Latecomer to Running
Ma
Feature
Dreaming of the
The Marathon Des Sables has been called“ The Toughest Foot Race on Earth,” which is not surprising, given that it’ s a 250km, six-stage race through the Sahara Desert in Morocco, with intense heat, grating sand, agonising blisters and incredible fatigue to contend with, and yet it was the number one bucket list item for Moerieda Mackay... even though she has never thought of herself a runner, let alone an ultra trail runner. – BY SEAN FALCONER
of the
Desert
ll it took was a photograph in a running magazine four years ago, of a man in the Sahara Desert, to get Moerieda Mackay hooked on the idea of
Arunning the Marathon De Sables( MDS). She had never even been to a desert before, and says the hottest temperature she had experienced was 43 degrees in the Karoo, but somehow she became obsessed with running the event.“ I was fascinated by his backpack and the intricacies of all his equipment, but it was the fact that he was carrying an anti-venom kit that really caught my attention! And yet the vision of me running the MDS stayed with me over the years. It was the craziest feeling, this burning desire to run 250km through the gruelling and inhospitable Sahara, carrying everything you would need to survive for seven days in the desert … but it’ s like the desert was calling my name!”
Unsurprisingly, the journey just to get to the MDS in April this year proved a challenge for Moerieda, a mother of three from the Midrand area of Gauteng. She says that entering is hugely expensive and until 2016, South Africans had to go onto a threeyear waiting list with the UK agent for the race to get an entry.“ Luckily you can now enter directly, but once you’ re entered, the challenging part lies in the training and preparation for the event, which includes sorting out your backpack, shoes, food and all your kit.”
“ Once you arrive in the desert, funnily enough, the most challenging elements of the race are not the running or the heat, even though the highest recorded temperature was 54 degrees Celcius, but for me it was adjusting to life in the bivouac and sharing a tent with seven other mates! Luckily I was part of the Hope for Children group, running for the UK-based children’ s charity, and we formed a great group. They say with a race like this your tent mates can either make it or break it for you. Mine were the best! The word self-sufficient took on a whole new meaning with the amount of sharing and caring shown by all of them.”
Another huge challenge for Moerieda was the logistics of the race.“ If it was just running every day, the race would be fairly manageable, but with all the logistics it quickly becomes a lot trickier. It took me a good four days to get into my own rhythm, and I only really settled into the race on day three! But I guess the real big challenge of MDS is, of course, the sand! There is just no way of going faster than your fastest walk in the sand and blistering heat – unless of course you are a Moroccan or elite front runner – and as we hit sand dune after sand dune, I just kept saying to myself, Marathon of the Sands … this is your race!”
Latecomer to Running
By her own admission, Moerieda has no sporting background and zero athletic ability, so running is by far the most challenging thing she’ s ever done, but she says it has put her on a path of physical, mental and spiritual transformation.“ In 2010 I was trying to lose a few kilos and find that elusive work-life balance at the age of 40, because I’ m a bit of a workaholic. And that first year I lost 22kg just training on the elliptical trainer and watching my diet. Meanwhile, my husband Adam had started running and he was having so much fun at the races on the weekends, so I started
Images: Marathon Des Sables & courtesy Moerieda Mackay
16 ISSUE 99 OCTOBER 2017 / www. modernathlete. co. za