April 15th, 2008 
Spooky 
That’s what the organizers say anyway.
Welcome to the world of lunatics and masochists – that’s what it says when you visit the “About” page on the official site of Le Marathon des Sables. And I don’t think they’re just saying that, I think they mean it. After all we are talking about 243 km of desert over a period of 6 days. That’s 5 and a half normal marathons of running through the sand, with a backpack on, in a temperature of over 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
You have to prepare your own food, so be careful what you bring with you as well as set up a tent to camp out over night in the unwelcoming Sahara desert. Food is rationed and handed out at specific checkpoints, so you have to reach them in order to get some water. Equipment is apparently very important as the rough terrain can do irreparable damage to your feet ( you’ll be running on uneven, rocky, stony ground as well as sand dunes).
Now comes the crazy part, if you’re crazy enough to register for Le Marathon, you’ll need to come up with $5000 to pay the entrance fee, not to mention all the money you have to spend on equipment, traveling and training. They should’ve said most expensive race too!
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The high entry fee includes the cost of repatriation of your corpse, should you not make.
No, seriously. It does.
120 degrees Fahrenheit = 48.8888889 degrees Celsius
That makes me thirsty!
And some of my friends took almost an hour to finish just a 5K. They should be ashamed.
eh sounds alot like the legionaires basic training just slightly modded for civilians
That is damn insanity. As a passionate runner, I bow down to anyone who even attempts this race. Keep an eye and ear out for my name, I just might do this one day.
Hey… hey… what’s that… coming over the dune…? OMG! WE’RE SAVED! LOOK! RICH WHITE PEOPLE!
That looks ridiculously hard. 120F…? Yeah, in the shade. At least it looks like they have some guides on camelback.
243K is about 151 miles…divided by 6 days is about
25 miles/day….
so if you walk 10 hours in a day
that is 2.5 miles/hour or 60/2.5=
24 minutes/mile…WALKING
But it’s in the friggin’ Saharan DESERT. If you think that’s easy, you obviously have never been to a real desert.
good share …nice pic
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The lengths some people will go to and the sheer hell they put themselves through never ceases to amaze me. Then, to pay for the privilege! Madness, but admired madness nonetheless.