Marathon Des Sables: Sam's Bucket List Challenge

It’s 02:00 in the moonlit desert and Sam has been running up and down the sand dunes in Morocco for 60 kilometres on the fourth day of the Marathon des Sables when things get ugly.

- David O'Hara

There are 1,200 other runners in the race, but none are around him. He doesn’t see any glow sticks bouncing on other runners’ packs, and the torches at the Finish appear like a mirage on the horizon. Running down the dune hurts the toe he broke on yesterday’s 39km run on Day 3, and walking up the next dune is a battle of his intestinal fortitude: why am I doing this? How did I get here? Everybody has a dark moment at Marathon des Sables, and this is Sam’s.

Marathon des Sables (“MdS”)

Marathon des Sables is a self-supported 230km race with five stages in the Sahara Desert. Other than an open-sided tent and water rations, if you want it, you carry it. You want a sleeping bag? Carry it in your pack. You want warm food? Carry the food, stove and fuel. You want clean clothes? Probably better to wait until you get home. During the course of five days, you run 31km, 39km, 32km, 86km, and 42km – a total of 230km – over terrain that is mostly deep sand and with high temperatures hovering around 45C, it is quite warm, even by Dubai standards.

How did Sam end up at MdS?

Before MdS, Sam is a thirty-something Brit living in Dubai for six years, enjoying his Friday brunches too much and missing his fav team sports. After watching a few too many YouTube videos on running ultramarathons in the desert, he decided to sign up for the Marathon des Sables - even though he only ran sporadically and no more than 10km. Six months before MdS, Sam started training with Coach Lee and the Desert Trail Runners, where I first met him and I can personally vouch how much he struggled running his first 10km with us.

Training for MdS