The Marathon des Sables began life in 1986 and has been held every year since in the Southern Moroccan Desert (The Sahara Desert).

"Marathon des Sables" or MDS translates literally to "Marathon of the sands" and is said to be the hardest footrace on Earth. The competition lasts over 6 days and is the equivalent of five and a half normal Marathons. The exact course details are not released until a day before the race, however the stages are roughly as below

The 4th stage can be run over 2 days and normally involve night time running.

Each competitor is given a map detailing the route and the course is also roughly marked out.

As you can imagine, the desert is not a hospitable place. Temperatures can soar to 49 degrees centigrade during the daytime, then plumet to below freezing at night. The terain ranges from rocky mountains and passes to huge sand dunes.

To make matters worse competitors must carry all personal belongings and food for the entire event in their backpack. Water and tents are supplied by the organizers. "Water" being 9 litres strictly rationed per day, and "tent" being an open-ended berber.

Try the links below to watch footage of the 2009 Marathon des Sables, and see the route of the Sables Marathon 2008 (This requires the Google Earth plugin).

Watch helicopter footage of the Marathon des Sables 2009	The route for the Marathon des Sables 2008 was plotted on Google Earth by Richard Pomeroy. Clicking on the picture requires you to install the Google Earth Plugin, then you can zoom around the 2008 Sables Marathon course in 3D! You can also open the KML file directly in Google Earth

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Required Kit:-

* Backpack or equivalent (best suited to each participant)
* Sleeping bag
* Torch with spare batteries
* 10 safety pins
* Compass with 1°ree; or 2°ree; precision
* Lighter
* Whistle
* Knife with metal blade
* Tropical Disinfectant
* Anti-Venom pump (insect poison remover)
* Signalling mirror
* One aluminium survival sheet

A survival kit is supplied by the organisation and includes the following:-

* A Distress flare
* Salt tablets
* luminous signal stick (non-stop stage)

Even though it is an organised event, the Marathon des Sables is fraught with danger.
Before 2007, 2 competitors died during the race.
During the 1994 race, Italian police officer Mauro Prosperi lost his way during a sand storm and wandered lost for more than 9 days, losing over 13 kg (30 lb) of body weight.

On a slightly lighter note, the competiton has been won 10 times since 1997 by Lahcen Ahansal, which would have been consecutive if it were not for his brother Mohamad, who has won 3 times (including 2008/2009)

The website of the official organisers darbaroud can be found by following this link:

And the Official English Site at: