MdS Day 5 - Recovery at Bivouac 4
09April 2015
Mosi and I managed to be in bed by 11pm yesterday. We slept pretty good aside from the painful aspect of trying to get comfortable. There were rocks under the carpet but we didn't care. Our bodies were screaming for rest and the Berber tent was a warm welcome to a grueling day on the course. As Mosi and I slept, there were still other runners out on the course that would continue to push themselves through the night and into the early morning. Most would cross the finish while Mosi and I were sawing logs. Waking up the next morning was like a scene from a battle movie after everyone has returned from fighting. The bivouac was quiet and there was no major movements going on in the morning other than people waking up, Berbers fixing tents, and runners still coming off the course. Runners looked exhausted. As we did the previous night, runners would course the finish line almost 24 hours after they started and grab their water rations and make their way to the tents. Most spent little time chatting and simply wanted to sleep.
Mosi and I woke up around 5:30am to Berbers working on our tent. I woke up completely delirious because I couldn't remember what day it was and I thought I woke up late for another stage. With our tent now back up, Mosi and I decided to get the tent prepared for our tent mates. We got up and slowly packed our stuff. We then pulled the carpet out from under the tent and began to get our sleeping area nice and level. We would spend an entire day and night under this tent so we made extra sure that we had a comfortable sleeping area. After that was accomplished, we gathered our clothes from yesterday and did some laundry as well as washed ourselves. We managed to have all this completed by 6:30. During this time, I rolled next door to talk to Liza and see how her stage run went. To my surprise, she was not back yet. I thought I heard her roll in last night about an hour after we went to bed. I got a little concerned because that meant she was either at the medical tent getting something worked on or was still out on the course. I knew that she wouldn't be pulled from the course, Liza is one that knows how to take care of herself regardless of the circumstances. This worried me a little. After a quick tent visit, we got ourselves pretty well put back together and went back to resting. We would watch several folks we know walk past our tent and we would send out huge congratulation shout outs to each of them.
We watched Douglas Deny, Chris Tidmore, and Mark Lattanzi finish and head straight to bed. Around 7:30, Mosi and I saw Liza walking from the finish line to her tent which was right next to ours. She was carrying her water rations and looked pretty tired but still in the game. We cheered her on and she smiled and shook her head. You could tell she went through a battle overnight. She went on tell the group that she had some stomach issues that kept her at CP5 and then at CP6 for a few hours. She's a trooper, a mentor/coach, and one amazing friend that still manages to smile even when things get rough.
The third person back to our tent was Alissa Larson. She ran all day and night and finished the stage in just a little over 24 hours. We cheered her on as she came to the tent and she had a huge smile on her face. She got under the tent and we chatted a bit as Mosi and I helped her sort her kit and get her recovery drink going. Before going to sleep, Alissa would tell us a hilarious story about how she was accidentally intruded on by other runners while trying to urinate. Turns out she forgot her chem-light was on her back and when she stepped off the trail to use the restroom, other runners looking for the trail spotted her chem-light and walk/jogged straight onto her. She had Mosi and I in tears as she was telling this story. Within 20-30 minutes, Alissa would be sleeping like a rock.
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| Alissa fast asleep within a few minutes of getting off of Stage 4. |
There are no pictures of Patrick (aka Dad) because the only thing we saw of Patrick all day was his pack on the side of the tent and his zip-lock bag of food out in the sun. If I'm not mistaken, this would be Patrick's 15th Marathon Des Sables and he new every facet of the race and organization. Rumor has it that Patrick was out on course and was spotted walking with Patrick Bauer, the head honcho of MdS, on course around CP5. He was respected amongst all the race officials and the treatment was as if he had some real mafia ties into the organization. Everyday we would wake up with Patrick in our tent, he would get dressed and be gone and we wouldn't see him until it was time to go to bed. He was a true man of mystery. One morning he woke up and started shouting something to the Berbers and before we knew it, roughly 5-8 Berbers were running frantically around our tent and getting the tent squared away. It was amazing! He was a few words but when he spoke you listened. Both Patrick and Martin would finish around the 25:20 mark.
Up next to arrive was Dean who crossed the finish line at 26:20. Dean was an awesome tent mate who would have us cracking up late into the night almost every night. Dean's feet were pretty messed from day 1 but continued to push hard during every stage. His motivation to keep going was very inspiring! Dean had his daily routine down pat. He would cross the finish line and immediately go to the medical tent and pull a number. After that, he would walk over to our tent and drop his gear and settle down for about 30 minutes or so. He would set out his dinner into the sun, get his recovery meal and drink ready and then would chill out for a minutes. During this time, he would tell us about his stage experience and the people we would hang with. Every story was extremely comical and it was truly a great experience with him in our tent. Each time Dean needed to get up he would ask Mosi to brace his arm out. Dean would then use it as a crutch to hoist himself up. Dean would spend the better part of the morning and early afternoon getting his feet doctored up for recovery and the next stage. Truly inspirational on all levels!
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| Dean giving the thumbs up within a few minutes after his arrival. |
At this point, I was feeling pretty tired again and beginning to dose off. I was trying to stay awake to welcome Felicia back in once she arrived. As I started to dose off, I started to dream that I was for some reason listening to the song Footloose. The more I concentrated on it, the more predominate the song would be. As I started to wake up back up, I took a look toward the finish line and saw Felicia about 50 meters from the tent. She was in a slow trot and had her phone playing music and the song she rolled in with was Footloose. I tried to wake up out of the coma I was in quickly to help her out but for some reason I couldn't get up. Felicia would come to the tent and drop her water bottles and kit. She looked pretty tuckered out like everyone else. Mosi would help get her pack off and we worked to get her recovery drink mixed into one of her water bottles. She would then go on to tell us about her stage experience and what checkpoint 5 was like as the evening went on.
Checkpoint 5 apparently was the place to be once it got dark out. As runners would check-in, there would be a band playing music, tents to sleep in, tea to drink, and chairs to sit in. It was like an oasis out in the desert specific to MdS runners. Those that stayed the night at CP5 had a descent experience out on the trail.
With everyone in, our tent focused most of our efforts on recovering from Stage 4. All of our runners were back before noon on this day and all were as healthy as one could be during the long stage. My focus was to eat as much as possible, take care of any injuries that came up, help others, and get rehydrated. We had one more stage left to MdS.
Today, we also managed to get a little surprise in the afternoon which was a nice and cold Coca-cola. Words can not describe how good this tasted. I was like a little kid with cake and popped the top and guzzled the drink down. Others like Alissa, were more conservative on their consumption and actually saved the drink to be consumed the following day.
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| Coca-Cola does the body good! Fueling my addiction in so many ways!!! |
Here's a couple more pictures from rest day:
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| Lost in MdS dreamland... |
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| Catching a quick mid-morning breakfast |
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| Lentil, Quinoa, and Onion soup for dinner while reading our daily emails and letting the feet air out. |
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| Feet carnage after days of running. The left toe is causing the biggest issues for me. |
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| Team WAA getting a photo shoot on the horizon. Dudes straight-up naked and washing themselves in the middle and far right. |
At this point, I never paid attention to rankings with MdS as this wasn't a 100% goal of mine. My focus for this race was to gain a ton of running experience while in competition and finish MdS. I never considered myself to be in the top 200. I figured that I was somewhere in the 200-300 range. Mosi and I decided that it would probably be best to check out the rankings prior to the last stage. Come to find out, I was in the top 200 which meant that I would start in the second group on the last stage. I didn't realize what this would mean until I would toe the line the next day with tons of runners that I look up to. Almost everyone I would see on the list of 200 would be names that I've come to know about while researching MdS. Tomorrow is going to be a great honor to run and I'm pretty excited about this opportunity. I'll get to start with the following U.S. runners: Dave Mackey, Meghan Hicks, and Garth Reader. All of which are very cool and inspirational runners.
For some reason, MdS now becomes a competition. I'm currently ranked around 150th and only a couple hours separates me from the top 100. My plan is to run as hard as I can manageably run the last stage and see how far I can climb up the rankings. To do this, I know I need to eat, rehydrate and rest as much as possible.
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