Sharon GayterOFR
Ocean Floor Race
160 miles non-stop
The White Desert in Egyptian Western Sahara
3rd – 7th February 2013
I had a very restful December. After a poor performance in Oslo my body was telling me to take a break. A bad cold hindered me even more and stopped training completely and can boast just two runs of 5km for December. January saw a slow, but very eager return to training. Within two weeks my 5km parkruns improved from over 26 minutes to just over 22 minutes and all was progressing in the right direction until I spotted the Ocean Floor Race. With the cold weather here a week in the sun and heat and spectacular surroundings was just what I wanted. The only problem – it was barely three weeks away and I had no long runs under my belt. My very next run was 20 miles with a pack, but it was the Monday that the snow began to fall and it was a very long, cold run pretending the snow was the white desert.
Although my speed had gone, my ability to run long distance with little training had not and on 11th January I send off my entry form. The following weeks training was again poor with the snow in the North East so much of it was completed on a treadmill, but there was little quality work or long distance runs. The dates soon came around and it felt pretty daunting to be going into such a long distance ultra with so little training to back me up. My goals for the race were simply to have fun and enjoy a week in the sun, a long run, some heat and hopefully some wonderful scenery. There were no particular goals for time, a half-hearted 48 hours was a minor goal which was half the cut-off time for the race.
Friday 1st February
I was up at 6am to say goodbye to Bill as he left for work at 6:30am. I started the long drive to Heathrow at 7am. It was a traffic free journey; even the M25 was easily negotiated and arrived well early at terminal 3 for my flight to Cairo. Recent kidnappings in the Sahara in Algeria and riots in Cairo had plagued the news recently, so there was a little concern that this was where I was travelling to. My flight was on time and five hours later landed in Egypt. It was 1am by the time I reached Novotel Hotel and the pick-up point for the morning. The room was clean but stunk of smoke, something I had been accustomed to not missing with the smoke bans in the UK and had a very restless night of sleep worrying I would not wake up for the 8am meeting to depart.
Saturday 2nd February
At 7am there was time for a shower before breakfast and while checking out the whole group for Ocean Floor Race including competitors and crew were there. They all seemed to know each other already and knew who I was. I was inundated with introductions from everyone and found it hard to remember all their names. Apparently most of the others had flown in a couple of days earlier so they could visit the Pyramids and do some sight-seeing. I had been here before and was only here for the race. Checking out took ages but we were all ready to leave on the bus as planned at 8:30am. We had barely got moving when there was an issue with the bus cutting out and were soon stranded in a bus yard waiting for a replacement bus to take us to the desert. After approximately two hours of delay we were on our way for another very long journey. We had a short break around 1pm and finally made the lunch stop at around 4:30pm where a hot meal awaited. The pasta and fresh vegetables were good but the meat looked like dog food and was not to my liking. Darkness was soon upon us as we left and made a note that by 6:30pm it was black. That would mean around 12 hours of darkness for the race. The last part was on bumpy roads and we were met by jeeps to take us the final few miles over sand to the camp. It was cold on arrival and we were told it was three to a tent and to find our accommodation. The journey had taken around 12 hours including a couple of hours for a breakdown and instantly worried there was no way I would make my 5:45pm flight home on Friday, but that worry would have to wait for later.
There were only 12 competitors for this first time race and 4 were female. Sarah and Amanda were to complete the event together and so I bunked down with Kenwynne. There were two Italians, Pasquale and Tommaso, the rest were British: Tom, Jamie, Bryan, Matt, George and Tony. For crew from the UK there was race organiser Keith, physio Will, masseur Sarah, trainee GP Pippa and entertainer and dogs body Adrian. We were spoilt by having a tent to ourselves. The tents were big white canvas tents, the size we had for 8 in the Grand Canyon. Inside were three beds with pillows and quilts. I was pretty gob-smacked – camping in proper beds! Absolute luxury! Within a few minutes we were asked to attend a briefing. I was desperate for the toilet but had yet to find it in the dark and had spent ages trying to find my head torch in the dark.
My bed in the tent!
Big flasks of hot water appeared with plastic cups and tea and coffee to make drinks while we had the briefing. Diaa was the guy in charge for describing what we were about to see, but I was tired, very, very tired. It was 9pm and struggled to concentrate and listen and eventually had to go out and find the toilet. A start time was agreed of 11am so we would have to be ready for 10am as there was a short drive to the start. Food followed of chicken and rice. I had a small portion as it was very late for eating and could not sleep on a full stomach and went immediately to bed. There was time to sort the drop bags in the morning.
Constant hot water for tea and coffee.
It was a very cold night and could tell this and wrapped up well and slept incredibly well. I heard movement at first light at 6:30am but it was so cold I didn’t want to leave the comfort of my bed. Eventually I crawled out at 7:30am. Breakfast was pancakes, eggs, cheese triangles and flat bread. I avoided the pancakes and had some egg and bread and then went to sort my drop bags. The event had a minimal kit to carry of sleeping bag, head torch, water containers for 2 litres, signalling mirror, whistle, GPS, warm clothes for the night, hat, sunscreen and electrolytes. This was pretty light weight for such an event. There were 11 checkpoints, number 11 being the finish, so that made 10 places where you could have a drop bag with extras such as food, clothing and spare batteries. The route was to be navigated by GPS, there are no maps in a desert and I find this an exciting way to explore the desert, to run with freedom and experience the desert on your own in the peace and quiet of nature and your own company. There were 46 waypoints for the route that had been sent a week previous and downloaded to the GPS. I was using a Garmin Oregon 450, a big improvement on the Ifindergo I had used in Libya. I was asked many times what I put in my drop-bags and what I ate, so here it is for you all to see. H5 is just a plain carbohydrate powder, m’shake is a milkshake meal replacement drink, this particular one was called Glycoslim from Mannatech, mugshot is a pasta or noodle meal made in a mug with hot water, the biscuits were a packet of Belvita breakfast biscuits, crunch was a Harvest cheweee bar a bit like soft flapjack. The H5 and m’shake were decanted into small sealed plastic bags to make up exactly 500ml with water, added to this was a teaspoon of Neovite. I also had a small bottle of Elete to add to all water as my electrolyte supplement. This was my exact schedule as planned and written before leaving home, only the physical time was altered to the 12 noon start.
Pancakes at breakfast.
CP / Total km / Km to CP / time / Time to CP / Food/clothesstart / 0 / 0 / 12:00 / H5, grapes, jelly beans
1 / 26.7 / 26.7 / 15:00 / 3 hrs / H5, m’shake, grapes, custard, biscuits
2 / 50.7 / 24 / 19:00 / 4 hrs / H5, m’shake, grapes, mugshot, soup, crunch, jelly beans (night clothes)
3 / 81 / 30.3 / 24:00 / 5 hrs / H5, m’shake, grapes, mugshot, custard, biscuits
4 / 106 / 25 / 04:00 / 4 hrs / H5, m’shake, grapes, mugshot, soup, crunch, jelly beans (socks)
5 / 131.6 / 25.6 / 09:00 / 5 hrs / H5, m’shake, grapes, mugshot, custard, biscuits
6 / 148 / 16.4 / 12:00 / 3 hrs / H5, m’shake, grapes, mugshot, soup, crunch, jelly beans
7 / 179.6 / 31.6 / 19:00 / 7 hrs / H5, m’shake, grapes, mugshot, custard, biscuits (socks, long shirt)
8 / 211 / 31.4 / 02:00 + 2hrs = 04:00 / 7 hrs + 2 hrs sleeps / H5, m’shake, grapes, mugshot, soup, crunch, jelly beans
9 / 233.5 / 22.5 / 09:00 / 5 hrs / H5, m’shake, grapes, mugshot, biscuits
10 / 243 / 9.5 / 11:00 / 2 hrs / H5, grapes, soup, custard
11 / 260 / 17 / 14:00 / 3 hrs
161.6miles
From the food listed I ate approximately 6 x H5, all grapes (around 100), about 10 jelly beans, 3 pots custard, 3 packs biscuits, 2 x cheweee, 1 soup, 3 mugshots and from checkpoints 2 cups coke, 1 coffee, 1 tea, 1 soup, 2 x noodles , 2 eggs and a few mouthfuls of plain cold spaghetti. So about a quarter of what I took which is about normal for me – much more than I ate in Libya.
In my backpack, which is a GoLite I had a down sleeping bag (Kimmlite mummery 0.5), Petzl head torch, signalling mirror, whistle, first aid (ibuprofen, anti-acid, piriton, pins, Sudocrem, lip-salve, Vitabiotics patches, plasters, second skin) several packs of tissues and a packet of anti-bacterial wipes, I also used P20 sun oil. I had three water bottles carried on the front, two 500ml for H5 and milkshake and one 750ml for water. I had a spare 500ml bladder in my pack if needed. I had a sun hat with neck protection, buff, gloves and light weight jacket from Montane and Oakley sunglasses. I carried all my spare batteries as I thought these were too essential to leave in a drop bag in case they did not appear. I wore Falke vest, knickers and socks, compression shorts, and t-shirt and had Hoka One One Mafate shoes with the toes covered to prevent sand from entering and a pair of gaiters to attach over these.
At 10am I was ready as planned, but unsurprisingly the organisation was still preparing. I had anticipated this and fully expected that maybe a 12 midday start may happen, if not later. I sat around in the large communal tent that had tables and chairs and spare water keeping out of the heat, I would be in it for long enough. By 11am things were moving and we got in the jeeps for the 45 minute journey to the start. We arrived around 11:45am and guessed the start would be 12 noon. A quick visit behind the local rocks and we were ready for the off. A rather lack lustre “you can go now” was vaguely heard and had to confirm with Keith, “Is that the start?” and we were off.
Start of the Ocean Floor Race (me in pink on the right).
The first part was on a sand track for jeeps and was easy running. I felt very heavy legged after all the travelling and knew it would take a while to move more freely, but it was wonderful to be wearing shorts and t-shirt and have to wear sunglasses as it was so bright. It was time to get used to the GPS and at times it was difficult to read with the bright sunlight reflecting from it, but a clear pink line appeared to be followed. There were four runners ahead of me. Pasquale in the lead; then George, Tom and another male. The start was not particularly inspiring, but it’s difficult to get a full 160 miles of panorama. After a couple of hours there was just me and Pasquale, although we were not running together, Pasquale was off to my right running a parallel line trying to avoid some of the small climbs that I went straight over. The terrain was a mixture of sand and gravel and the odd rocky bit thrown in that required careful footing. It was around 2:30pm that the first checkpoint appeared in the distance, slightly elevated on a sandy climb. As I neared the checkpoint Pasquale closed in and we were together as we reached the checkpoint.
The first checkpoint was well laid out, all drop bags placed with a bottle of water and easy to find. Apparently we had to sign in and out ourselves and a pen and paper were hung on the pole holding up the middle of the tent, but as all the crew from the UK were here this job was done for me on this occasion but it was good to know the layout for future checkpoints. From my drop bag I ate the custard and grapes, refilled with H5 and water and added some Elete. I also put the pack of biscuits in my bag. Sarah had noticed I was a little pink and wondered if I needed more sun cream. I was totally unaware but on looking at my arms realised she was right and gratefully accepted the offer and it was kindly applied for me while I ate my food. With that complete I headed out, Pasquale had already gone and could be seen in the distance.
The route was initially a small climb in the sand and then the route flattened out to a mixture of gravel and sand and was easy to run. I found myself alongside Pasquale and we had a brief conversation. He asked if I wanted him to leave me to run on my own and if he was bothering me. This was very sweet of him but he was a pleasure and nice to have a little security of someone around in this remote place, although I was more than confident to run alone. We ran a few miles together in relative silence with our own thoughts, the way I like it and by the time I reached checkpoint 2 I had not realised that Pasquale had dropped back.