Day: T minus 7 days
Status: Philosophical
Excitement Level: about 5 on the Richter scale

“You’ve got an abnormality in your heart”, said my doctor, “but it’s quite normal for an athlete”. Phew! Medical passed. Never has so much teetered on the latter part of a sentence.

So cleared as being fit as a fiddle, a bizarre expression if ever there was, the race is on!

Eighteen months of preparation including 216,000 situps, 21,000 pushups, 4,200 miles run in training and completing, amongst others, 101 miles in 24hrs, has finally culminated in one week to go.

Someone recently asked me whether I was ready. I answered, with bravado of course, “I was born ready”. But the truth be known the MdS has an awful reputation for culling even seasoned ultra athletes. Sure the 24hr marathon is mentally harder, and perhaps physically, but you’re not carrying 12kgs and running for 7 day in 50c+ heat with the much fabled problem of trashed feet.

Everyone has their Everest, and at the moment the Marathon des Sables is mine. I often say to people I train that the thinking is always worse than the doing, but when you’re there, seven days from the start line of the toughest footrace on earth, it is very hard to listen to your own advice.

There remain a few bits of kit to scrabble together over the next few day, oh and the all important crew hair cut (luscious locks are not the order of the day in the desert), but otherwise everything is pretty much ready to go.

“What are you running?” I hear you cry.
The Marathon Des Sables is a gruelling 7 day, 150 mile foot race through some of the world’s most barren desert terrain in temperatures exceeding 40 degrees centigrade.

Competitors carry all their own rations, water, cooking and sleeping equipment and are to all intents and purposes entirely self sufficient…. and certifiable.

“Why?” – For Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR) of course.
YCR is a wonderful charity that has become the most successful regional medical research charity in the UK. They fund internationally recognised research into the cause and cure of cancer at universities and their associated teaching hospitals throughout Yorkshire.

Links:

Sponsor me: www.justgiving.com/mattmds
Web: www.mahoney.co.uk/mds.php
Charity Site: www.yorkshirecancerresearch.org.uk
Official Race Site: www.darbaroud.com/index_uk.phpNike Air Zoom Pegasus