PreRace Morocco

There was so much leading up to the race in Morocco that it became part of the fabric of the adventure. Those last few days I met many of of fellow competitors including 4 time MdS champion Mohamed Ahensal who was one of the most gracious elite athletes I have ever met. Checking into the Riad Salam on Monday night I spent the next 3 days with final cutting trimming and, of course. Some shopping.

The view from my room, pre race.

Some shopping in town introduced me to Tangine.. the little clay posts used to cook meats and vegetables. I ate Tangine almost every day. Chicken, Lamb, Beef. I can't begin to describe how good this was.

  As everyone arrived, including our erstwhile "Den Mother, Jay Batchen from Dreamchasers we had a bit of a class on packing.. which of course resulted in yet more cutting, and trimming and analyzing what to bring.

 So once again.. back to the room, which bore a striking resemblance to something out of a bad Elvis decorating class.

 

But finally. It was Friday and off to the desert we all went. Loading on to several buses we stopped briefly to pick up race officials and the long awaited Race Book! We learned the course, and the length of the legs..

And stopped at a luxurious roadside "cafe" for lunch.. the lunch was actually QUITE good.. but it was a harbinger of things to come in terms of our comfort level for the next week

After just about 6 hours we had gone as far as the buses could travel. We were loaded onto military transports for the remaining 15 minutes across sand and rock to our first Bivouac.

we were fed by race organizers on that Friday and Saturday for the technical check in but starting Saturday after dinner we were expected to be totally self sufficient except for water for the remainder of the race.

Saturdays technical check was a bit of a zoo.  Although we lined up at appointed times according to our bib numbers it still took a lot of time standing around in the hot sun.  Ultimately, bib, flare, timing chip and water ration punch cards in hand we felt like official competitors. Next up.. Stage One and an introduction into Race Director Patrick Baur's sense of what constitutes a "sandy rise"