Christopher made an executive decision last night to confirm us as runners rather than walkers; that resulted in an extra two hours in bed! Yay, result! So we got ready and left at 8am, while the poor walkers had to leave at 6am. There were times that I questioned that decision, but after we passed the walkers' back marker at arrive 16km, we knew it was the right choice. I pose for a picture with one of them.
The race has started with a mainly downhill section, dropping what must be 800m from our starting altitude of 2650m, before levelling and then becoming more undulating.
Dropping that much so early in the race is not good, as it means the latter stages of the race will be uphill, and a hard uphill when we are most tired. For this reason we are taking it very carefully making sure we stay in a relatively low aerobic zone.
We past a few more walkers before reaching the lunch stop at 21km, where Christopher had a plateful of food while I opted for plain pasta liberally sprinkled with salt, stuffing it into my gob with my fingers! Water and electrolytes loaded and we're off again. The longer the event goes on, the harder it is to get up and go, or change from walking to running.
We catch more walkers as we progress - our strategy is to run downhill and on the flats, but walk uphill. Running uphill is a sure way to start burning more calories than you can take in, the recipe for hitting the dreaded wall. I've done that at least four times since running more seriously, twice deliberately in training to see how it feels, and twice in races where it's the worst feeling ever.
Some of the walkers name the next section Death Valley, probably because it has some uphill sections overlooking a valley! 🤔
The terrain after lunch becomes very challenging rocky single track with steep slopes below the path and in places very narrow and angled downhill. We have to take extra care here not to slip down onto lower slopes. We pass a walker who complements us on our sense in bringing poles, I offer her one of mine which she gladly accepts (later she says this was very useful).
We arrive at the last checkpoint at 31 km well within the 3pm cut-off. One of the runners who raced ahead at the start is just leaving the checkpoint, he says he's going to walk the last section, but then jogs off! We refuel and set off in pursuit at a more leisurely pace.
The terrain is easier but now a constant uphill so we walk, just jogging with a effort for a few flatter portions. The km are ticked off and still we climb, making up some of the 800m of drop at the beginning. There's a sign for Oukaimeden 4km, but by my calculations we still have 6km to go, oh well... 🤷🏽
We pass a walker who really looks like he's suffering, shuffling along at a very slow pace (apparently he had raced ahead early in the race). We ask him if he needs anything and he says he's trying out of water, so I offer him my nearly full water bottle from which he squeezes a few mouthfuls. I tell him to have more which he does. We wish him luck then push on.
The camp is in sight! And it's mostly flat.
But wait, didn't we still have 2km to go? Then we are pointed towards a track to the right that climbs up! The sting in the tail! We climb using relatively unused quad power, which I actually find quite therapeutic, but the others hate. Then it flattens into the village before joining the obvious path to the camp. That was cruel, but explains the lost 1km!
The finish is close but we are approaching 7hrs. I encourage Christopher to dig a little deeper which he does and we trot the last few hundred metres to the camp - although I'm confused by the red arrows that we've been following directing past the camp. I follow for a short distance before realising these are arrows for tomorrow! 🤦🏽
We cross the line together, finishing in under 7hrs. That was tough but rewarding, now recovery is the focus, in preparation for doing it all over again! 😵💫
We chill and cool down in the recovery tent, lying down and consuming our leftover provisions. The runner who jogged from the last checkpoint said he hit the wall not long after and walked the rest of the route - at least he finished and before us!
Cold shower (not a luxury we had on the MDS), recovery drink and rest. Oh, and drafting this blog! Then dinner and tomorrow's briefing.
Sleep will be well earned tonight.
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