So You're Thinking Of Doing The MDS? Some Lessons Learned...

Before The Start

It is now over two months since I stepped on a plane in Gatwick headed for Morocco and the Marathon des Sables. In the time since, I have had plenty of time to consider my preparation and strategy for the MDS and indeed to review the race itself. As I type, I have lost both my baby toe nails and half a toe nail on one of my big toes. Apart from that, I have fully recovered (I think!).

During the past couple of months, I have written an article for the Sunday Times on the race and have updated this blog with each day of the adventure and this has served not only as a good way to remember the event, but also as a way to reflect on what I might have done differently, knowing what I now know.

I have compiled some lists below of what I would change and what went well. If you are reading this as a potential MDS competitor, then you should take it with a pinch of salt, as a major lesson is that everyone is different and a plan that worked for me, will not necessarily work for you.


The Article I Wrote For The Sunday Times

My profile is that of 34 year old, average (at best) athlete, who did a lot of triathlon and cycling when I was in my late teens/early twenties. I suffered from shin splints when I ran and have been through the mill when it comes to varying methods of physio, shoe manipulation and orthotic-wearing in order to try and cure them. I played hockey from when I first went to university at 18, taking it up by accident but playing until my early thirties. Before beginning this adventure in 2010, I had run a few marathons with no great glory in my running times and have mostly been through cycles of becoming injured, sorting it out and then having a good three weeks before getting injured again. If that all sounds familiar, it might be worth taking on some of this advice!

So here's what I would change and I've also included my top tips:

Training:

1. Listen to your body and rest. Ultimately injuries (like my Achilles and IT Band issues) will keep you away from training much longer than if you listened to your body and eased off training to rest for a while. My Achilles took over 4 months to improve enough to race (thanks to Sarah) and I knew I was in danger of injuring it when it happened.

2. Walk. There are many sections of the MDS where for the average athlete, it is more economical and efficient to walk. I should have built more power walking into my running sessions to help prepare myself for the desert terrain.

3. Core and flexibility. I did not do anywhere near enough core or flexibility work and this would have had a major impact in injury prevention and helping me during the race. If I could go back, I would have done more pilates or circuit training and would have open the excellent Wharton's Stretch Book more often.

Top Tip - Train by events. I had planned on doing a marathon in October (Dublin), November (Clare) and December (Clonakilty) with an ultra in January (Art O'Neill) and a Back-2-Back marathons (Clonakilty) in February followed by some warm weather training in late February/early March (Lanzarote). Injury disrupted this plan, but not fully, and the events gave me short term focus. There are so many endurance races on these days, especially in the UK, you have plenty of options. 

Food:

1. Bring more savoury food. I made a big mistake with my breakfast options. If I could choose again,  I would have brought more main meals as I could not stand the sweet breakfasts after the second day. I also would have packed a lot more Pepperami - salty, meaty and tasty, they are just what you need in the bivouac.

2. Recovery food. I saw a lot of people using a 'For Goodness Shake' to recover, which would have helped. I saw others using soup at the end of each stage. Having something quick to take on board once you're in after a stage would have been ideal, instead I had to wait for my meals to heat up in the sun on the roof of the tent!

3. Go nuts. My nuts mixes were excellent, so I wish I brought more. They have a very good weight to calorie ratio as only 100g of nuts can have as much as 700 calories in them! Speaking of weight to calories, Anj brought a tin of Pringles and crumbled them up into a zip-lock bag. The large tube contains over 900 calories at a weight of just 170g.      

Top Tip - The biggest recommendation I could give is No. 1 above. Apart from that, ensure you try your food before you go. You can get taster packs with all of the various meals in them. Make sure you like what you are bringing - I could not eat some of my Power Bars or my Mighty Bars by the end of it.

The Sweeper Camels At The Start - The Goal Was Never To See Them During The Race

Gear:

1. Test your gear. Don't leave it until 4 days before you race as you jog around your housing park like I did! I got lucky in that my gear suited me but others in the MDS were not so fortunate. This is particularly the case for your bag (front pack or no front pack that is the question), your shoes, gaiters and your general race gear.

2. There is no real need for a stove. It is only around 90g, but I could easily have used stones to make a base on which to set my fuel tablets. Some people don't even bring a pot to heat water or fuel tablets and just rely on the sun to heat food or gather sticks around the bivouac to make a fire.

3. Less medical equipment - Inevitably, like me, you will bring too much strapping and bandages. A lot of these are available from the pre-check medical tent and they are happy to give them to you.

Top Tip - If you are bringing some gear 'just in case', then don't, leave it at home.

Racing

1. Read the Road Book and trust your compass. Trusting my compass on the first day instead of following the herd would have saved me 2km in the first set of dunes, something which I rectified on later stages. Reading the road book properly would have saved me significant time on the El Otfal Jebel on the long stage - if I had known just how difficult it was I would have run the first section in order to be much higher up in the queue going over the top, which would have saved me a lot of time.

2. Water awareness. Know exactly how much water you are getting at each check point. I made that mistake on the long stage and paid the price going toward CP4. 

Top Tip - During racing over sandy terrain, aim for unbroken sand as it is initially hard when you step on it. Broken sand where people have placed their feet already, will be significantly softer and harder to move on.

As the experience is different from every MDS competitor, the advice you will receive from past competitors will vary greatly. I would advise finding people with the same goals and with similar profiles to you in terms of athletic ability, endurance, strength etc. They are the people you will learn most from. 

My Racekit Gaiters Velcroed To My Shoes - Foolproof Sand Exclusion System

While I have listed areas where I would change things, there are plenty of things I got right, which helped me greatly. My top 5 are:

1. My footwear. I used Saucony Kinvaras (half a size bigger than normal), 1000 Mile double socks with Injini toe socks inside them and best of all were my Racekit rip-stop nylon gaiters, with which I had the Velcro professionally sewn on to the shoe by the Shoehealer in Doncaster. No complaints about any of them and the shoes were the same shoes I did all of my training in. I don't think you need specialist desert running shoes.
2. Music. It made a huge difference on three of the stages and kept me moving and motivated. I had an old MP3 player, which gave me 10 hours on one AAA normal battery, so I had no need to charge and only had to bring one spare battery. I ensured my head-torch took the same batteries.
3. Cross-training. When injured I ran in the pool with a float belt and cycled. While running in a pool is mind numbing, it kept me fitness levels up.
4. The MDS Expo. I attended the Expo in London, partly because I was scared of what I was doing and partly because it was a chance to get more information. The best things about it were that I got to look first hand at a lot of the gear that I would have to order on-line and there was an excellent packing workshop which helped me to reduce the weight of my pack and eliminate equipment I did not need.
5. Training by events. As I mentioned above this approach will allow you to build up and keep you motivated.

Finally I would say choose your tent carefully - Patrick and I were extremely lucky with Tent140 - and during the race, don't expect anything, the MDS will surprise you every day!

If you are an MDS veteran and want to leave more advice, please feel free to post a comment below! If you have any questions or are just after some advice, drop me an email. You will find my details on www.hockey.ie