections it will be easier. There are no concessions for the girls – they end up in whichever tent  they end up in – might be with eight blokes. It will help if you know some of them.  

The Arab labour that erects and dismantles the tents each day are not fussy about your gear. They just bung the rug down and stick the Hessian cover (‘cos that’s all it is) over the top. It’s quite possible that your space (usually about 24” wide) is on top of a load of rocks. Cold comes up through the ground. Add these facts together and what you get is the need for a ground mat. The best one around is the Thermarest. They’re not cheap but they do the job brilliantly and they weigh less than 500gms and fold down really small. The three quarter size is fine. I would say you’d be daft to go without one. They (the Arabs) come round at 06.00 and start taking the tents down. If you, or your kit, are still in it they just carry on and trample over everything. Best plan – put all your gear on the Thermsrest pull it outside at 05.55, get back in your bag and go back to sleep. For the first two hours or so it’s freezing! Your sleeping bag is probably your best friend at that point. 

Take a pair of very light, very cheap flip floppy things to wear at night, in the mornings or for when you get back each day. Do not walk anywhere without something on your feet – there are small, lethal thorn bushes and sharp stones everywhere. You’ll have enough foot problems without stabbing yourself. 

Almost everyone will have blisters by day three! Try to avoid Doc Trotters. They are very good but very ruthless – they should be your last resort. Blisters can be drained either by yourself or by a tent buddy (you’ll soon find who your friends are). Use a sterile needle from your medical kit. You only need to take a couple as you can re-sterilise them in the heat of your stove. If you’re worried about infection you can pre-prepare some needles with thread soaked in TCP. Push the needle through the blister  pulling the thread in after it. Leave the thread in there for a few minutes so that you get antiseptic under the skin then pull it out and throw it away. This will help prevent scepticemia. Failing that, just ignore it and get on with life. 

Try to let the air to your feet. When you get back each day get your shoes and socks off as soon as you can and get your feet in the air. Lying down with your feet on your rucksack feels pretty good. You can then wash any sand off and dry them. You’ll have plenty of water. 

You must collect your water every morning – without fail – if you don’t, you’ll get a time penalty. Do it twice and they bin you. Don’t lose your water card - the best thing to do is wear it round your neck at all times. You actually get plenty of water and you might well end up throwing some of it away but you must collect it. Leave a bottle out at night so that when you get up in the morning it will be nice and cool. For the rest of the time it will vary from tepid to hot. All your water bottles and the caps will have your number on them. That way they know who to blame and penalise if they find any lying around the route.  

You are not allowed to take combustibles on aircraft so you need to order Greenheat before you go and pick it up when you get there. I assume that Best of Morocco still arrange this. Two 200grm tins should be enough for the week. Get some before you go (it’s easily bought on line) and practice with it. When you open it, it has an invisible skin on top. If you don’t remove this you can spend hours trying to light it. You will need something to boil water in. A Triangia kettle is ideal – very light and not too big, with a top. Water boils much faster if you keep the top on. Find out how much water you need to make up your meals – usually about 300-400mls and then mark the kettle at the right place. This saves you from boiling too much or not enough. If you’re going to make tea or a hot water bottle adjust the mark accordingly. See how long it takes for your water to boil and then divide the total burn time of the Greenheat (usually about 90min) by the appropriate time to give you an approximate number of usages you’re likely to get from one tin. Depending on what food you’re taking, you can then work out how much Greenheat you need. 

If you have spare hot water put it in a bottle and then into your sleeping bag. If you get into a warm bag you will stay warm all night. It can and does get very cold at night.  You can always drink the water in the morning. You won’t need to take a plate or cup. Cut about 5 or 6 inches from a water bottle and mix/make/eat your food from that. It also makes an excellent cup. Then just chuck it in the bin when you’re finished. 

Weight matters. You don’t have to be pedantic – like cutting the end off your toothbrush – but the lighter your kit is the easier the days will be. You can, realistically, get your weight down to 8/9kgs (without water) and without compromising on the essentials or basic comforts. I’ll try to do a separate list of how to achieve this. 

Insect repellant was one of the mandatory items but you don’t really need it. Take it for kit inspection and then bin it.. 

You don’t need a big, fancy watch. All you need is something that tells you the time. My £4.99 Casio has done two MdeSs and is still going. And it’s very light. You need a compass. A basic Silva is more than adequate. If you don’t know how to use one, find out how on their website, it’s really easy. You will need a compass when you’re in the dunes as it’s easy to go off line even when you can see people in front (they may be going the wrong way). A quick check every now and then is just reassuring apart from anything else. The road book will give you all the necessary bearings so you can just set your compass to that when you go into the dunes and follow it ‘til you come out the other end. The great thing about simple equipment is that there is very little to go wrong. The more complicated it is and the more technologically advanced then the more it’s likely to pack up. Sand gets in everything. You should, after all your training, be able to judge pace fairly well so you shouldn’t need a pedometer or anything like that. The road book gives you distances between checkpoints so using your watch, your knowledge of pace and some simple mental arithmetic you can keep track of you progress and the distances you’re covering. Distances in the desert are very deceptive. You can quite often see things – like a check point – in the distance and think it’s only a mile or so away when in reality it’s 4/5 miles which can be quite depressing if you haven’t worked out the true distance. 

You can die of dehydration in a few days but can last without food for ages. Make sure you stay hydrated. Take some Dioralyte (or similar) to have at night or before you leave in the morning to replace lost minerals. Succeed tablets are good and are available on the web. They are salt and potassium and help you to absorb and use the water you drink as well as replace some of the minerals you loose through sweating and peeing. They also stop cramping. Read up a bit, experiment and find out what works for you. If you start to feel thirsty, it’s too late. If your wee starts to go dark yellow or orange you need more fluids – if it goes brown, see the doctor – there are plenty of them en route. If you’re not weeing you’re not drinking enough. Because of the dry heat in the desert it’s very easy to think you’re not sweating – don’t be fooled – it’s pouring out of you. 

Get a Buff – they’re a great piece of kit and you’ll definitely need one if the sand starts blowing around, which it does at some point during most days.   

Try to take a few treats. Boiled sweets are good, a tin of sardines in brine, a couple of bags of crushed up crisps, tea bags or instant tea mix with added sugar, a small, tear top tin of sausage & beans. These make a good reward, something to look forward to and a change from the monotony of re-hydrated sawdust. They’re just an idea. I found the Cola Cubes and tea bags a life saver. 

If you feel like giving up (and at some point you probably will), don’t make the decision until you make it to the camp area. Remember, it’s going to be one of the toughest challenges you’re likely to face, both physical and mental – that’s why you’re going – so don’t be surprised when the going gets mind-blowingly hard. However, if you really feel that you’re getting to the end of your strength try to make it back to the main bivvy area for the night. If you can get back and sleep on it things will probably seem better in the morning. Then if you still feel you can’t go on, that’s the time to pull out. Also, if you withdraw they take all your food and much of your equipment from you so you can’t give it to the others in your tent. Distribute anything your tent buddies may want or need before you tell the officials that you are withdrawing. 

Encourage friends and family to send you emails, which are distributed every evening. What a lift you get when you get one. It all gets quite emotional towards the end but it does help. There is a huge amount of hanging about for the first two days of kit checking etc so be prepared to be bored – I spent a lot of time sleeping – that’s why I’m so fat! It’s a good time/opportunity to make final adjustments to kit & provisions. 

If you want to ask questions I’ll do my best to answer them either by email or ‘phone 01227 265536. 

The thoughts above are from personal experience and you are quite likely to get differing views on some of it from other sources. You’ll just have to decide what’s relevant to you and what isn’t. 

Good luck with the adventure and remember the 5 Ps : Planning and Preparation Prevent Poor Performance!! 

Mike

This entry was posted on 18/03/2008 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorised. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.