. Today was really tough; tomorrow we face 38K.Find out the story behind Alison's MdS attempt in her first blog entry.
Stage 2: 38KThe sun usually rises here just before 6am but there was no sunrise this morning. We woke to a sandstorm, just what we didn't need to kick off a 38K stage. I'm sharing a tent with Jay Batchen, who has done the race eight or so times: he said he had never seen such win...
Stage 3: 38KI should say a little about our routine in the camp: at 6am the tent is taken down while the eight of us sharing it pull sleeping bags high and tight over our heads to pretend it isn't happening. Grudgingly accepting reality we rise for breakfast: cold porridge with m...
At just 17.5K, the final stage of the 26th Marathon des Sables was the shortest by far but still proved to be challenging. It was another hot day - although once the temperature rises above 40C it's hard to differentiate between simply hot and blisteringly boiling. In a departure...
Stage 4: 82KI made it! Everyone says that if you can get through the long stage you'll finish the race. I'm happy to report that at around 1.30 today (Thursday) I hobbled across the finish line after 82K, not quite last but with not too many people behind me. With blisters upon b...
Stage 5: 42KToday was the marathon stage of the race. I managed to run the first half - I'd become bored with walking and wanted to test myself, but at the second checkpoint, at the 24K-mark, and with the temperature hovering around 50C, I took a break and never really got going ...
Hello! Welcome to my Cyprus International 4-day Challenge blog. The Challenge is a stage race held in the Akamas peninsula of Cyprus, taking in four very different races - and I'll be blogging throughout.My runningI've been running for about four
from the Marathon des Sables.The Race The Marathon des Sables (MdS or Marathon of the Sands) is a seven-day six-stage race held annually across a section of the Sahara desert in southern Morocco. 2011 sees the 26th running of the event that is often
Waking up when it was still dark on Sunday morning, with screaming leg muscles and buses to the start leaving at 6.45am sharp, the prospect of taking on another race seemed impossibly cruel. But one thing spurred me on: the smug knowledge that by the time the UK was waking up I'd...
After a couple of days of lying around on a sunlouger by the pool (very pleasant) and dwelling on the races ahead (not so pleasant) the wheels finally began to grind into motion. Yesterday was a busy day - by the standards of the life of luxury I've rapidly become accustomed to -...
