MY FIRST ULTRAMARATHON… MARATHON DES SABLES

 

Yes, you read that right. My first ever ultramarathon was the Marathon des Sables in 2000. That was 23 years ago!!! MDS is known as one of the toughest, if not the toughest, ultramarathons in the world. So how did I happen to have the audacity to make that my first ultra?

 

 

In 1999 I quit my job as a National Television News Reporter. I had been in the business for a number of years and felt the need for a change. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do next. I remember I had an interest in going to Quebec and doing French immersion for a couple of months. I have always wanted to become fluent in French. But that doesn’t pay the bills. I also contemplated becoming a flight attendant. I love flying and I love to travel.

My partner at the time drew my interest to a newspaper article in the Edmonton Journal. It was about two local guys that had competed in the Marathon des Sables. I was immediately drawn to the race. I had always wanted to go to Africa, and I had a calling and a longing to experience the desert. This may have stemmed from the fact that I lived in Sardinia as a child. I loved playing in the sand. I would roll down the dunes and run across the beach into the warm waters of the Mediterranean.

I managed to get in touch with one of the runners, Zac Addorisio. I plied him with questions about the race, and by the end of the call I knew I was going to register for the event in 2000. There were a few calls back and forth about the race. Remember, I had never run an ultra before, let alone a desert ultra that required runners to be self-sufficient. Zac was very gracious in sharing his experience and knowledge with me.

 

 

Back in the day, he was my only source of information. Facebook wasn’t invented until 2004. So there were no forums to visit, no groups, no blogs to read. I was on a very steep learning curve! I had never run a race over marathon distance. I had never travelled overseas by myself before. I had never camped in a tent, and never hiked or worn a backpack before! I was 38 years old and about to get my ass handed to me on a plate.

So I trained for about a year. But I really didn’t have an ultrarunning program. I just kind of winged it based on my marathon training, just more mileage. At that time I had run 5 marathons. Sometimes the winter weather was so bad I would go into the gym and put in hours of running on a treadmill. Not fun at all. I slowly gathered my gear, food and emergency supplies.

Now here comes the funny part. I was so naive! For example, I knew that I would need gaiters for the sand. So I go into my local gear store and buy snow gaiters! Heavy polyester gaiters with zippers and snaps! They tied under my shoes with string.

The sleeping bag. I needed one. I am exaggerating, but I think my bag ended up being about 5 pounds (It felt that heavy) It could have kept me warm in -20C! And I strapped it on to my pack with bungee cords! Anyone that knows anything about these self-sufficiency races knows that you need to cut every gram you can in weight. It’s all about grams, grams, grams.

And speaking of weight. I probably packed a few pounds of Gatorade powder. I used that for my electrolytes. And speaking of unnecessary weight, I brought along my Sony Walkman! With two cassette tapes! The sand got into everything. I also brought a disposable camera to get some photos.

 

 

So I travelled over to Marrakesh and hung out at a hotel for a few days to get over jet lag and get used to the heat. I absolutely fell in love the city. It was unlike anything I had every experienced before. I would head into the souq every day and marvel at the extensive range of beautiful and exotic goods you could buy. I loved the spices, the jewellry, the pottery, the lanterns. And the rugs are gorgeous!

I was careful about what I ate there, and I knew I could only drink bottled water. But somehow I got sick anyway. The night before I was to head to Quarzazate, the jumping off point to head into the desert, I got violently ill. I spent the entire night lying on the bathroom floor, wrapped around the toilet. I had explosive diarrhea and was violently vomiting.

 

 

I can’t remember exactly what happened, but there was some sort of travel mix up on the part of the U.S contingent. The MDS organizers and the runners from all the other countries had left for the desert. We had missed the travel deadline, and had to head out into the desert in army trucks. Each truck had a number of runners sitting on benches on either side of the vehicle. It was late at night and we rumbled out into the Sahara. I was in terrible agony with the cramping from my dysentery. And what was worse is that we had to communicate with the driver every so often to stop the vehicle so I could get out and take a crap. So this meant the whole convoy had to stop while I relieved myself off to the side. When we made it into camp everyone was asleep. I was told to just crawl into a tent and find a place to sleep. Remember that was 23 years ago! The race was only in its 15^th season.

 

 

I was up off and on for the rest of the night going for craps. In the morning, the other athletes in the tent were amazed that I was still thinking about starting the race. I was happy to discover that there were two Canadians in my tent…Vince Elenko and Patrick Arsenault. Both very nice guys who weren’t entirely sure that I should be running in my condition. But I was not going to throw away a whole year of training to not start. And I had also come a long way to be part of this event. I just could not not start.

 

 

We lined up at the start and Race Director Patrick Bauer gave us course instructions for stage one. And to this day ACDC “Highway to Hell” plays as runners count down to the start in different languages. It was absolutely fantastic to experience it! You could feel the excitement and nervousness on the part of all the athletes. And then we were off!

Stage one was 28K. I made it through the day. Stage two was 34K. I made it through the day. Stage three was Dune Day. I was in heaven. It was absolutely the most fantastic experience ever for me. I fell in love with the dunes and felt as one with the desert. I can’t even put it into words. I just was one of those born to be a “desert lover”. 37K of sand dunes. It was exhausting.

 

 

Stage four scared me. It was going to be the longest I had ever run in a race, 76K. By now I was completely spent. My body was so tired and so depleted. I had lost all of my nutrients and was not able to adequately replace them. I made it until the early evening.

I pulled out. I went to the Doc Trotters tent and they had me lie down. I just had nothing left to give. I lay there with an IV in my arm ( The Doctors had trouble finding a vein. They worked back and forth on both arms before they could get a needle in for the IV. Dehydration causes the body to constrict its blood vessels.) I was extremely disappointed of course. But I knew within a short time of lying there that I would be back. I was going to train for another year and learn from my mistakes. I wasn’t going to give in to feeling sorry for myself. This race was not going to defeat me.

 

 

The two Canadian guys both finished and I was so happy for them! We all hooked up at the hotel afterward and we all shared our stories. I had met so many runners from all over the world. We were all brought together by this race. From the sacrifices made in training, to the difficulty in competing in this event…we had common ground. The Marathon des Sables was the most fantastic experience ever for me. I loved Morocco. I loved the people. I loved this ultramarathon. To this day it remains my favorite race! And so for that reason I will be going back for my 10^th race in 2025! I will be 63! Of course if anyone would like to sponsor me I can be there in 2024! Ha!Ha!

 

 

I did go back to MDS the following year to finish the race.  You are not going to believe what happened that year! But that story will have to wait for another blog.