Sunday 5th April 2009 – Ouarzazate

Patrick Bauer: “I wanted to feel myself carried along by the runners”

Patrick Bauer, the race director, expresses his feelings the day after the final stage.

What report would you make of this 24th edition?
It’s a good report; we’ve all come out of it well. We arrived at the foot of Jebel Ighrs, with this amazing weather and the MDS Classical Orchestra, with Paris' Opera Musicians, directed by Jerome Pillement who gave us a very good hour’s concert. We broadcasted images of the start of the race to all the participants. The runners saw the floods, the bivouac in the water, the work done to find a new route. They thus understood better what had happened, what we’d been through, why we had to cancel the first stage and modify all the features of the course.
Are you more relieved or proud to have risen to this challenge?
I’m really relived that everything has gone well, in particular health wise, because I’m paranoid about safety. We took the decision to go for it together. This is a great story of shared energy. In fact, I wanted to feel myself carried along by them...
Did you think about simply cancelling the race?
Truthfully, yes. Afterwards, it was like a caravan... we’d set off and had to get somewhere. That was my objective.
What are your plans for the 25th edition?
The problem needs to be turned on its head. What happened this week could have positive consequences for the future. In 24 years, we’d never experienced such an exceptional situation. This showed that, even if one can gain experience, nothing can be taken for granted. We always have to question things, never get complacent. There will be surprises next year, in particular as regards mixing culture and sport; that’s something that I really like doing.

Abdellatif Benazzi, a special guest.

The former French rugby captain ran the last stage of the marathon des sables. Tucked in amongst the main bunch of runners, Benazzi got through the 42 kilometres without too much difficulty, with the exception of a few painful blisters at the end of the race: “After crossing the wadi I had wet feet and from then on I started to suffer. In any case, there was only 7 or 8 kilometres to go, so I finished through mental strength”. Abdellatif, who was born in East Morocco, was running for his association, Noor, which builds schools in rural areas. He sold each kilometre covered on behalf of Noor for 1000 Euros to his partners: the French Post Office, “Française des Jeux” (the operator of France's national lottery games) and Nike.

Medical report and statistics

Total number of treatments: 4394
Number of drips: 18
Number of digestion problems: 519
Consumption of antidiuretics: 3200 tablets
Consumption of plasters: 1.8 kilometres
2000 pairs of gloves
82 litres of antiseptics
3450 analgesic tablets