855--Stage 2 - 38km

It's starting to hurt now. Lucy's blisters are sore and Paul now has some of his own. Today it was 46C running accross the salt flats and it felt HOT.

12 people have abandonned so far, we're still going!

Bivouac 3 - N 30° 50' 06.9" W 4° 12' 57.0"

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855--End of Stage 1

Eurosport are saying that this is "The Toughest Year Yet"

Usually the big dune only start on dqy three, for us they started at 1.5km

I took the stage very slowly finishing neqr the back of the field in just over 7 hours, but I finished with no injuries or blisters. Lucy finished over half an hour ahead but had to spend a painful half hour in the nedical tent having her blisters treqted. Neat iodine, ouch!

It was good to finally start racing after two days travelling although our first night was in Ouarzazates best hotel

Everything is full of sand, clothes, food, my iPod...

Our tent is number 101 and we have three other tent-mate, Paul, Pete and Steph. There is also a crew from ITV4 who are filming a documentary (May 13 21:00) who have taken an interest in a married couple racing together.

Find us on Google Earth

Hotel N30° 55' 23.8" W6° 54' 36.3"

Biv1 N31° 11' 23.0" W 4° 2' 52.9"

Biv2 N30° 58' 26.6" W 3° 54' 36.9"

-----------------------------
N'utilisez pas la fonction "REPONDRE", l'envoi de message se fait uniquement par le Site Web Darbaroud.com !!! MERCI
ATLANTIDE ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE
-----------------------------
Don't use "REPLY TO", mails are only sent via the Darbaroud.com Website !!!THANKS
ATLANTIDE ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE

855--End of Stage 1

Eurosport are saying that this is "The Toughest Year Yet"

Usually the big dune only start on dqy three, for us they started at 1.5km

I took the stage very slowly finishing neqr the back of the field in just over 7 hours, but I finished with no injuries or blisters. Lucy finished over half an hour ahead but had to spend a painful half hour in the nedical tent having her blisters treqted. Neat iodine, ouch!

It was good to finally start racing after two days travelling although our first night was in Ouarzazates best hotel

Everything is full of sand, clothes, food, my iPod...

Our tent is number 101 and we have three other tent-mate, Paul, Pete and Steph. There is also a crew from ITV4 who are filming a documentary (May 13 21:00) who have taken an interest in a married couple racing together.

Find us on Google Earth

Hotel N30° 55' 23.8" W6° 54' 36.3"

Bivouac 1 N31° 11' 23.0" W 4° 2' 52.9"

Bivouac 2 N30° 58' 26.6" W 3° 54' 36.9"

-----------------------------
N'utilisez pas la fonction "REPONDRE", l'envoi de message se fait uniquement par le Site Web Darbaroud.com !!! MERCI
ATLANTIDE ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE
-----------------------------
Don't use "REPLY TO", mails are only sent via the Darbaroud.com Website !!!THANKS
ATLANTIDE ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE

  Here's a picture of my rucksack.

The Night Before

Well, we've packed our race kit; food clothes and equipment for seven days in the desert and it's an awful lot to try to run with! Most of it is food so it will get lighter during the week, but there will be an extra 1.5 kg of water and a hexamine stove to add on when we finally get going!

Tomorrow we fly out to Ouazazate in Morocco and from there we take another two days to transfer to the start camp and to register and have our various medical and kit checks.

I have taken my GPS so I will be able to post latitude and longitude of points of interest, which you can load into Google Earth to see where we are.

Welcome

Hello friends and colleagues!

This year, 2008, Lucy and I will be competing in the 23rd Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert during the first week of April.

The Marathon des Sables is billed as "The Toughest Footrace on Earth," and it consists of a total of 245km (six marathons) running in 45 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) run in six stages over rocks, deep sand and mountains, carrying all food and cooking equipment, sleeping bag and medical supplies in a rucksack for the whole week.

We can send one email per day over a satellite link, so I shall be sending a daily report to this blog for everyone to check on our progress.

To secure a place in this race requires a great deal of training, a two-year wait for a place and  an entry fee of around $5000 per person. Not to mention all the specialised equipment and food needed. So it has been quite an investment of time and money and naturally we would like to capitalise on this for a good cause so we are inviting sponsorship for the favoured charity of the event organisers, "Facing Africa"

www.facingafrica.org

If you would like to contribute, please click on the "Donations" link and put "Paul and Lucy Wells" as the team name. All donations will go to the charity plus an additional contribution from the Chancellor if you are a UK taxpayer.

Thanks in advance

Paul and Lucy (Competitors 855 and 856)

http://www.marathondessables.com