Entering the Legendary
Marathon Des Sables?
In April 2023 eight tent mates took on the 37th edition of the gruelling, 250km Marathon Des Sables. It was hot as hell, longer than most and tough. Very tough. A third of the field did not finish. All eight of us did.
If you’re mad enough to be thinking of entering the MDS then read on. We’ve been through it. Training plans, kit lists, food plans and general approaches to the event. We hope some of what worked for us will work for you.
Kit
Brace yourself for the kit buying frenzy that is the MDS. You can read every MDS blog and still not know where to start. You can spend thousands and still end up giving stuff away to the Berbers on day 2 when you realise it is unnecessary weight. We’ve reviewed our kit and give frank appraisals of whether we wasted our cash or whether it was a winner. Read more…
Food
Do you know your nut butter from your nut bar? Have you delved into the niche world of freeze dried foods? Ever spent a weekend creating a calorie to weight ratio spread sheet? You’re about to. Learn about our hits, misses and never to be repeated as long as we live food choices. Read more…
Training
Let’s just say some of us were better prepared than others! With a shed load of people not making the start due to injury and a load more not finishing in some instances due to lack of prep, learn what worked for the more athletic members of the tent…read more…
Our MDS story - Day 1
The Tent 77 team met early at Gatwick airport. Some of the team had spent the night in the airport hotel, others cabbed it down that morning. Most of us had met before, so that took the edge off the nerves and not knowing what we were walking into. The masses of random punters all wearing variations of MDS type kit would normally stand out at an airport, but mixed in with the stag and hen dos it suddenly seemed very normal. Seeing some of the MDS crew in the Weatherspoons at 6am with said stag dos was also reassuringly British.
There were two MDS flights from Gatwick, both leaving within a few minutes of each other. Arriving at Errachidia was pretty seamless. Let’s just say it’s not the busiest airport in the world. There was a reasonably hefty queue to get through passport control, but no one seemed to care, it was a damn sight closer to the bivouac than the airport at Ouarzazate. Once through security, it was a case of grab your bag and jump straight onto coaches for a 90 odd minute journey to the bivouac. Arrival in the desert was a rude awakening as we walked straight into our first sand storm of the week…read more
Enduring the pain for a cause
Six out of the eight tent mates were running (walking!) for Walking With the Wounded (WWTW). It’s not mandatory to run for a cause, but a lot do. It adds an extra dimension to think about when at a low moment, and is a slightly easier fund raising sell than a 5k in Richmond Park. More practically it can provide the basis for a group to make up a tent. Whichever charity you support, it will likely be able to help with some of the admin and introductions to other runners. We had a couple of non WWTW in the tent who didn’t know everyone else in advance, but within five minutes of meeting each other, everyone felt like they’d known each other for years. It’s one of those events that bonds people pretty quickly.
The MDS has its own charity that it supports, Solidarité Marathon Des Sables. You’ll learn all about this when you realise that despite finishing the race, being awarded your medal and thinking that the pain has stopped, it hasn’t. You still have a 10k charity day to complete before heading to the hotel and pool and beer time. Read more.