Endurance Adventures

Luckily I slept much better as it was a lot warmer in the night. We had been told that the Berbers would be taking down our tents at 6am, ready to move camp- when they came they literally lifted the tent off us, leaving us sitting on our rugs!



The Berbers Remove Our Tent!

It was going to be hot today; the sun was already quite warm and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We ate a hasty breakfast, packed our stuff (Al's seemed to have exploded!) and made our way to the start, ready as we ever would be for 56 miles...



Ready For The Off- The Camel Sweepers

I felt pretty good, and my feet weren't giving me too much bother- I could feel the blisters but they weren't too painful. Rach was suffering from tummy troubles, so I was ahead of her until the first checkpoint. I passed a Land Rover, completely stuck in the mud, waiting to be pulled out;



Land Rover Stuck In The Mud!

We passed near a town, and the inhabitants had come out in small groups to cheer us on. There were some small kids amongst them and I gave them a wave.




A Town On Route

I saw Rach and Perks at the first checkpoint, and left with Perks as Rach was still feeling dodgy. We followed the route over a small plain, before bearing left into some hills. There was quite a lot of greenery around, more than there would normally be due to the rain. In particular there were lots of small, round yellow flowers which smelt lovely.



Me!

I was still feeling good, and walking quite strong. Rach caught us up and we all walked together for a bit. The lead runners, who had set off at 12pm, passed us, followed by a Land Rover- they would be home long before us! After a while, I found myself walking alone again, although Rach wasn't too far behind.




Desert Hills

I stopped for a few minutes at the second checkpoint, sitting with Mike A and Graham. There was a 16 hour time limit to get to checkpoint 4, so I didn't linger long. I carried on, past hills and plains, and at one point saw a herd of small black and white goats to my left. As I looked, I realised that they had a shepherd with them; dressed in traditional robes, he looked completely at home in this desert environment. In contrast, I felt gaudy and completely out of context. I noticed him watching me, so put my hand up in a gesture of friendship, which he returned.




Desert Scenery

Just before checkpoint 3, several children in jumpers lined the route. They would walk alongside me for a few minutes, saying 'Bonjour' and 'Ca Va?' before pointing to my buff and saying 'Donnez- moi!' I just pretended I understood absolutely no French at all, and noticed they disappeared when I said 'Au revoir!' I kept turning to make sure Rach was ok, as it could be quite intimidating, especially when the older children showed an interest.

I reached checkpoint 3, Rose came in, then Carol, Graham and Rach. We were given glow sticks to fasten onto the backs of our packs, and I decided to walk with Rach from now on as it was getting dark and neither of us wanted to walk alone. She set off first, and me and Rose caught her up just as it was getting dark.



Sunset On The Long Day

Funnily enough, I had been feeling great up until then, but as soon as I caught Rach up I started to feel dodgy; very tired and a little sick. Rose was feeling good so went on ahead, and me and Rach followed the glow sticks now marking the course through the dark. For some reason I became convinced that there was a road just to the right of us! (It was easy to hallucinate- Craig later told us he was convinced at one point that there was a large coniferous forest to his right!)

We made it to checkpoint 4, well within the time limit. Rose was there, so I boiled a kettle of water so that me, Rose and Rach could have a drink. Poor Rach was suffering with diarrhoea and couldn't keep any food in, so I gave her a packet of crisps and had one myself- these turned out to be a godsend and I would definately take more if I do anything like this again!

There were shelters which were all full, so we sat in the open to have our drinks and snacks. Carol and Graham came in, and planned to sleep for a few hours, which in hindsight was a sensible option. Me and Rach decided to press on, and immediately hit dunes, which were pretty tough going for a few miles. I'm impressed Rach managed to keep going as she said she had no energy and she must have felt really rough.

As we were coming out of the dunes, we realised that the glow sticks were going very steeply uphill and found ourselves at the base of a mountain! I was struggling at this point as I appeared to have completely lost all sense of balance. Unfortunately me and Rach became separated, although I suspect that this was my fault- I saw people to our right who appeared to be having an easier time, and went towards them, thinking Rach was behind me.

Once I realised I had lost Rach and the glow sticks, I thought that if I climbed to the top, I would have a much better view. But when I got there, it turned out to be a false summit, and another wall of rock loomed out of the darkness ahead of me. This happened several times, and the rocks around me were becoming steeper and looser. It started to rain, and I can honestly say that this was my lowest point. I thought that this was it for me, I wasn't going to get out of it and actually had a little weep. I could still see lights below me, and called out 'Does anybody know the way?'

A group of three people shouted 'We're coming up to you' and started to ascend. After they had come a little way, they shouted that they had found a path. I was stil someway above them, so had to slide down on my bum, cursing a lot. My front pack decided to come unclipped at one side, so I had to try to stop my water bottles from sliding out. Luckily the small group waited for me to reach them, and a chap fixed my front pack. We followed the path to a pass and a rocky track down. It wasn't the route we should have taken, but we could see the glow sticks marking the route in the distance so knew we could get back on track.

I explained that my friend had also been on the mountain, and said that I would stay and call her for a few minutes. The chap who fixed my front pack suggested that I let off my flare! I declined- as that would really have been game over- and stayed for a few minutes, calling Rach. There was no reply, and I figured that in all probability she would have made her own way over and the best thing I could do was to make my way to the next checkpoint and see if she came in.

It took me ages to get down the mountain. I am not a downhill sort of person anyway, but me complete lack of balance, plus the fact that everytime I put my hand down to steady myself I placed it on some spiky plant, made it really difficult. My front pack came undone again, and I ended up holding it all the way to the next checkpoint.

Finally, I was down and back on route, but felt completely wiped out. We were back in dunes; steeper and higher than before, with the wind whipping the sand in your face at the top of each one. I dreaded the possibility of a sandstorm! Luckily the rain hadn't come to anything, and the night was now clear. Some folks saw a laser extending from the checkpoint, but I missed it.

After what seemed like ages, I caught up with a group of people, and spotted Rach- I was overjoyed to see her! She, like me, had waited and called, but decided to press on to the next checkpoint assuming I'd find my way too. It was a real slog through the dunes to checkpoint 5; at one point my waterbottle fell out and rolled all the way to the bottom of a dune and I had to retrieve it, which was really demoralising.

Eventually the dunes gave way to the lights of checkpoint 5, but we were both completely exhausted and struggling to keep our eyes open. Rach climbed into her sleeping bag, but I just couldn't be bothered with the effort of getting mine out, so wrapped my emergency blanket around myself and fixed my front pack. I soon became really cold, and decided I was being stupid. There were some people leaving the shelter so I got my sleeping bag out and climbed into it, shoes, gaiters and all. Unfortunately a group of French decided it was time to get up and decided to make as much noise as they could!

I did manage to doze off for a bit, and when I woke it was light; me and Rach packed up and set off around 7am. We were walking quite slowly but did manage to overtake a few folks. It was really warm today, the kind of heat which I guessed would usually be encountered in the Sahara. We reached checkpoint 6, and both agreed to walk straight through, rather than stopping- I think we both thought if we stopped, we wouldn't get going again!

After checkpoint 6, I started to feel really bad; my stomach felt quite painful and my right knee had started to hurt. I kept feeling as though I was losing consciousness, and convinced myself that I was coming down with sunstroke- it was a really odd feeling. In hindsight, though, I think I was so tired I was literally nodding off whilst I was walking! Rach kindly slowed her pace down to walk with me, and luckily it was easy walking across flat sand. As we neared the bivouac, several Land Rovers passed us and I had to make an effort to appear ok, still expecting to collapse and wake up in the helicopter! My knee was becoming really painful and I was worried that I had done some real damage to it.

Eventually we saw the bivouac, in a natural basin surrounded by the now familiar flat topped hills. Craig was waiting for us as we crossed the line, and the first thing I did was have a sleep. I woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed, and ate a pot noodle. My knee was still hurting so I visited the Doc Trotters tent and asked for a support bandage; a woman wrapped a stretchy kind of bandage around it but I'm not convinced it did much good. Me and Sharky went back to the line to see if we could see Perks, who hadn't yet finished. We asked a course official if he could tell whereabouts on the course she was, and he looked on his laptop and advised us that she was around 10k- 15k away. We kept coming back but missed her actually finish- she had been staying with somebody else who had been struggling, and said that she felt fine.

At around 8:30pm we were given an announcement that the last competitor was coming in, so a crowd assembled to cheer him in- a Malaysian guy I think.

I literally couldn't keep my eyes open, and didn't really fancy anything to eat. I made up a sachet of custard powder and cup of coffee, and ate about 3/4 of it before falling asleep. I was so tired, I couldn't stay awake a moment longer!

Labels: long day, Marathon des Sables