Alex on Trails

Yesterday and the day before, I tapped into my food reserve of today (breakfast and bars) as I was starving and desperately needed the calories to make it to the end. Therefore this morning I have nothing to eat. But I don't really care as the pressure of the race is over, I know the stage is short and that they distribute food once we arrive in the bus. That being said, I think I lost 4.5 kg (10 pounds) and we are dreaming in the tent of eating a good steak with fries and mayonnaise. We are all exhausted and starving but have this big smile on our face. We made it. Each of us had their own purpose and reason to participate to this race but we are all proud of ourselves and feel blessed to be in Merzuga which is one of the most beautiful places in Morocco. We have the privilege to be sleeping at the bottom of the highest dunes in Africa that culminate 150 meters (450 feet) above us.  Today, we will be running a short stage of 7km (4 miles) in the dunes ...

I would usually feel anxious the night before a marathon, especially if I am not in perfect shape and if everything is not going according to the plan. But everything feels so relative after the long stage of the day before. I know that I will finish today, but I also know it is not going to be easy. I am tired and hungry and my body is hurting everywhere. Today's stage promises to have a challenging ascent (650m d+ ~ 2000 feet up) and lots of sand (10k in the dunes ~ 6 miles). The other extreme difficulty today will be the head wind blowing at 80 km/h (50 miles/h). The good news is that the sand storm announced for the night never came so we all had a rather okay night of sleep. The bad news is that the sand storm is finally coming this morning. We start a bit earlier than usual around 7am on the start line. My bag is lighter today (about 6 kg ~ 13 pounds) as we only have 2 days left of food and it makes a real difference. The wind is so strong that we cannot even he...

Fortunately, we have a day of break after the long stage to give everyone time to arrive. After 3 hours of sleep, the heat under the tent and the voices of people talking force me to get up. It is almost funny to see people wandering in the camp and limping during that day. I spend my day between the doctor's tent taking care of my feet, lying down to recover, eating, drinking, speaking about what I dream to eat with my tent mates, and going to the finish line to cheer people that keep arriving. Cyril in our tent arrives around 11am after 26 hours of effort. Impressive! Around sunset, it is getting cold again as the night approaches. Everyone at the camp - including the staff - gathers on the finish line to welcome the last runner. It is impressive and moving to see this 72 year old man cross the finish line after 35 hours of heroic effort. I can't believe this person has spent 2 full days and a cold night in the desert.

Today is the big day, the day that everyone has been waiting for, and also the day that scares everyone at MDS as it is the so called "long stage". The longest distance that I have run in my life is a marathon (42km ~ 26 miles) so today -with more than twice the distance- is very scary for me. I have been thinking a lot about my strategy and I think I'll be able to run it without any long breaks or sleeping. I plan to "only" stop for 20 minutes at CP3 (35km ~ 22 miles ) and for another 20 minutes and at CP5 (56km ~ 35 miles), but I don't know if my body will agree. Most runners actually stop for longer breaks or even sleep for a few hours. Following the advice of the most experience trailers, on the longer stages, I should avoid running as soon as it is going up or as soon as it is too sandy, and I should run as soon as it is going down. I had a good night of sleep and I was able to recharge my batteries in calories after the hard day and night...

We had the worst night ever. A sand storm started around 10pm and only finished before the sunrise when we had to get up. I only slept a couple of hours maximum. During the storm, we could not even close our eyes due to the wind, the sand and the fear of having our stuff fly away. We also had to hold the tent from inside so it did not fly away. One of our tent mates quit in the morning as he did not get any sleep. Today's stage (32km ~ 19 miles) is a bit shorter than the day before but rumors say it is going to be a lot harder and take longer due to the altitude change as we will climb 4 Jebels, and the dunes. We will also be climbing Jebel El Otfal again in the other way today. Given the circumstances and also what is coming tomorrow with the so called "long stage", I start the day slowly in the dunes. At km7, as I am running down the first Jebel I meet with Seb and we walk up the second mountain together. The view is just fantastic and we get the ...