Surviving Stage 1

Got there. Started with 14k in the dunes, then too much across the salt flats, then just to be nasty, another couple of km in yet more dunes. I feel ok. very sore shoulders - 10kg will do it ever time! Damn french keyboard. Magnificent views, classic Sahara, but those dunes will haunt me for a while. No blisters, but my left shoe has thrown a gaiter, so it may get ugly later on. No more dunes for a few days - well, not that big anyway.

Awoke to a sand storm, wind has been relentless, and sand in everything. Not too hot, perhaps high 30s today. My dinner is cooking in the sun back at the tent.

Tent has 4 Aussies, a Canadian, and 2 yanks. 2 ladies - Aussie Fleur, Damon Goerkes better half, and Canadian Mary, currently in her 3rd or 4th midlife crisis and turning 50 in Nov.
Rude awaking this morn, the Berber tent guys drop the tents at 6am no matter if you out or not, and then it is still 3:30 to the start - in the sandstorm!

Note from TigerMeg:
Results show Stephen finished Stage 1 in 4Hrs49'57", in 179th position. Send him a message via the official MdS website (link on right)!

4.5 hrs to Start

Final SMS from Stephen this morning, before handing in the phone.

Stage distances are:
Day 1 - 31.6km
Day 2 - 38.0km
Day 3 - 40.5km
Day 4 - 75.5km
Day 5 - Rest (?!)
Day 6 - 42.2km
Day 7 - 17.5km
Total: 245.3km

Start time is 0900 local time (8pm Sunday, Sydney time).

Ready, Set...

Brief phone call from Stephen last night - lots of waiting around happening, looking forward to actually getting underway.

Text message this morning saying he has made it to Bivouac 1, and has mobile phone coverage! Call costs are prohibitive though - both outgoing and to receive inbound calls (SMS isn't too bad). The phone has to be handed in at check-in today.

Warm and dusty, good tent mates.

I think (hope) the nerves are settling, and he is getting focused.

The email to competitors bit should be up and running very soon (may be already), via the official MdS site - link on right.

TigerMeg

SYD-SIN-LHR-RAK-OZZ

Have made it to Ouarzazate in eastern Morocco, after a couple of days in Marrakesh and a long bus ride up and over the snow covered Atlas Mountains. Dry and dusty, very reministent of Jerusalem and Kathmandu, hassling sellers of everything under the sun, and then some. As we filled up the bus somewhere on the way I noticed that petrol here is about the same price as in Australia - but there certainly isn't the income to pay for it.

Got to OZZ last night and spotted our first MdSers. Can't miss the skinny blokes with caps and legioniare flaps, bike shorts and shoes with velcro sewn around them. Quite a contract to the classic Berber local. Dinner with the US contingent, dicussions ebbing and flowing from food to weight to calories back to weight, then camel spiders sand, strange concotions of maltodextrin mixed with olive oil,and again back to weight. Andrew is battling to get his pack UP to the minimum weight of 6.5kg, whereas Trent (http://marathonman.com.au) is struggling to get his pack DOWN the the max of 15.5kg. Me? About 10kg right now, but I am feeling a little overweight looking at how some have trimmed all excess baggage... I will go be packing and repacking today, but following my lovely wife's missive to not skimp on food. Currently I have 6.5kg of food which averages out at 3,600 Calories a day. Well over the legal minimum of 2,000 C per day, but it weighs so much ;-)

On the way

Action has left the building. Now en route to Morocco, via Singapore and London. All the important stuff packed in to carry-on baggage to minimise the impact should anything go astray.

Seen off at the airport by his parents, a resolutely cheerful Megan, and an oblivious and gorgeous youngest son (Josh, 11 months).

With travel time and time differences, I expect it will be at least Wednesday before he sends anything for me to post. In the meantime, please sit back and enjoy the in-flight entertainment...

Megan (aka TigerMeg)

Event Summary

7 day stage race across the Sahara Desert somewhere near the border of Morocco and Algeria.

Carry all your own gear, with water drops and a hessian tent each night shared by 10 competitors.

9am start each day, except the long day where the top 100 start 3 hours behind the rest of the field.

Day 1 - 30k (rumoured distances - final course not announced until day before start.
Day 2 - 30k
Day 3 - 35k
Day 4 - 84k
Day 5 - rest day (because not everyone finished Day 4 on Day 4)
Day 6 - 42k
Day 7 - 20k

Overnight temps 0C-5C
Daytime temps 40C-50C

800 competitors, waitlists to 2011!

Reputedly "The world's toughest footrace"

Camel spiders

Every competitor must carry a number of compulsory items. Sensible ones like a sleeping bag and compass, torch and antiseptic... but one of the items is a venom pump. Why? Something called a camel spider apparently. Definitely something to avoid: http://www.camelspiders.net/. Apparently non-venomous - in the same way that pitbulls are non-venomous....

Keeping in touch

From the Race website:
"Remember to tell your family, friends and sponsors that they can leave you messages during the MARATHON DES SABLES, but only from 29 mars to 04 april 2008. Go to the website and follow the instructions.
http://www.darbaroud.com
section "écrire aux concurrents/write to competitors"

After 04 april, this email service will no longer be operational.

Only messages with surname, first name and race ID number will be transferred. Do not send attachments (e.g. photos). This will cancel the message. Messages will be given to competitors on the bivouac every day.

Packing the pack

10kg is a fair bit of weight to lug around. However, the bigger task is fitting everything for 7 days in to a 25 litre pack. We have to carry it all for the duration of the race. Everything gets weighed, kilojoules counted, excess packaging cut off, sleeping bag downsized and discussions about including or excluding the 200gm stove are had.

Will I really need the extra pair of socks (30gms), and there are the three spare batteries for the 65gm headlamp which weigh in at 36gms. I will have 6.5kg of food on board, which will reduce at nearly a kilo a day - did you know that macadamias and cashews have the highest kilojoule per gram ratio of any food I have found? I am allowing myself the luxury of a sleeping mat, although it is a shaped uber-light mat but still tipping the scales at 235gms.

If anyone saw a strange bloke with a small set of scales going from shoe shop to shoe shop earlier this week, it was me searching for a lightweight pair of sandals to wear in camp each night. Managed to score a pair at 125gms from which I can probably trim something off.

Flying out in a week

This blog is simply to track my emails - which will be short and random - during the 2008 edition of the Marathon des Sables in Morocco. 245k over 7 days, billed as the toughest footrace on earth, the 800 odd entrants run in temperatures raging from 0C to 50C across the Sahara Desert carrying nearly everything we need for 7 days - everything except water.

In past years there has been no more than 1 or 2 Aussies entered, but this year seems to be a bit of a magnet - 22 Australian starters, including 3 females, as of tonight.

Rough timeline has me leaving Sydney on Monday 24th March, arriving Marrakech 24th, getting to the start over the Atlas Mountains on the 28th, Stage 1 on the 30th, then 7 days of the race. Back to Casablanca afterwards, and home by the 14th April.

Links to the race site and daily results, as well as the Coolrunning discussion thread are on the right hand side of the blog.

My race number is 477.