About the Marathon Des Sables

The MdS is a 6 day / 230km endurance race across the Sahara Desert in Morocco, normally taking place at the end of March / beginning of April.

During this time the competitors (myself included!) have to carry all food, cooking equipment, food, survival equipment, etc over ground ranging from sand dunes to uneven rocky ground in temperatures upto 120°F.

Why am I doing this race?

I have been running long distance for over twenty years, during which time I have moved from road running to orienteering, on to long-distance mountain races like the Karrimor Mountain Marathon, the Lake District 3-day Challenge and the Leadville Trail 100 Mile race - held in the highest part of the Colorado Rockies. I know I can run in the cold and thin air of high mountains; running for five days in the hot and dry of the Sahara Desert will be a new challenge for me!

Having enough water will be a deciding factor in helping me to complete my race. Water Aid is a charity that works for the millions of people across the world who do not have a source of clean, safe drinking water; a relatively small amount of money can be used to help make water available to large numbers of people through digging wells, installing pipes or improving sanitation to avoid contamination. This is going to be particularly important following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, as many existing wells have become contaminated with sewerage or salt water - Water Aid is already at work to dig new well or pump out and refurbish the old ones.

Links

• www.wateraid.org.uk - WaterAid: Water for life
• www.saharamarathon.co.uk - More information about the MdS (you could run it too!)
• www.facingafrica.org - Helping to cure and prevent NOMA (official charity of the MdS in 2003)
• www.darbaroud.com - The organizers of the MdS
• www.bestofmorocco.co.uk - Tailor-made trips to Morocco (marathon not compulsory)