Well, that was tougher than I expected!!!!
Sounds a bit odd having embarked on and completed one of the toughest Marathon Des Sables in its history. I was obviously expecting it to be tough. To think otherwise would have been totally naive but with a 30% drop out rate, 2023 was closer to a survival exercise than a multi day trail run. I have discovered totally new levels of heat and exhaustion.
At the end of day one all of us got back to the tent, one by one, and each proclaimed “Bloody hell, that was tough! I hope tomorrow is a bit easier”. But it wasn’t and it only got tougher each day thereafter. There was quite a bit of expectation resetting going on in the tent that evening.
The “Why”
I never thought I wasn’t going to finish but there were a good few moments where I thought, “What the hell am I doing here?”. They say it’s important to have a “why”. I sort of tuned into that before the event but I would now agree it is so important to have a big “why” to snap you out of the dark moments. It doesn’t mater what it is and it will be very personal to you but know what it is and be prepared to call on it. Exhaustion, which you will experience, and emotion, which you will experience, are a pretty potent combination. Be prepared!! Do not let the mind win because it will almost certainly tell you to stop at some point.
I had a big “why’ and that was running in honour of a great mate who tragically took his own life in 2019. We had signed up to do the 2020 MDS together. Not finishing for him was not an option for me.
Expectations
Unless you are an elite and gunning for a place my suggestion would be to focus on getting to the start fit, healthy and injury free. Of course you need to be fit and physically strong but I was no way near my peak fitness. Maybe that’s because of the 4 year up and down of Covid cancellations and other delays leading to a bit of apathy but, none the less, I felt good on the start line and crucially, injury free. Better to arrive not peak fit but injury free! You will hear that advice a lot and I second it. If you have an injury this event with mess with it and it will mess with your head too when it gets tough, and it does.
You will find out very quickly what pace you can cope with depending on the terrain and weather conditions when you are out there. Listen to your body and do not try to chase a pace that you have settled on back home as a good target, based on a run around a park on a hot summers day. Also, forget trying to estimate time out each day depending on your marathon time. It is pointless. For one you won’t know the route until you are being bussed to the first camp, and even then the map doesn’t mean anything at that stage, and secondly the terrain is so varied. Some of it you can trot but good luck trying to run in sand dunes in 50 degrees, or up the side of black Jebel with the heat bouncing back at you off the ground. Having said that, it is about finding a balance of getting it done as efficiently as possible. Do not go out too fast. You will blow up. Similarly, you don’t want to be too slow either as it just means you are in the heat for longer, in your shoes for longer, less recovery time, etc, and the nature of this event is that the effects of these things only accumulate through the week. I actually admire the walkers the most. They are the toughest people out there in my book. The elites are out and done pretty efficiently and have the rest of the day to relax and recover. Then there are the mid-packers like me. I was usually out for 6-7 hours (other than the long day which was 24) and finished in the top third. I was in and under the tent by early mid afternoon. The walkers however are out all day. Respect!!!!
I soon realised that the midday heat absolutely sapped my energy in a way I just hadn’t experienced before. I was pretty happy trotting along at a reasonable pace with my pack when it was cooler in the mornings but as the heat of the day built my speed would just drop off a cliff so I settled into a pattern of trotting to the first checkpoint as efficiently as I could. Pretty much straight through CP1 with a water replen and then usually a good part of the way to CP2 by the time the heat had really started to kick in. I usually then just walked the final section through CP2 and on to the finish for the day. You obviously have all the terrain to deal with too so when I say trot to CP1, what that means is Ultra Mode! Walking the hills, technical stuff and dunes and then trotting the flats and downs.
Expect the unexpected
You won’t know the course or what the weather is doing until you are there. Some years are hot, some are “normal” and some are cool. 2023 was a scorcher but there is nothing you can do about that. I always reminded myself to focus on the things I could control when my head dropped. The weather is not one of them. How you manage yourself is. Pace, kit, pack, gaiters, water and food intake, salt discipline, using the checkpoints wisely, etc are all controllable if you stay disciplined. Exhaustion and discipline are not good mates so know your plan and keep disciplined. I often saw people asking the marshals what the temperature was. Totally pointless!! And you could see them physically deflate when the marshals told them. They just let a non-controllable mess with their head. You didn’t need to ask anyone to know it was fucking HOT!!! You will also see people who have let themselves get into a shit state with kit discipline totally out the window, pack hanging off, kit spilling out clanking and swinging about, gaiters not on properly etc. None of that is going to make your life easier.
Be prepared to see some things that are definitely not in the glitzy promo vids or Insta pics!! I have seen lots of people walking along sobbing to themselves, weaving about and looking very swivelly eyed. One poor chap running in front of me for a while thought he could trust a fart. MISTAKE!! I have seen someone vomit so hard they simultaneously pissed and shat themselves. You will see people lying behind marshal vehicles plugged into IV’s hanging from the roof rack. I have seen people choppered off mountain sides with medics swarming all over them. I have seen people just collapse where they were standing at checkpoints. I’m not so bothered by these things but you can see that some people get a bit freaked out by it. They start to question themselves when they see other people in trouble. Again, don’t let the mind win that battle and tell you to stop because someone else is struggling. When I say, don’t stop I don’t mean just walk on past someone who is clearly needs help. A huge part of the MDS is the camaraderie so obviously do the right thing if you see someone in real trouble.
Having said all of this, the event is incredibly well supported with a ratio of nearly 1 support staff to every 2 runners. The CPs are manned with medics, marshals and doc trotter tents and the route is well covered by marshals in 4x4s. There is also a media chopper which overflies the course quite a bit and another medevac chopper is on standby if anyone pushes the SOS button on their GPS tracker.
You will spend a lot of time on your own so be prepared for that too but you will also meet some great people on the course and invariably walk or trot with them for a while and chat shit. If you stay broadly in the same place in the field each day the chances are you will come across them again during the week, which is a real spirit lifter. I met some great characters.
On camaraderie, you will make some friends for life. The experience of a breakdown of oneself in the company of others going through the same thing is incredibly bonding. Our tent was totally awesome. Of 150 or so tents we were one of 4 that finished whole. A total cross section of characters, professions and abilities but the tent life was almost certainly the highlight for me. We had such a laugh in the face of adversity. We shared jokes, tears sometimes, and helped each other out when and where we could. Tent 77 will remain firmly stamped in my memory forever.
Some of us knew each other from before the event and were already good friends and a couple of others were friends of friends who had maybe met at Pilgrims or other events but if you can build a WhatsApp tent group before you go I would highly recommend it. The MDS journey starts a long long time before you hit the desert and having a group of like minded lunatics to share stuff with is invaluable and builds a great bond long before you find yourself together in the tent in the desert.
Tent life
The tent looks big but once you are all in there with your kit, there isn’t a lot of room so be mindful of other peoples space and don’t spray your kit all over the place. As our tent filled up with finishers each day you could see us all gradually “getting linear” and lining up in our slots like sardines. We maintained the same line up for the week. It worked well and we all got on famously, respecting each others space. Some tents were so depleted and down to maybe one or two people toward the end that they could spread out and go “non linear” but I wouldn’t have changed our situation for anything to finish whole as we did.
Food and Kit
Where to start?
Firstly go with what you know and have properly properly tested. The old adage of “Never try anything new on race day” will never be truer than here. It’s simply not possible to simulate the environment and the attritional multiday nature of this event in training so do yourself a favour and don’t turn up with new kit or food you haven’t tested fully. Chances are it will not end well.
Food
I was pretty happy with my food. I made a detailed food plan back in 2020 (pre Covid cancellations) with assistance from a sports nutritionist, which was well worth it. He really got me to focus on my carb intake as well as calories and my food plan phased out the delivery of carbs on the go and then focused on a balance of proteins, fats and carbs in the evenings to replenish the stores. I made some minor tweaks when I packed everything up in the week before traveling to Morocco three years later but the plan and basics stayed largely the same.
Daily diet consisted of 1000Cal Porridge to start. It’s a lot of porridge and I had to choke the last quarter down but that is lovely slow release carbs which I tried to have finished at least 45 mins before the start to let it settle. Bear in mind you will be stood on the start line waiting for the French to turn up and then you have to listen to a fair amount of waffle from Patrick Bauer for at least another 20 minutes before you set off and the race starts when he’s finished, not at the published time. During breakfast I would have a 750ml water bottle with a Beroca tab.
I hit the start line each day with one PH 1500 salt tab in each 750ml bottle, which would see me to CP1 together with my belly full of porridge. At CP1, I would quench my thirst with a quarter of a bottle straight through the gate, replenish my chest bottles, left one with SIS GO Carb powder and the right one straight water. I would then cram some solids in. Nakd bars worked for me. Nice consistency, very digestible and great power to weight. I would then drink as much of the remainder of my water as I sensibly could and then tipped the balance over the back of my neck and wrists and then pushed on.
After the checkpoint I would drink my plain water first and then hit the GO Powder to try and phase out the carb delivery and I followed that pattern for the rest of the course. I know that I personally can’t eat much while I’m on the move. In spite of drinking little and often my mouth was like a squirrels nut sack and trying to eat solids would have been problematic for me so the liquid carbs on the go and eating solids at CPs worked well for me. Also, having the discipline at the CPs meant I knew I was loading carbs evenly. I carried two PH carb blocks for each day as emergency energy reserve, just in case. I didn’t use them on the first two days but pushed them into the next days rations and from day 3 onwards I was eating whatever I could get my hands on as the attrition and overall calorie deficit started to build and started to take its toll on energy levels.
As soon I finished each day I would have 100 grams of SIS REGO powder in a 1.5ltr bottle of water which I would drink over an hour or so.
Evening meal was an 850 Cal Expedition Foods meal of freeze dried Chicken, Rice and Veg. Loved it and ate it all. I tried a few Expedition meals before settling on my food plan and “CRV” was the one I liked the most and I could eat it cold too. I took a metal cup and stove fuel which I shared with another tent mate so we could have a spirit lifting warm brew in the evenings and could warm water to rehydrate our evening meals. There is also something primeval about sitting around a flame, however small. It was worth the extra weight. You don’t need a stove. We just arranged three rocks to rest the cup on and burnt a couple of Esbit blocks in the middle of the stones. You will always find stones and extra twigs.
On the whole my food plan worked. I started out on day one with a total of 20,600 Calories, which weighed in at 4.6KG and I ate the lot, apart form one meal I couldn’t eat on the rest day. Remember that your food for the first two days and nights does not count towards your pack weight at weigh in so you can go all out on that. Most of us stashed up at Pret in Gatwick and I ate that for the first night which was nice and fresh by comparison to freeze dried food. As nice as the freeze dried food can be you will be sick of it by the end.
Having said that, you are given the option of the camp food on the first two nights of arrival and admin day (before the self sufficiency starts), which was actually really good. Breakfast was a bit crap. A cold boiled egg, stale croissant and minging coffee but I crammed it in anyway. I was in two minds whether to eat the camp food to reduce the risk of a stomach disaster before even starting but having seen the set up I was all in on the second day and there was a cheeky beer on offer too!!
There was only one day on the go that I got it a bit wrong and that was luckily right at the end after the official finish line. I was so parched at the finish that I downed a full bottle of water immediately after the finish line. I then took the bottle of Coke you get after medals and I downed that too. I then had another 1.5ltrs of REGO as soon as I got back to the tent. It was a mistake. Way too much too soon. My stomach went into spasm and I spewed the whole lot up. After three Monty Pythonesc projectile spews the whole three litres of water, REGO powder and coke came straight back out. That was just poor discipline and it set me up badly. I struggled to get my evening meal in as my stomach had contracted from spewing up all the water. I had also lost all of my REGO, which was mostly all over my shoes, rather than in my stomach doing the good work it should have been doing. Lesson learnt. Do not guzzle your water. Little and often is the key. I knew that but exhaustion and a lack of discipline had won and I paid for it. I was actually really annoyed with myself. As a result of the error I was so weak the next day, which thankfully was only the final 10k charity stage over the dunes to the coaches in Merzouga. If I had made this mistake earlier in the week I think I would have really struggled on a longer day.
I used the MDS issued salt tabs. Two per bottle and that seemed enough for me even with the extreme heat this year. I also had a bottle beside me at night with a PH 1500 tab.
Kit
You will almost certainly take too much and will spend the rest of the week jettisoning stuff in a desperate attempt to shed pack weight. Here was my kit selection:
I wore a black XBIONIC Twyce shirt. I have used them a fair bit and love them. I would use it again if I have a knock to the head and decide to do the MDS again. No rubbing or chafing and judging by the encrusted mounds of salt stains on the shirt at the end of the week the much hyped sweat channelling and evaporation panels in the shirt clearly work. It never felt hot or sticky or uncomfortable. I would use the same again.
Price: £115.99
Weight: 140g
I wore ON Hybrid shorts with a separate (detachable) inner and out. The inner was tightish lycra but not compression. Go snug. You do not want your tackle clanking around for 250K. The outer shorts where loose. Very happy with them and had no issues with chafing at all. I did also spoon a liberal amount of Gurney Goo on the undercarriage each morning and that seemed to do the trick. By day four you will see a lot of people walking like John Wayne, clearly in significant discomfort. Look after the undercarriage. You do not want to have to DNF because of ball sack rash!!! Minced feet, yes, heat exhaustion yes. Ball sack rash? There is nothing heroic about that.
I only took my shorts off once in the whole week and that was on the rest day to wash out the swamp of dried sweat and Gurney Goo that had formed in the crotch over the previous 200+K in 50 degrees. Putting clean (ish) salt free shorts on for the last full day was a joy.
Price: £90
Weight: 192g
I went with my trusted Salomon Speedcross 4s. These are an aggressive non vented trail shoe. I went around the houses with shoes and I had the benefit of 4 years of Covid delays and cancelations to try a lot of shoes but I ended up back right where I started in my trusted Salomon Speedcross which I had chosen for 2020 (which didn’t happen). I loved them and had no feet issues other than a couple of very minor toe blisters which I just taped over without lancing them just to stop them getting any worse and two heel blisters which I got on the long day.
Controversially I also completed most of the route without gaiters. The Speecross 4s are non vented so the only place sand stood a chance of getting in was around my ankle but even then it didn’t seem to, even in the very soft stuff. I don’t know why I was so lucky with my feet but I am wondering if the gaiters don’t breath very well and therefore your feet get hot and sweaty in them. The only time I wore my gaiters was on the long day as we set off directly into a dune field and I got my heel blisters later that day. When I took my shoes off to sort them out my feet were wet for the first time since the start. I didn’t use my gaiters again after that and had no more issues.
After I had the Velcro sewn on I broke them in for about 150 miles so they were well and truly broken in before setting foot in the desert and I would strongly encourage that you make sure you break your shoes in very well after the velcro is sewn on as it can alter the shape or the way the shoe bends slightly.
I went with half a size up and had no issues. I haven’t really experienced feet swelling before on previous ultras and luckily I didn’t get it in the desert either. Get your feet up as soon as you get into the tent though.
Price: £100.05
Weight: 300g
I went with my trusted 1000 Mile socks. Quite thick and I did have reservations about whether my feet would get too hot but to be honest I never felt uncomfortable in them. They have been my go-to Ultra sock for a while so didn’t want to be changing things around either.
I didn’t use calf guards. I have never got on with them.
Price: £8.95
Weight: 150g
I choose the “My Race Kit” peak cap with detachable flappy neck thingy. I didn’t use the flappy neck thingy. If the sun was behind me I turned the cap around so the peak covered the back of my neck. Similarly, at risk of looking like a 9 year old skate boarder, if the sun was on my side I would turn the peak 90’ to shade the side of my face. Worked well for me but I have an aversion to loose kit and things flapping about. Most people used the flappy thingy.
Price: £24.99
Weight: 64g
I took the Sea to Summit Spark. It was so hot at night I slept on top of the bag in my shorts. I would invariably wake about 3am a bit chilly and crawl in. Great bag, super lightweight and packs down nicely.
Price: £192.76
Weight: 225g
Full length Forclaz blow up job from Decathlon. Bit of an extravagance at over 500g but very confortable. Worked brilliantly although there is a risk of punctures with the bastard thorns everywhere. Mine survived but a tent mate next to me got a puncture on day 4. I ditched mine for the last two days and slept directly on the Berber mat in the tent, which was surprisingly comfortable or maybe I was just totally rinsed by then I didn’t notice the rocks sticking into my back.
Price: £49.99
Weight: 616g
I used the older standard issue MDS WAA pack and front pouch (no longer available so new version shown). Loved it. No issues, no chafing, very user friendly and very adjustable and the access flap opens right out so you don’t need to unpack your whole pack to get something from the bottom. Would use the same again. The front pouch is also big enough to put your full days race provisions in plus anything else you might need on the go which means I never needed to take my pack off when on the course.
Price: £135 (2022 price converted from Euros)
Weight: 640g
Take them. 100%. I must have been feeling flush the day I bought mine as I went full carbon fibre so they weighed as much as crisp packet so taking them was not a disadvantage really. I took them as a “just in case I did an injury” so didn’t use them for the first two days but then realised that when it was down to walking, people with poles were just gliding past me, especially up the hills and in the dunes. I deployed the poles and used them for the rest of the week and just carried them in one hand when I was trotting or scrambling up rocks.
Price: £128
Weight: 112g
Mandatory Kit
Go light and small. The most useless item in the mandatory kit list is the Compass. The route is very obvious and your chance of getting lost is virtually nil.
Med kit & Blisters
I am lucky and tend not to suffer with blisters but this being the MDS and the infamous blister-maker that it is I expected to get some. I opted to take a small med kit to treat my own blisters and only seek help from Doc Trotters if I really needed it. Most useful stuff I took was Hypafix tape. First sign of a blister, I covered it with Hypafix and put Gurney Goo on top of the tape and actually had blisters disappear after a couple of days. I always took the dressing off overnight to let my feet air. It’s one advantage of Hypafix over other tapes. It won’t pull the head off the blister as long as you don’t rip it off like a plaster! I was so lucky with my feet but you will see some people in a shocking mess who have their whole foot taped up. Doc Trotters are incredible. However, if you need to see them it will be in the afternoon or evening after you get in and the problem with that is they deal with your blisters and tape your feet there so they don’t get a chance to air over night. You can opt to go to the DIY clinic, which I did one evening and they give you the kit to do your own which you can take away with you and tape up the next morning but their tape is closer to zinc oxide which you need to use with a gauze pad over the blister. Their set up is incredible. One advantage of going to them is you get to wash your feet in disinfectant and warm water, which is a real treat.
A few final thoughts (at last)
Learn to walk fast with Poles. I thought I was as good walker. Wrong!!! The most unlikely looking people were just strolling past me when I thought I was going strong. Learn to walk fast. You WILL walk a lot more than you think.
It was so hot in 2023 we all went topless (sports bra for Jules!) as soon as we got in and stayed that way until the morning. None of us wore tops in the evenings so on day three, confident the weather wasn’t changing, I tossed the clean shirt and down jacket I was carrying for the evenings to save weight before we set off for the day. My down jacket was a manky old thing anyway that I had taken with no plan to bring home.
You won’t know what the weather will be like until you arrive. Forget looking at the forecast from home, totally pointless, but you can take extra kit in your holdall and decide over the first couple of days what you will or won’t take in terms of extra clothing before you hand it in at weigh in. Whilst it was roasting for us in 2023 I have seen pictures of previous years with people fully zipped up in down jackets in the evenings. All I would say is go as light as you possibly can. By the end of day one you will know exactly what I’m talking about.
Don’t try anything new on race day !!! Go with what you know and make sure you have tested everything. The desert does funny things to you so don’t go with things you might start to question because you haven’t tested them properly. You need to be able to tell yourself it’s just your head playing with you and tick it off and push on.
Be disciplined with your plan. Decide what you are going to do and take and methodically tick them off as “sorted”. Don’t be second guessing food plans and kit choices a week before you go. That is way too late and if you are properly prepared it is just your head already starting to mess you. Don’t let it win.
The messages from loved ones and friends delivered to the tents in the evenings are also is a real highlight so do encourage people to message you while you are out there. They might spark a tear or two but that’s ok because everyone else will be making excuses about “a bit of sand in the eye” or “blocked sinuses” at some point !! Also don’t forget the live stream camera at the finish line. This is your only way of any sort of no audio comms with the outside world and people will be watching out for you so give them a wave and smile, if you can !!
Luxury item for me was my phone and headphones. My treat was a caffeine tab in and rave tunes on at the final CP each day to see me into the finish. Some days I was so rinsed it didn’t work but when it did it was a real treat and something I looked forward to. I also got some awesome pics of tent mates and on-the-go shots which are memories you will want to be able to look back on.
Don’t worry what the temperature is. It is what it is and you can’t control it. You may be lucky and have a cooler year but the likelihood is that it will be the hottest you have ever experienced and can’t get away from (there is almost no shade out there). Focus on the things you can control. Expect it to be tough, possibly the toughest thing you will never want to do again, stay disciplined with your water and food intake, be sensible with your pace and dig in for a battle with the weather, the terrain, your body and your head and get it done.
Remember to look up and around you. The scenery is huge and breathtakingly beautiful.
It is an incredible event which you will remember for the rest of your life. Enjoy!!
