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The Marathon Des Sables

George Bownes

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"We do these thi ngs not because they are easy, but because they are hard" - JFK

For those of you who don't know me, I'm a 28 year old Doctor currently living in Nottingham where I'm studying for a Masters in Sports Medicine.

On March 27th 2008 I will be flying to Moroco to compete in the 23rd Marathon des Sables , regarded by many as the 'toughest foot race in the world'. It's a 240km race across the sand dunes of the Sahara, in temperatures of up to 50°C. Furthermore, the rules insist on complete self sufficiency which means I'll be carrying all of my own food along with cooking and survival equipment. This site gives an overview of the preparations that I'm making ahead of the event.

Why do I want to do it ?

Noma victim

My aim is to complete the distance and finish the race. I'm not out to break any records nor beat any professionals. I simply want to enjoy (rather than endure) the experience, the challenge, the landscape and the people, and in doing so raise £5,000 for Facing Africa.

Noma (cancrum oris) is a ravaging gangrenous infection affecting the faces of children in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are 500,000 cases a year. Of these, only 50,000 children survive to face a future of facial disfigurement, functional impairment and social isolation. Previous MdS competitor, Chris Lawrence heard about the plight of these children and set up Facing Africa in 1998. The charity enables European Doctors to visit the Noma Children Hospital in Sokoto, Nigeria 6 times a year in order to provide reconstructive facial surgery at a cost of £800 per child.

How did I get into it ?

I did my first marathon in New York in November 2002 at the start of my second year at Medical School. The fantastic atmosphere in the City, coupled with unbelievable supporters and slick organisation made it an amazing day. I was hooked.

Once I'd stopped playing rugby for England Students, I was able to concentrate on endurance training. Since then I've run two further Marathon Majors; London and Chicago. Next came triathlons, and completion of the UK 70.3 IM and the UK Ironman in 2007. My swimming is still rubbish (luckily this wont be a disadvantage in the Sahara) but the cycling is definitely helping my running.

This winter I've stepped up to doing some Ultra Marathons. I'm hoping this will help me to survive Stage 4, the 80-90km killer stage of the MdS, that creates the most casualties.

Thames Path Ultra, Saturday 19th January 2008

My first Ultra, 50 miles.

The longest I'd run prior to this event was about 25 miles. I felt confident that I could complete it and felt that doing so would indicate an adequate level of fitness for two months prior to the MdS. The week before the race the heavens opened and the Thames burst its banks. I'd heard that previously entrance of this race compared it to the Somme, well the Somme had mud, this years race had so much water the mud just got washed away. Rory Coleman, the Director of Ambition Events, said in his pre race briefing that if we didn't know how deep the water was to go around it. Ten minutes later, having ignored the advice, I was mid thigh deep across a field wishing I'd navigated around the flooding.

I don't think in the first 25 miles there wasn't a place on the Path not covered in water. By the time we got to Sonning it was ridiculous and the more sensible people did follow Rory's wise words and use their maps to follow the Thames via the roads and footpaths.

For anyone wanting to get into Ultras this is definitely one to consider. The race is very well organized and the people on it are also great. I started and ended the race running on my own but between about 10 and 34 miles I was running with Guy and Claire, two other Ultra Virgins. Guy's Garmin GPS was a great help in keeping tags on our progress and Claire, a PTI in the Army, kept us all positive.

We had all thought that around 9hrs was reasonable considering the conditions and our inexperience at this distance. I found that having done the Ironman last summer definitely gave me an edge, particularly in terms of nutrition during the race. I was using salt sticks as well as a combination of energy drinks, bars and gels. This energy intake was key and meant I still felt strong even after the doldrums of 28 to 38 miles. In the end I ran 7hrs 43mins, Claire did 8hrs 14min and Guy 8hrs 30min.

Depending on how I recover I'll see if I run the Thames Meander, another Ultra, this time 54 miles down the same route. Other than that I'm going to increase my mileage slowly aiming to run 20 miles a day for three days in a row at the start of March, about a month before I go.

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