Runners battle the elements in 'toughest race on earth'
By Dan Morrison

Marathon des Sables runners must be totally self-sufficient

Maps show it on the northwestern coast of Africa, but maps can be deceiving. Morocco is actually surrounded by three forbidding oceans: the Mediterranean to the north, the Atlantic to the west, and the ocean of sand to the south and east.

This third ocean--3.5 million square miles of sand--is the Sahara, the world's largest desert, stretching for some 3,000 miles east to west and 1,200 miles north to south.

In the Sahara sand, dunes reach a height of 650 feet. Daytime temperatures of 135 degrees Fahrenheit. have been recorded--in the shade. Raging, blinding sand storms appear suddenly and make the simple act of breathing nearly impossible.

Sounds like a hellish place, or at least a hellish place to run a marathon. And yet some 500 people submitted applications this year to do just that. Of those, 352 were selected as official competitors in the 1997 Marathon des Sables, and each competitor paid a $2,400 entry fee for the opportunity to discover their personal physical and mental limits.

The Marathon des Sables--Marathon of the Sands--is called the "toughest footrace on Earth." It's always a good idea to be leery of such hyperbolic labels, but in this case the appellation seems justified.

Conceived in 1985 by Frenchman Patrick Bauer after his solo 12-day, 217-mile trek through the desert carrying 18 liters of water in a 70-pound pack, the 1997 Marathon des Sables will be the 12th running of the event. The race course, kept secret from the competitors until the day before the race, covers a distance of 150 miles in the general area just south of the fortress city of Ouarzazate.

Unlike many other multi-day races, the Marathon des Sables requires competitors to be totally self-sufficient, carrying food, sleeping bag, snake-bite kit, medical supplies, compass, and other gear on their backs. The race course is laid out in six sections, and all competitors are required to stop and spend the night after each section of the race.

The only help the runners get along the route, which will take many of them seven days to navigate, is a resupply of water at the end of each section. The average competitor consumes over 9 liters of water daily.

"The race is run at each individual's chosen pace," Bauer says, and indeed the finishing times cover a wide range. The fastest finish on record is 18 hours, 29 minutes, 10 seconds; the slowest time 73 hours and 39 minutes. During the premier running of the event in 1986, competitor Yves Pol finished the entire course walking backwards. Seventy-three-year-old Willy Rios ran the race in 1990, and a Swiss woman once completed the entire race on crutches.

This event is different from the long litany of marathons and ultramarathons listed on the resumes of nearly all the competitors.

"Each year people make the mistake of planning their time according to how long it normally takes them to run a half-marathon, marathon, or 50-miler, and then by adding a bit of time due to the backpack and weather," notes Mary Gadams, who will be running the Marathon des Sables for the fifth time.

"You will be amazed at the fact that there is absolutely no correlation between the times. To run across the Sahara with a backpack day after day will take its toll."

Robert Nagle has been competing in races for 26 of his 38 years, and finished first in the grueling seven-day 1996 Eco-Challenge adventure race in British Columbia, as well as first in three-day 1996 Southern Traverse adventure race in New Zealand. He will be competing in the Marathon des Sables for the first time this year.

"I've been doing a little more running than normal," Nagle says. "Getting ready for the heat is a bit of a challenge."

The heat, of course, can't be taken lightly. In 1988 one competitor suffered a fatal heart attack.

Gadams warns that the risks of participating in this event are "dehydration, heat stroke, and getting lost." Getting lost in the Sahara is not quite the same as getting off-course in the Boston Marathon. In 1994, Italian competitor Mauro Prosperi disappeared during the race and was eventually discovered 10 days later, 186 miles away.

Unlike many of the current popular team adventure races, the Marathon des Sables tests individual character.

"Solo multi-day races are pretty tough compared to team ones," Nagle explains. "With a really good team, you can rely on your teammates to both look out for you and to double-check decisions."

This race is different, according to Gadams. "Once the starting gun goes off in the Marathon des Sables, your only belongings are on your back," she says. "It takes one back to the absolute basics in life."

So what drives people to such mad pursuits? For three-time champion Andre Derksen of Russia perhaps it is the 30,000 French franc winner's purse (about $5,500 U.S.). For 60-year-old Brahim El Jaoual of Morocco it has become tradition: He is the only man to run in all the Marathon des Sables races, and he will be back at the starting line again this year. For 63-year-old American runner Cedric O. Grant it is the fulfillment of a vow made during a near-death experience. Seriously injured in an airplane crash, he swore if he survived he would sell everything he owned and pursue adventure. He has been true to his word.

For others the motivation is simpler. For 36-year-old public defender Blaise Supler, running marathons "helps relieve the stress of the courtroom."

Nagle echoes that sentiment. "I do these races to enjoy myself," he says, "and once I get to the start line, that will be my primary goal."

Returning competitors like Mary Gadams cite the camaraderie of the event. "With over 20 nationalities present," she says, "the Marathon des Sables is truly an international sporting event."

And for some first-timers like 39-year-old Peter Miles, who has never run in a competitive race in his life, it is more esoteric.

"The competition is with myself, and even then I'm not sure that 'competition' is the right word. I figure this kind of daily survival challenge, together with the isolation of the desert, is good for clearing your mind out of all its regular trivial preoccupations and worries--money, work, all that stuff. Forced to deal with far more basic things, it's easier to regain contact with a more profound self."

Miles is perhaps searching for what Bauer discovered alone in the desert more than a decade ago. Lying exhausted on the desert floor on the first night of his epic trek, the sight of a shooting star transformed him into a dream world.

"Such a physical and psychological experience," Bauer says, "is unique, and remains with you for the rest of your life."

In the coming days 352 individuals will pursue that dream world. And if it turns into a hot, sandy, sweaty nightmare for some of them, the lessons of pain are just as rewarding in the long run.

Dan Morrison is a freelance writer-photographer based in Austin, Texas.