Stage 2: The Littlest Hobo

Monday 7th April 2014
Erg Znaigui to Oued Moungarf - 41 km
Allowed Time: 11 hours

It was just after midnight on the morning of Stage 2. Due to the highly abnormal conditions I found myself in (desert, multi-stage marathon, freeze dried food etc.), my body decided to wake me to answer the call of nature. As I returned to the tent and was getting into my sleeping bag, I heard the following: "F*ckin' c*nt, d*ck, b*tch....race director d*ck, f*ckin' c*nt". If it had been a movie, there would have been one large continuous beep. I was too tired to be concerned and so tucked myself back in to my sleeping bag and fell asleep.  

Just after 5.30am, I woke in my sleeping bag with a stone jamming into my hip. I had slipped off my thermarest half-mattress during the night. It had been warm going to bed but cold air infiltrated the tent during the night and I had stuck my buff over my head to stay warm, which was now over my face. I had forgotten about what I heard during the night.

The race against the Berbers was on. They walked past our tent just after 6am each morning, a few of them smiling, on their way to the first tent in the line. We were the 7th tent on that line, so time was always of the essence.

You had to get your food cooked and eaten and had to be ready to go before they pulled down the tent and exposed you to the morning sun. The stove was out and water was heated, some to rehydrate my granola (again) for breakfast and some to make coffee and tea for Patrick and I. I had brought dried skimmed milk along with some teabags - some home comforts I suppose. 

Breakfast in Tent 140 On The Morning Of Stage 2 - Patrick, Phil, Alex (Lying Down), Rich

On top of all of that, sleeping bags needed to be rolled, bags to be pack, 'sac-a-cacas' to be filled, sun cream to be put on and bottles to be filled. It helped to take your mind off what was coming, not only the race I mean, but also Patrick Bauer's briefing.

It was the same breakfast as yesterday - granola. Alas it was too much, the sugary sweetness from the raspberries almost made me vomit. I had a few spoonfuls and ate some nuts. That would have to do. It was all I could manage.

This was not the best preparation for our first meeting with a jebel, which was to come at the latter end of the stage. A jebel is essentially a mountain and in the MDS they tended to be steep, sandy mountain passes, the more difficult the better. I had read about them in other MDS accounts and was glad not have met one on the first stage (the dunes were a more than adequate welcome) but today was the day.

Eventually I was set and ready to go, with a good few minutes to spare. We had just had our huddle with Anj reinforcing our motto for the week. It was then when I heard what can only be described as disappointment and saw competitors in tears being hugged by their tent-mates coming from the group in Tent 141. It was beginning to make sense, the cursing from the early hours of the morning and now what I was seeing in front of me - someone was being removed from the race. In fact it was 2 girls from Tent 141, an American and an English woman. They had missed the cut off time to cross the final set of dunes on Day 1 as they claimed they had been misguided by a race official and got lost. They had even had a meeting with Patrick Bauer that morning, all to no avail. They were out and transport back to Ouarzazate (the town where we are taken after the race for a bit of recovery before flying home) was being arranged. They lost their €200 deposit and would have to pay for their own hotel or arrange their own flight back. Little did anyone know, but these two would end up having an adventure of a lifetime, but more on this in a later post.   



Tent 140 Tent-mate Olympian Sian Brice Before Stage 2

So on to the briefing, which was exactly as the day before, unnecessarily long, especially if you had read the Road Book. Just before I spotted Mohamed Ahansel, an MDS legend, who has won the race three times. I asked him for a quick photo and he said he was delighted to oblige. He wished me luck. I told him I'd see him out there (knowing well I wouldn't).
 

Three Times MDS Winner Mohamed Ahansel

To most people's surprise, it was announced at the briefing that 27 runners had either abandoned the race or been disqualified - this is an unusually high number for the first stage, but then it was an unusually difficult first stage.

This did not come as a surprise to me - the opening stage was included some very tough terrain coupled with very hot temperatures. A man dressed as a cow and a 16 year old began the race the day before (I mean seriously?). I witnessed the carnage that ensued in the dunes and at the checkpoints where athletes suffered from the heat and dehydration. It was the same reason that a medic was double checking competitors in the final set of dunes. This is not meant to be an easy adventure in the Sahara, it is designed to be a difficult, harsh and testing race and on this, Stage 2, there was no sign of Cowman and no sign of the youngster.

As with the first day, Patrick counted down, ACDC set the tone and off we went into the unknown (unless you'd read the Road Book of course).

The first 11.5km to CP1 were relatively straightforward. I decided to run a 4 minute on/1 minute off schedule to see how my legs were and how the IT Band would hold up. With the exception of the dunes around the 5km mark and an oued or two, it went well and I felt good at CP1 knowing I was a quarter of the way into the stage.

As usual I kept with my game plan of not stopping at the checkpoint and kept the head down once I had refilled my water. CP2 was another 14.5km away, which is a long way with temperatures approaching 39 degrees (chilly compared to Stage 1). We ran straight through a village with kids cheering us on. The fact that we were running on a dirt track meant that it was possible to keep a relatively high pace when running and the terrain remained favourable for much of the early part of the section.

9km later we crossed a small oued and then had to deal with a lot of sandy terrain, again difficult to run in. I covered this section with a chap named Gary from Antrim and we talked our way through several sandy valleys into rolling dunes before arriving at CP2, 26km into the stage. I thought things were going well, the back was broken on the stage (in my mind at least) and I had 15km to go. I felt confident. Again the MDS was to throw a spanner in the works - don't expect anything.

Straight through CP2 for me (Gary stopped for a while) and I marched on, feeling good, for a couple of kilometres until I came across a 1km section of oued to cross. It was my favourite - soft sand! I had no other option but to trudge through it. Daniel (of the tricolour hair), running with an Englishman named Danny, had passed me just before the oued encouraging me to run and I thought I would as soon as I crossed the oued.

Soft sand has this way of sapping your energy and Outanouel Oued did just that. I exited the oued and onto a long stony plateau, where I should have been able to cover the ground well. I had nothing left in the tank - despite sticking to my plan in terms of race nutrition (energy bars and energy jellies), the fact that I couldn't finish my breakfast fully was coming back to haunt me.

Feeling sorry for myself I walked another kilometre or so. I had to do something or it was going to be a long, lonely trek in. Out with my antique MP3 player (it ran on a AAA battery as opposed to a rechargeable one as I had no way of charging in the desert) in the hope of giving myself some motivation.

"There's a voice that keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be. Every stop I make, I make a new friend, can't stay for long, just turn around and I'm gone again...maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down, until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on...". It was the theme tune from The Littlest Hobo (see below if you don't remember it) and it was all I needed. My mental state improved immediately and with it my tempo and speed. I was on a mission. It is amazing what will lift your spirit.

"Down this road that never seems to end, where new adventure lies just around the bend. So if you want to join me for a while, just grab your hat, come travel light, that's hobo style...". 

I soon caught a group who had passed me not long before. Avalanche's Frontier Psychiatrist (apt!) and Feeder's Just a Day followed and only served to push me on further and faster as I climbed to a small village at 32.5km, followed by another ascent up to CP3 before the climb of the dreaded  El Abath Jebel (15% gradient).

The jebel was a lot steeper and sandier than I had expected and the final 500m were extremely tough on the legs. With every step you took forward, your foot would slip half a stride backward. It was disheartening to put in huge efforts to climb and seem like you were going nowhere.

The Sandy Approach To the El Abath Jebel Ascent

Eventually I hit the summit after what seemed an age. Standing on the top, enjoying the view, was Daniel and Danny. I was trying to ride the wave of the good mood I was in for as long as I could, so it was down the other side without even lifting my head. 6.5km to go.

I have a habit of getting over something difficult and then taking it easy on myself as a reward and my brain switched into this mode as I began to walk. Daniel and Danny came jogging past about three minutes later and I eventually felt the urge to run again as soon as they were around 500m beyond me. With 5km to go, we entered yet another oued, with yet more soft sand. I caught up with the 2 Daniels at this point and we travelled together through a stony plateau and a narrow gorge until the finish line came into view with around 2km to go. 

Daniel (tricolour) and I pressed on at this point after a quick photo opportunity. We ran/walked in to the finish. This was the first stage where I had experienced the "finish line in the distance" effect (Stage 1 had a short run in), when you see the finish line long before you reach it. There was worse to come later in the week.

 



Daniel And I With 2km To Go. The Finish Is In The Distance Just Over Daniel's Shoulder

 

No bag check this time. Grabbed my water and went to Tent 140 to get my feet up. Again Patrick was first back, followed by Ian. The girls were in after me and the ever reliable Alex and Rich made it 7 out, 7 in, again. I was in in 379th, a good improvement on Stage 1.

To her credit, Anj forced me to make use of the golden hour again and it was Asian Chicken Noodles with Vegetables for dinner. Again I made it into a soup as I added too much water and chucked it onto the roof to heat up. This was followed by a 'selfie' medical check, diagnosis and treatment on the feet and a diphene to prevent any inflammation in or around my IT Band.

Emails were delivered, which again lifted spirits and I made it to the email tent to send off my solitary to email to my wife Yvonne. I returned to the tent to read all about Stage 3 in my Road Book. It is at this point that I noticed Alex and Rich planning their day. They would discuss in detail their plans for the following day, where they would rest, where they would eat and how they were going to pace it. I wish I had been that diligent but all I did was spot the fact that there were a few oueds, some dune sections and another jebel to negotiate. 

Just before I drifted off, both Patrick to my left and Alex to my right started snoring. I was the meat in the snore sandwich. I turned myself around to let my feet take the noise and drifted off to sleep dreaming of my favourite TV dog, The Littlest Hobo. 

Road Book for Stage 2:

Maximum authorised time : 11.00
Km 0 : Take general direction S/SW (course 218°) until km 5.7.
Km 0,9 : Rare small dunes becoming denser.
Km 4,2 : Hill to the right. Flat terrain.
Km 4,7 : Small dunes of Beg’a Oued. Follow markings to avoid crops.
Km 5,7 : Exit oued. Slightly stony plateau. Go S/W (course 233°) until CP1.
Km 10,9 : Cross oued. Sand mounds and camel grass.
Km 11,5 : CP1 to the left of a row of trees. Go W/NW (course 294°).
Km 12,3 : Cross a large track.
Km 13 : Hill and old village of Taouz to the left.
Km 14,8 : Turn left direction W/SW (course 246°) and go along Ziz Oued to the right with Kfiroun Jebel
to the left. Fairly uneven dirt track.
Km 18,9 : General course 281° to CP2. Cross crevice of Ziz Oued. Go W/NW (course 295°).
Uneven dirt track.
Km 20,6 : End of rough terrain. Go W/NW (course 286°) and cross succession of small sandy valleys and stony plateaus.
Km 23 : Rocky peak to the left. Continue on stony plateau direction West (course 277°) until CP2.
Km 24,6 : Enter small dunes. Course 277°.
Km 26 : CP2 at exit of small dunes. Go S/SW (course 214°) on flat, slightly stony terrain.
Km 28,3 : Cross Outanouel Oued. Sand mounds and camel grass.
Km 29,2 : Oued ends. Go S/SW (course 211°) until km 32.5.
Flat, slightly stony terrain with sparse small dunes.
Km 32,5 : Climb to village of Jdaid from by the well.
Same direction (course 210°) until CP3. Ascending, stony terrain.
Km 34,1 : CP3 before climbing El Abeth Jebel (15% slope).
Km 34,6 : Sandy summit of El Abeth Jebel. Descend S/W (course 231°), sandy and increasingly stony.
Km 36 : Follow oued bed to avoid rocky terrain.
Km 37,3 : Leave oued to the right, direction West (course 264°). Stony terrain.
Km 38,4 : Passage through very small gorge, then go West (course 268°) and cross small hill. Stony.
Km 39 : Passage through hilly area. Go W/NW (course 285°) until bivouac. Terrain less and less stony.
Km 41 : B2 finish line.