MARATHON DES SABLES 2007: “The Toughest Footrace on Earth”

Nicholas Walker decided to run the Marathon Des Sables in March 2007, a foot-race that takes place in the Moroccan desert totalling approximately 150 miles in stages over 7 days. It has been described as the "most difficult foot race in the world" and promised to be a huge challenge both mentally and physically. He said that he had every confidence in completing the challenge and added "I am currently relatively fit being 22 years of age and having just graduated from St. Catherine's College, Oxford, with a degree in Geography, where I regularly played sport. I have recently lost a close family friend to pancreatic cancer and after some research I was shocked at the still extremely high mortality rates and the decreased exposure this disease receives in comparison to other terminal illnesses. I have therefore decided to undertake a personal challenge in order to raise some money for your charity and hopefully in doing so increase awareness of this illness as best I can."

You can find out more about the race at http://www.darbaroud.com/uk/index_uk.php and you can sponsor Nicholas at http://www.justgiving.com/nickwalker.

Nick is applying to medical school and had been fitting his training around work experience at a GP surgery and Southmead Hospital, Bristol. He has raised over £2000 so far. He had to carry all his food with him in the pack on his back as in the photo. Do sponsor him to make all that effort worthwhile. Nicholas came 424th out of 727 participants and completed it in 43H20'51 with 25H55'45 delay and 5.10 average. race report from BBC web-site

After the race Nicholas wrote: "In March this year I successfully completed the Marathon Des Sables, an ultra marathon footrace held in the Saharan Desert in Morocco. The combination of heat, distance and terrain has ensured this race has gained a very formidable reputation. Each of the 750 odd racers must be self-sufficient, whereby we all had to carry food, first aid and survival kit for the week in a rucksack on our backs (a modest 2 stone for myself!). The course is approximately 230km long, set over 6 stages in 7 days, and this year included the traditional combination of energy sapping sand-dunes and steep mountain passes. Having completed the race I can now look back and say that there wasn’t an easy day during the week. Each stage had its own unique challenges, be it the gruelling climbs on the second day or the sheer length of the long stage (71km this year) and the notorious sand dunes that seemed to pop up at every turn throughout the race. Despite the blisters, the back-ache and the joy of finding sand in nearly every meal we ate it was an incredible week that I will never forget.

I managed to stagger across the finish line in just over 43 hours, a mere 26 hours behind the eventual winner and reigning champion of the last 10 years. I count myself very lucky to have had the chance to compete with so many incredible athletes in an event where there is a fantastic sense of camaraderie between all nationalities. That said, I will not be missing a regular diet of freeze-dried food, energy bars and energy gels which kept me going out in Morocco! "