My awesome mother is flying to Morocco this Sunday to compete in the 23rd annual Marathon des Sables. Here’s an excerpt from the race website about this year’s course:
The route for 2008 is 245.3 Km long, making it the longest ever in the history of the MARATHON DES SABLES.
The race will be challenging from day one – and continue that way – offering all the variety of the Sahara. The course will take runners over ergs (dune zones), seriously steep jebels (up to 25% slope factor) and rocky plateaus. They’ll have to cross hard as iron salt-flats and the driest of wadis. The backdrop to all of this is the most beautiful of landscapes with vistas accessible only to those on foot.
I’m jealous! But 245 kilometers, even over five days, is not easy. So, I encourage you to send my mother some words of encouragement or just a ‘hello’ via the race’s email delivery service, from March 29th to April 4th. My mother’s yoga website has instructions and a link to the page from where you can send messages. There is no specific address information yet. I am assuming that will not be posted until the 29th in order to avoid spam and such. Unfortunately this means I can’t send a message, since I will be in Papua New Guinea during that time. But I encourage you all to!
This is the city where the race is based (starts?):
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