Story
Become fearless when you participate in the toughest foot race on earth!
The Marathon des Sables is a truly immense 250km multi-stage ultra marathon through a mythical landscape in one of the worlds most inhospitable environments the Sahara desert. You have to be self-sufficient and carry all your own food and equipment for the week on your back as you make your way across the sand dunes.
What you'll face on the MdS:
After touching down in Morocco, in just 6 days you will run over 250km (156 miles) through endless dunes, over rocky jebels, and across white-hot salt plains. The sun will be your constant enemy with temperatures regularly reaching 50 centigrade. The sand will be your constant companion, clouds of it under your feet, sheets of it stinging your eyes and lots of it chafing where it shouldn't. The long stage has become a legend in itself.
You will run out of a Saharan morning, into the dusk and then the dark, many not finishing the 80+km (52 miles) till well into the next day. Your feet will swell, crack and bleed under the pressure and the heat. But none of this will matter when you cross the finishing line a hero.
Your race, their future...
"Hope for Children is a small charity and I quickly felt part of the team. I felt my fundraising was really being used to good effect." - Adrian May, three-times MDS participant
Through joining Team Hope, your MDS experience can make a meaningful contribution to the lives of children and families around the world.