An exceptionally beautiful long stage

Etape 4: Taourirt Mouchanne –Oued El Djaid – 82.2 km

Day 1

This year’s long stage (82.2 km) is rather longer than the average long stage on the MDS, but its most notable feature is the diversity of landscapes encountered: another way to celebrate the 25th anniversary…
The long stage, that can run over two days, was organized so that the 50 best runners so far got to start at 12.15, when the rest of the 961 competitors still in the race set off at 9.15.
This gap is for security reasons: the race doesn’t spread over too many kilometers so that the organization can concentrate assistance possibilities.

To start with the top runners is a matter of pride

Amongst those who are on the borderline between the two groups, some actively sought to be of the morning start, but they hadn’t anticipated that some on the top 20 runners would pull out during the now mythical third stage. To take but one example, Mohamed Faraj (436 – MOR), from team Terres d’Aventures, finds himself 49th this morning in the general ranking: he will have to start
at 12.15 when he thought he’d done everything to grant himself a cool start, before the heat kicks in.
“It’s not so bad, I will be with the top runners and that’s something to be proud of. Now, as to how the stage will go, well, we’ll see…”, says he with his usual broad smile.
The day starts with a 12 km long flat stretch to get to check point 1. Normally such a lengthy piece of flat land would depress runners, but yesterday’s legs was made of so many of those classic pieces of Saharan geography that all competitors have become fairly philosophical about it…

A huge, stunning valley

They also know from reading their road-book that it’s the price to pay to access the beautiful valley between Jebel Zireg and Jebel El Mziouda. After climbing up to a pass, they marvel at the extraordinary landscape: golden sand at the foot of the mountains, rocky undulations, fields of locust tree and camel grass, large stretches of black shiny stones.
Coming out of the valley, they come across CP 2, at km 26.1, and behind it, the dried up lake of the El Mader wadi. They cross it and then go up towards the El Maharch oasis, its inn and most of all its palm trees, offering shade to those who want to rest and recover. Further, CP 3 at km 38.7 opens towards the East and the Rhéris wadi crossing and CP 4 at km 51.

The timings of the best in each group

At this point of the race, whilst night is falling, here are a few timings at CP 4 to give you an idea of how things are going for the top of the race.
Amongst the first group, i.e those who left at 9.15, the first to get to CP 4 was José Miota Ibarrra (1060 – SP) at 2.54 (i.e after 5 h 29 min), followed by Karim Belhamadi (315 – FR) at 3.43, Ferdinando Hardouin Monroy (603 – IT) at 3.53, ex æquo with Xavier Renault (183 –FR), and then emblematic French veteran Karim Mosta (13 –FR) at 3.59.
The first woman in this group to have reached the 51 km check point was Jennifer Vogel (696 – USA), at 4.22.
Amongst the elite, who set off at 12.15, Mohamad Ahansal (1 - MOR) was the first runner to reach CP 4, at 4.30 (i.e after 4h15), closely followed by Salameh Al Aqra (391 -JOR) and Mustapha Aït Amar (4-MOR) at 5.32.

Most of the competitors will be spending the night on the track

But the great majority of runners are still very far from this point: it will take them at least three times as long to reach the last 30 kilometres. Competitors light on their frontal lamps, and faces appear even more marked. To each their own strategy: some will want to carry on no matter what, others will only stop to eat or sleep a few hours at a check point.
One thing is sure, in the darkness the pace will get slower. It is going to be a long night for most of our sand marathon men and women. A long night, dotted with firefly-like lights dancing on the track. These are the light sticks handed to competitors.
A Saharan night, even a painful one, is worth a poetical hallucination…

Treat yourself to satellite views of the Sultan Marathon des Sables:

Retrace the route of the first day of the fourth stage thanks to GPS points: all you have to do is copy and paste on such sites as Google Maps or Google Earth

Bivouac 4 : N30 37.937 W4 44.666
PC 1 : N30 37.178 W4 36.690
PC 2 : N30 42.752 W4 33.919
PC 3 : N30 48.463 W4 31.448
PC 4 : N30 44.625 W4 26.402
PC: N30 43.544 W4 20.737
PC 6 : N30 45.371 W4 15.279
Bivouac 5 : N30 49.891 W4 12.977