Pirate Pete's fourth stage.

This article is posted on behalf of Pete as he warned that stage four was a long one........... and he may not get chance to up date!

So, he was seen this morning  on live camera to cross the line waving a Pirate flag with a big grin after a gruelling 20 hours 56 min 15 seconds!

The evidence is shown!

Pirate Petes third stage report

Marathon des Sables, Day 3.

Oh what a night! We'd been asleep 2 hours when at 11pm a sand storm hit camp flattening tents & sending peoples' gear out of sight, into the night. 

One lad in our tent got hit on the hand by a large iron tent peg, but luckily was not seriously hurt. Our tent was about to literally take off, or tear in two so we collapsed all the poles & slept under the coarse wool tent covering. We spent the rest of the night   with it banging & flapping on our heads.

Definitely character building.

The race started on time this am & the 21 miles included flat plains, sand dunes, jebels (rock hills / mountains) and we even went along a narrow rock ridge covered in sand. It reminded me of the ridges in the Scottish highlands, but with sand instead of snow & ice.

I felt I was going pretty well and was loving the technical rock sections, especially the sandy and rocky descents.

Unfortunately with about 4 miles to go the heat bit!  Made it in not too badly.

Tomorrow's the long one 53 mls (See below) 

XX

Pirate Petes 2nd Stage report

Day 2 on the MdS

Well all good after day 1 and no blisters (so far)

I was worried that day 1 was fairly easy and may lull us into a false sense of security. I was right!

So after yesterdays 19 miles we had  24.5 to do today and it was going to be very sandy. I walked all day and chatted to lots of different people on the way.

I deliberately started near the back of the pack and it meant I was mainly overtaking people, which was nice.

Luckily, as yesterday there was a cooling breeze for most of the day. That is until 5 or 6 hours in when the wind went and we entered a rock gulley which took us climbing over a large rock jebel (large hill). The heat was punishing.

I stopped at the top of the gulley to take some photos (not to catch my breath you understand) On the summit a one legged racer caught me up. Amazing, such drive!

Managed to make my water last. Left foot is a bit sore but no blisters and even sand skied down

Thanks to all Pete xx

Pirate Petes First Stage Post Report!

All good here!

Pirate Pete is an honourary Irish Man  for the week due to sharing a Berber tent with 6 Irishmen!

Very exciting at the start of the race with AC/DC Highway to Hell blasted out (The event theme tune), 1200 adrenalin fuelled athletes and a helicopter filming overhead as we were released into the desert.

So Stage 1. 19 Miles and an 11 kilo rucksack. The thoughts are Ive brought too much food at 3400 calories a day.
Ran a few tiny sections in the first 2 to 3 miles then walked all the way.

The heat wasnt too bad due to a pleasant breeze most of the day.

A couple of sections of sand dunes in the last third of the stage were very dry and hot and I had to force myself to slow down a bit due to getting too hot, but that seemed to work. There was no breeze there.
Had a lot of interesting conversations on the course and avoided any blisters.

All good. X

All the links to Follow Updated

Try all the links again;

If the links below don't work just paste them into your web address box.

http://piratepetesadventures.blogspot.co.uk/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AplmI_G6xIQ

http://www.nottinghammencap.org.uk/

The links to follow / email me;

http://live.marathondessables.com/waatracking/en-US/mds/MDS2018

http://www.marathondessables.com/en/marathon-des-sables-maroc/write-to-a-racer

Link to Follow or email me on the MdS.

The Link to Follow or email me on the MdS.

I'm number 340 & you'll need my proper name.

http://live.marathondessables.com/waatracking/en-US/mds/MDS2018

http://www.marathondessables.com/en/marathon-des-sables-maroc/write-to-a-racer

http://live.marathondessables.com/waatracking/en-US/mds/MDS2018

Well I'm just back from buying up an Outdoor Shop's stock of reduced price energy bars. Also a few other last minute essentials like a head torch, compass & zinc oxide tape.
Just realised how heavy 13 energy bars are.
Maybe I'll only take one a day, instead of two. Questions, questions......like do I pre tape my feet? Racked by indecision, gulp!