MdS lessons learnt

Like most people preparing for the Marathon Des Sables (MdS) I’d spoken with a lot of people and read a lot of advice before hand; some of it good some of it terrible.
So what lessons did I learn from the 26th Marathon Des Sables? What worked, what didn’t and what can you do to improve your race experience? Let’s start with the training, picture the ground of the Sahara and what comes to mind? For many it’s firm sand, for others sand dunes, but how many of you have a picture of rocks, loose sand, pebble plains, rubble, slate and sandstone mixed into your ground? The reality is that is the type of terrain that you will spend most of your time running through, during the 26th MdS in places there was even what appeared to be lumps of concrete thrown into the mix! The truth is that rather than a sand box for the most part it’s more like running across a badly managed building site. Running on flat tarmac is not going to prepare you well for what is ahead of you. So what kind of ground should you be training on? Trails are better than tarmac, and trails over big hills (the bigger and rougher the better) are better still; best of all of course is regular running on dry sand, up, down and across dunes for miles if at all possible. Train on terrain that matches as closely as possible the terrain you will be crossing. If you can’t run on sand dunes regularly then keep to trails, and consider supplementing your training with use of a wobble board to work your ankles and lower leg muscles to help prepare them for uneven ground. If you’re stuck in a city some parks have sand horse tracks around them; make use of them in your training.
One advantage of training on sand is that you will learn how to run efficiently across it. A common mistake that people make when running over the sand is to follow the people who went in front. Many runners from Northern Europe treated the sand as they would mud, but flat loose dry sand doesn’t remain compacted when run upon and subsequent runners wasted a lot of energy trying to do so. One of the best lessons learnt from the MdS is to be a Wolf not a Sheep, find your own ground and plan your own route between markers. I passed loads of people blindly following the person in front who was doing the same, crossing soft boggy sand churned up by the passing of hundreds of feet in 54 degrees of heat, when off to their side by a couple of meters was fresh compacted sand which was far more economical and easy to run on. When it came to climbing dunes the same held true for the shallower dunes (running on untouched ground) but on steeper ones the most economical way was to tuck in behind another runner and place your feet in the footprint left by theirs the second they had vacated it.
Some people who physically trained hard for the MdS then went on to suffer needlessly during the week simply due to poor personal admin. Away from the comforts of home on a race like the MdS your body becomes a machine and like all machines it needs regular maintenance. Keeping clean is essential, yet some people didn’t do the basics. As soon as you’re in to the bivouac get clean, get out of your race clothing and refuel. It sounds obvious but the amount of people who just slumped down and left themselves in a state was apparent by the end of the week by the amount of salt and sand rashes and infections. Make no mistake poor hygiene can finish your race before you do! Added to this was some horrendous sunburn, remember why you came to the desert, if it’s a suntan you want pick one up after the race, but during the race cover up and use sun-block often. When placing your heart under the strain of an Ultra, the risk of cardiac damage from bacterial infection is increased so teeth brushing should never be skipped. Foot care is also essential, I got through the week with only one very small superficial blister on one heal and that was preventable. My laces had become slightly loose and rather than stop at once to fix them I decided to push on to the checkpoint that I could see a few hundred meters ahead, by the time I got there it was too late. Always deal with hotspots and problems immediately. I wore Injini bamboo liners under Hilly Mono socks and they were great. In the evenings I massaged aloevera Vaseline into the soles of my feet and heels to prevent them from drying out and cracking thereby introducing a route for infection; this worked well and felt revitalizing.
Also essential is the religious use of hand sanitizer before food preparation and after going to the loo. I also found the avoidance of shaking hands and eating anyone else’s food and sweets helped to keep diarrhoea at bay. One great innovation on the 26th MdS was the introduction of ‘Poo bags’. These supplanted the old long drops and dramatically reduced the incidence of diarrhoea in the bivouac. The ‘Poo bag’ (yes you place it over a frame and crap into it) is watertight and so has many uses, best of all it can double as a washing machine. Simply place your filthy running kit into the bag along with some detergent (Likeys sell great liquid detergent) and add half a bottle of water (don’t worry you’re given plenty). Tie a knot in the top and pass from one hand to another giving it a squidge. Do this for half an hour ignoring the strange looks of runners passing to and fro in the bivouac, then untie it and wring out your kit, turn the bag inside out and repeat without the detergent and hang up using your safety pins onto the tent. Hey presto, salt and sand free running kit for the next day!
Before you head off to the MdS be sure to visit a Fish and Chip shop and pick up a couple of sachets of Vinegar. The carbohydrate and electrolyte powders you put in your bottles along with the heat make for a perfect breading ground for bacteria and mould, so at the end of the day simply add the vinegar to an empty bottle and sluice it out and then rinse. The vinegar will kill the bacteria and mould keeping you fit to run.
I was amused to find that I was able to compete with faster runners than myself by simply not stopping at checkpoints. At all the checkpoints tents were erected and in all honesty the atmosphere in them was far from positive a lot of the time.
These places are time vampires and if at all possible should be avoided like the plague, get in, get out and get moving. Just ten minutes at each checkpoint on the long day will add an hour to your finishing time.
In all I loved the MdS, a fantastic experience with great people in an amazing setting, I even loved the food but I’ll tell you about that another time.