Check-in Day

The first two nights at the bivouac are quite luxurious as the organization caters for everybody - really good hot food and drinks, served up by the friendly race controllers. Wonderful! All you have to do before the Sunday morning start is organize your pack .. what are you going to take? What are you going to leave behind? Hence began my obsession with packing and re-packing my backpack. I think I drove my Canadian tent mates crazy with this. Some of them had done the MdS before and were much more relaxed about everything. The others, well they didn't seem to care at all. Maybe that's a Canadian thing?
According to the rules we had to present our race packs to the controllers on Saturday and prove we had the minimum number of calories worth of food for the week - 14,000. On top of that we had to be carrying the compulsory kit items that I mentioned before. My pack, no matter how carefully I packed it, was weighing in around 27 lbs. The front-runners on the other hand, were starting the week with packs weighing-in at the bare minimum - 15 lbs. I really don't know how they pull that off. Basically I was carrying too much food and various non-essentials. But even now, knowing what I know, I still don't know how they get everything down to 15 lbs. I did what I thought was my best and trimmed it down to about 21 lbs.
Then it was off to the check-in tent with my ECG papers, hoping that I wouldn't get disqualified for some technicality right off the bat.
I had commissioned a photographer for the MdS - Mark Gillett. With his permission I will be using his excellent work in my blog from this point onward.. as one of the things that didn't make it into my pack was my iPhone/camera.. far too heavy.

Check-in went smoothly.

The race doctors looked at my ECG, asked me a few questions about my health, handed me a rather heavy emergency flare, a packet of salt tablets and my race bib.

There it was, my first ever race bib!

Number 960.

I said goodbye to my luggage and walked out of the check-in tent clutching everything that was to go with me on my back through the desert for the next week.

The Bivouac

After breakfast at the race hotel I quickly repacked my bag and headed for the lobby. People were already boarding the coach - so I followed along. After a while the headcount was complete and we were off... only to stop again just around the corner at another hotel. But now things were starting to look like the MdS. The street was lined with lots of big green army trucks and white safari Land Rovers ... this must have been the race officials HQ. They boarded the bus and began handing out our roadbooks. This was our first glimpse of the course ahead - gasps filled the bus as we learned of the unusually long first stage. I began studying the maps and the unusual symbols on them, but soon gave that up .. my plan was simple enough .. follow everyone else until I see the bivouac .. who needs a map! Finally we were off again, departing Ourzazatte for the desert. There were rumors going around that it might rain, as it was raining in Casablanca and the temps were a bit cool for the time of year. I was worried  - I didn't fancy trudging through mud and sleeping in damp tents.
About four or five hours passed on the coaches... a convoy of them .. stopping every now and again for snacks and a break. The guys were apparently shameless, not even bothering to walk too far away from the coach before they unzipped ... amazing scenery ruined by lines of men with their backs to us all - making their mark on Morocco - must be a European thing?
Eventually we caught up with the army trucks that had left ahead of us and the coaches stopped and began unloading bags. I grabbed mine and climbed aboard the first big green truck. It was difficult getting in... but some runners already up there helped me aboard - only the legendary Mohammed Ahansal and his apprentice Rashid El Morabity themselves! I had picked the winners bus! That was the closest I ever got to the front runners  :)
The truck took off at speed - heading offroad and further into the desert. I think our driver was trying to race one of the other drivers - we were getting thrown around in the back like rag dolls - all of the kit all over the place - clinging on for dear life .. it was a wonder nobody was injured! But we did in fact get there first.... the bivouac.. finally .. there it was ... I could see it with my own eyes... after so many years.
I jumped off the bus and headed over to tent 53. I was first there.

I picked my spot in the far corner of the tent and just sat looking out ... it had been such a long journey getting there... years of training, injuries, failed attempts, but it was all becoming very real now... finally! 
I savored the moment.
For a while it remained peaceful in the bivouac.. only a handful of people in sight... but the other trucks slowly trickled in.
The peace didn't last very long.
The Canadians arrived.

Getting there... a marathon in itself....

I flew from San Francisco, to London.

When I got there I had pre-booked a night in what is now a hotel, but was once my first student hall of residence... Wellington Hall .. just around the corner from Big Ben. I thought it might be fun to revisit the place I lived in as a first year student of Kings College London (1986) ... just for one more night...

So... it turned out to be quite depressing... but revisiting the past is usually like that.

My memories of amazing all-night black-tie balls were obliterated by construction workers - seemingly tearing the guts out of the place .. and I felt surrounded by people that didn't speak English as their first language... most if not all of the staff (and the tourists of course - to be expected) but I can't tell you how odd it felt to sit on the steps of my old student hall, listening to the familiar chimes of Big Ben, yet not able understand anyone around me. Eastern Europe seems to have moved into London. As an ex-pat .. this felt very strange to me. That's just how it was. The UK has clearly moved on since I left in 1995.. big time.

Next day I was in Casablanca... and hopped on to a connecting flight over the Atlas mountains to Ouarzazate... which is where the pre-race hotels were.. and also, for film nerds, was the location of various scenes from the movie 'Gladiator'.
I met some very nice fellow MdS runners on the flight ... suddenly it was all getting very exciting and finally I wasn't traveling alone!

Arrived at Ouarzazate in the small hours of the morning... finally met Jay Batchen ! (the organizer of the US entrants) ... and it was off to bed ... for an early start next day....

Knackered... but I was finally zooming in on the elusive Start Line.....

Abandon !

Not the result I had hoped for, but I had an amazing adventure none the less.
I got about 100km into it before I had to retire ... now I really know why they call it the 'toughest footrace on Earth' ... and I'm certainly not done with it ... not until I finish... next attempt will be April 2014.
I learned a lot.. about the race, the conditions and most of all about myself. I have never pushed my body so far before in my life. 

Details to follow....

Morocco or Bust !

Well I finally squeezed the last of my gear into the rucksack - quite a challenge.. had to dump various non-essential things - I think I can discard more but I will play around with that at the bivouac on Saturday ...

So now it's time to head out... and take my place at the start line ..  the adventure finally begins.. !

If anyone is interested to follow along, the best place to go is the official MdS website:

 http://www.darbaroud.com

Once the race gets going on Sunday, you should be able to get pretty much live updates as the week progresses (for my friends here in CA, Morocco is about 7 or 8 hours ahead, so for example Sunday's start time is around midnight Saturday here .. which means you can all sleep through my ordeal in your comfortable beds and with a bit of luck by the time you wake up in the morning I may be almost finished for the day .. maybe ..  :)   )

There are some details about how to send emails here. If you do fancy sending me a note, please be sure to reference my name and number (960) .. and Tent 53 .. might help too.

I'm also going to carry a SPOT satellite tracker, which you can watch by going here. Note that I will only have the tracker on while i'm running (or crawling or whatever) ..

Ok that's all folks .. i'm off .. I have a little bit of running to do...   adios !

Runner # 960

Some progress....

All the food is bagged... I think I can trim the stage 4 bags down quite a bit, but I will do that at the bivouac - better to have too much than too little... I broke everything down into small packages so that I can re-arrange/discard things on the fly as I learn more out there...

Trickier than I imagined....

Sitting here trying to figure out how to distribute my food rations over the various stages... repackaging everything to save space and weight ... I have stage one 'in the bag' ... a ziploc, weighing just over two lbs ... I'm hoping to limit the other stage bags to the same weight... 3000+ cals in each bag...

ongoing process.... a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon!   :)