The walkers departed two hours ago, and so the four runners warmup and themselves depart to the sound of Highway to Hell! Memories of MDS. The stiffness seems forgotten as we actually run up the short incline to the main road. At which point Christopher and I revert to our old man shuffle walk. 🤣
Then it's a climb from 2600m to just over 2900m, the highest altitude we will attain. In the distance I see that 'English Chris' and Stephen have also started walking. When we reach the pass I record a video to post to Facebook. As usual we're accompanied by Ayub our resident Jack Russell pup who seems to be restrained on a virtual leash.
The route down is tricky, jagged boulders and loose rocks. But the views are amazing in the early morning light. I can feel my foot rolling slightly inside my shoe and a hotspot forming under my right big toe.
The first rest stop just outside the highest permanent settlement in Morocco, seems to take an age to reach. I take the opportunity to tape the hotspots on my feet and tighten the laces before we leave. On the way down into the village we pass though a small stream and my shoes slip on the hard wet surface (Nike Wildhorse 7 are super slippery on wet rocks), but luckily no damage. We're at risk of being passed by an old lady with a donkey!
From there is a punishing downhill section. Normally we had aimed to run downhill, but find that the steepness is punishing on our quads, which have already taken a hammering on the first downhill section. We run a little, but end up walking. 🤷🏽
We push on but now we're going uphill. We pass through a few small villages, in one kids are playing in a pile of sand taking a break from school while their teacher looks on.
Lunch is a stop by the river bank, a pleasant and shaded area; we're clapped into the stop by young kids sitting on a wall outside - fans! Christopher has a plateful of food, while I once again choose plain pasta and salt. I see that Ayub has an even larger plate that Christopher.
I've calculated that because it's taken us so long to get here we are at risk of missing the last rest stop time cut-off at 3pm. Although it's only 8km away, it's steep uphill. I tell Christopher that we need to leave the lunch stop by 1pm. 🫡
We try to sneak out without Ayub noticing.
We're following a road now and cross the river and briefly go uphill before going downhill again! Yikes not good, then means even more altitude to eventually gain. We cross the river again and now we're at around 1500m. At these lower attitudes the heat is trapped in the valley and it is particularly hot making the long slow climb even tougher.
On the way we're accosted by Habib, the chocololic asbo. He is persistent in asking for chocolate pointing to our energy get pouches. We politely decline but he follows us for about five minutes and becomes increasingly annoying. In the end he stops and leaves us with a barrage of what I assume are curses, followed up a few seconds later by a stone lobbed in our direction, which thankfully falls well short. We were warned about such behaviour and told not to give in to demands.
The climb continues and the terrain opens out and is very exposed to the sun. The 8km seems to be a long long way. By this time Jack, I mean Ayub, has caught us. I'm pushing on a pace but wanting to miss the cut-off and a gap forms between Christopher and I. He tells me that at one point Ayub jumps down and starts doing push-ups! That's just plain rude.
The gap increases and I'm in the groove, and as we've walked more then 8km, I'm expecting the last rest stop to be just around the corner, but it's not. Eventually I turn a bend and there it is... but it's on the other side of the valley at least another 1km away along the road. Deflated. But spurred on I run the relatively flat section and reach the stop about 15mins before closing time. Christopher arrives a few minutes later.
I quietly ask Hamid the paramedic to get Ayub to accompany walkers further back, and he manages to negotiate that he leaves 15minutes after us.. 🤷🏽 Refueled we press on, getting fairly relaxed. But we have 800m to climb in the last 11km or so. It's a long slow climb. At least there seems to be more of a breeze the higher we go. As expected, Ayub catches us and I usher him to pass us, which he does without questioning; phew, a relief.
Ahead we see Tara, who we spoke to at dinner last night, she has retired with pulled hamstring and is waiting for a shuttle to collect her. Unlucky for her, but lucky for me as she offers me my other pole; I'm back in full power mode!
A bit further on we see Andy resting in the shade of a tree. He was at the rest stop and had a shuttle boost to get ahead of us. We chat briefly then head on. We also pause briefly and Christopher asks if this is how it feels to get old...
Shortly after, we meet Stephen (probably twenty years younger than both of us) sat at the roadside. He's totally drained and I encourage him to take an energy gel and water, which he does. There's only a few km to go and give him some verbal support that he says was very helpful.
Then we turn sharply off the track up into some rocks and it's once again very challenging. But it's steep and so different parts of my quads are engaged and once again I get a second wind. I push on and soon leave Christopher, who seems to be suffering at the end; Stephen is not far behind. Coming down the steep rocky path is woman with a loaded donkey, followed by a cow and a calf. I give them plenty of space to pass. Towards the top of the climb I look back to see both Christopher and Stephen way back. At that point I decide to push on alone. At the very top, I see we are above 2700m and above our final destination.
It's flat terrain and after my climb, strangely, feel invigorated: I start running! I run virtually to the end, passing a couple of walkers on the way. I reach the finish line and Lynsey and team are getting ready to hand me a medal. But before reaching the gate, I turn around and run back hearing Lynsey and co shouting, "what are you doing!" But they soon realise I'm waiting to cross the line with Christopher, who I see coming down gingerly with Stephen.
We ask cross the line together and get our finisher's medals, then posing for pictures.
Today was brutal. Tough descents, tough climbs, hot weather, challenging terrain. But it was so worth it for the sense of satisfaction it gives you to finish.
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