Wednesday April 14th 2004 - Dayet Chegaga / Jebel Megag - 76 kilometers
Weather at 8h00 : 22.2 degrees – 30% Humidity
Weather at 12h30 : 42.7 degrees – 8% Humidity

564 competitors at the start of this stage.

Correction : In the women’s ranking for stage three we erroneously attributed third place to Katell Corne. In fact, it was Marie Sammons (France) – D94 – who finished third. We sincerely apologise.

The sand dunes of the third stage of the race will not be forgotton easily. There were 17 drop-outs during the course of the day and a handful of runners, who were amongst the first few, completely missed the third checkpoint in the dunes, and went straight to the finishing line, only to be greeted with a penalty of an hour, which is sure to relegate them in the final ranking. Runners such as Marco Gozzano and Marco Olmo (D14 and D15) were amongst them.
However, the race director did not disqualify Didier Benguigui –D38, who went over the maximum time allowed for this stage for an obvious reason : Didier is blind and runs with the help of his friend Michel Bach. Franz Brunner (Swiss) – D311 also arrived after the maximum 10 hours, because he had been assisting a competitor in difficulty. Exceptionally, he was also exempted from disqualification.
Today’s stage is the longest in the MDS : an unimaginable 76 kilometers…A mythical stage, which reveals the psychological strength of the competitors. All those who are running for charity - and there are hundreds of them –finally become fully aware of the depth of their commitment and determination. A large number of the competitors will arrive at the bivouac during the night, making this stage a particularly powerful experience.
There were two departure times today. Most of the runners left at 9h00 this morning, before the hottest part of the day. The top 50 in the general ranking as well as the top five in the women’s ranking left 3 hours later. It’s the first year that the top fifty in general ranking includes four women! The group who left at midday will soon catch up with the first.
Both groups started out in hot, dry conditions, and crossed the Atach wadi (Atach =thirst) oberserved only by the native brightly coloured iguanas. Gusts of strong wind suddenly started driving sand in all directions. In these conditions the runners passed CP3, situated next to a solar water pump, which was brought to the desert a few years ago by a former runner of the Marathon des Sables. Then the runners will go through the village of M’hamid, where they are eagerly awaited by all the children…
This stage is remarkable in terms of logistics for the organisation : there are six check-points and staff are working non-stop for 48 hours. We are well and truly at the heart of the race, this is the stuff of which legends are made…