Things are getting real now. My number has arrived (I’m number 470)! Thankfully, training is going well, despite a cough which has been troubling me over the last week or so. It’s a worry if I catch even the slightest cold, since I really can’t afford any interruptions to my running schedule at this stage in my preparations. I really need to stay healthy.
I’ve done a bit of running on the banks of the Humber. There’s plenty of sand, but I don’t think it’s much like the Sahara! I’ll be running in temperatures of up to 50 degrees Centigrade, so the conditions are pretty different.
In other news, I’ve been practicing cooking my freeze-dried meals, just as I will be doing in the desert. I have to boil water on a solid fuel stove, which I’ll carry in my pack. Then I use that to rehydrate the food. Some of it tastes pretty good. Some of it, not so good!
The Marathon des Sables organisers have released this video. It gives you an idea of what I’ll be facing. On their webpage, Marathon des Sables also provide an overview of the race, with the length of each stage.
Day 1: 30.3km
Day 2: 39km
Day 3: 31.6km
Day 4: 86.2km
Day 5: 42.2km
Day 6: 7.7km
Have you noticed how far we’ll be running on day 4? For those of you who prefer to think in miles, that’s over 52 miles. We will run from morning till night, and many of us won’t finish till well into the next day. Helpfully, the information on the website also states, “your feet will swell, crack and bleed under the pressure and the heat”. Does anyone want to trade places with me?
No? Well then, I’ll just need to keep reminding myself what I’m doing it for.
John's Ultramarathon 