The MDS 2009

March 1 2007

I have been AWOl again for a while due to vast numbers of visitors descending on us these past few weeks. Well it has all been great fun but this morning I opened the newspaper to see an article that briefly mentioned the MdS. The MdS is something I have been trying my utmost to forget about for the past couple of months but today was a warning. If I dont face up to my responsibilities and start preparing for it NOW then I will never finish that race. So you may be wondering what exactly is it this MdS - I borrowed the following paragraph from someone else's blog and it does sum everything up nicely...

"The 24th Marathon des Sables will take place in March 2009. This ultramarathon has been consistently acknowledged as 'The Toughest Footrace On Earth'.

The event takes place in late March/early April and crosses around 150 miles of the Sahara Desert over 6 days. The terrain varies between rocky trails, mountain slopes, and steep sand dunes. Temperatures can hit 40+ degrees celcius during the days and plummet to almost freezing point at night.

During the event we will have to carry all of the food, clothing, sleeping bag, and emergency equipment that we will need over the 6 days. Water is strictly rationed at around 9 litres a day and accomodation is a Berber tent.

Each year around 750 competitors take part in the Marathon des Sables with the largest single contingent coming from the UK. Perhaps we have more masochists than average!

In the 2006 race, widely regarded as the toughest yet, 146 competitors failed to complete the distance. "

Right so there it is... and for the first time I actually feel nervous about the whole thing. In preparation I am going to/ have already entered into a couple of marathons this summer just to get the whole process kick started. But there is so much more to train for in this competition. Its not just a physical race it's going to be an emotional and psychological one too. And there are so many factors health wise that I need to learn about and prepare for from ridiculous blisters (people have had toes amputated), to hydration and energy consumption, to scorpion bites (YIKES!!!).
And as if that wasnt bad enough I have to carry all my own food and kit so the sleeping bag has to be just right the food has to be the exact right amount my footwear and blister care techniques have to be well practiced.. aaargggghh!

Oh well today is the first day of the rest of my training plan. Luckily I am not doing this race alone Le Berb my Crazy Californian team mate has also signed up and he is leaps and bounds ahead of me on all this stuff already...

OK well I have written it down now I need to just get on with it. I am going to post training plans, diet plans. medical info on here so that anybody else doing it can see my ideas and hopefully give us any advice!

I'm off for a run ;)

Caroline x