Running the Sahara E-Book

Marcel Nickler

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 166

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Running the Sahara is more than my experience of participating in the Marathon des Sables 2017. Though much of the book is about my time in the desert, and I talk about my preparation and the equipment I used, the book is also profoundly personal. I tried my best to explore my passion for running and life. I hope the reader finds it entertaining and inspiring to follow me from meeting Herr Hammermann during my first marathon to my finish of the nearly 250-kilometer race in the Moroccan Sahara. It is a book about the gift of life, so there are some disappointments and moments of despair, but there are also triumphs and the sublime. I believe when dreams close, other dreams open, and that by setting goals and being disciplined, all of us can shift the balance and get to where we want to be. What started as a book about the Marathon des Sables turned into the story of my life.

Leseprobe

PRAISE FORRUNNING THE SAHARA

“I was fascinated by how thoroughly Marcel planned and successfully implemented his desert project. He paid attention to every small detail in his equipment and prepared his body as best as he could for the strenuous, long-lasting heat strain. He matured into a fennec fox and mentally managed to transfer the positive and radiate it. Chapeau, Marcel, you earned the biggest gold kudos.”

Aeneas Appius, multiple World, European and Swiss Duathlon champion

“This is a powerful story about pursuing your dreams, about stretching your belief, about what is possible and about sitting with your pain when the running gets tough. Marcel’s story shows that success is above all, a question of mental strength, dedication, and resilience. It is not so much about beating the others – it is about bringing out the best version of yourself.”

Karsten Drath, executive coach, speaker, author, and around-the-world-cyclist

“My lasting memory of the Marathon des Sables is one of intense hardship. Coping with the environment in the desert can lead to extreme moments and situations. Running the Sahara is a must-read and companion for anybody thinking about signing up for this grueling adventure.”

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, explorer, writer and poet

I dedicate this book to my wife, Monika. Without her support, I would not have been able to make my dreams come true.

PREFACE

“Life is too short to waste time on second-class ambitions. Go for the big ones, even if that means a higher failure rate.” This famous quote is by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, known as the world’s last living explorer. I had the pleasure of meeting Ranulph in 2011 at a global partner meeting of our firm, where he held a memorable and inspiring keynote with the title “Beyond the Limits.” Because I was in charge of organizing the meeting, I was lucky enough to have a couple of interactions with him. And looking back, that was a crucial moment in preparing me for something bigger. The Marathon des Sables? Though I didn’t have it in mind at that time, I am sure Ranulph’s anectodes about his time in the desert influenced me. And interestingly, we also shared some of our running experiences, as he and I had both finished the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc and the Swissalpine Marathon.

At the starting line in the Moroccan desert, writing a book about my adventure was not even a thought. The idea developed in the months after my return to Switzerland when I was encouraged by some of my colleagues who listened to stories I told about it.

In August 2017, I met Scott Solano for the first time in Frankfurt, and he became somewhat of a mentor for this book. Though the first chapter may have taken longer than initially planned, it was clear to me from the very beginning that quality was more important than adhering to a given time line. It was more important at that stage to find the right tone and pace and set the scene for the book.

At some points, writing was quite an emotional journey for me, when, for example, I tried to describe some crucial moments I faced in the past. During the process of writing, I reflected on some things and moments in my life that I even seemed to keep hidden from myself, locking them away in the undeserved background. It was an incredibly intense exercise, and I am glad I didn’t miss out on it.

Running the Sahara is the result of a two-year journey that I enjoyed very much. During that time, I learned a lot about myself, and some parts of the book surprised me when I recalled them. The human brain forgets quickly, and writing is an excellent way to force oneself to examine essential and intimate aspects of one’s life.

I wish you a good read and hope that you enjoy it. Any feedback on the book is more than welcome, and I’m happy to answer personally every incoming mail I get at [email protected].

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have to start by thanking my wonderful wife, Monika. She was the one who encouraged me to sign up for the adventure in the Sahara, and her mental support was just unbelievable in all phases of the book project. That also included reading early drafts and pieces as well as giving me advice on the cover and the design of the book. She was as important in getting this book done as I was.

After some time of reflection around my crazy idea of running the Marathon des Sables, I gained the full buy-in of my daughters, Manuela and Simone, and they both were indispensable and important companions.

Writing a book is harder than I thought and more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. All of this wouldn’t have been possible without the help and great support of my mentor Scott Solano. I learned a lot about storytelling from him, which added substantial value to this book.

I would also like to thank everyone who made themselves available as a sparring partner when discussing the book, and I hope that I didn’t steal too much of your precious time. You know who you are.

And last but not least, a big thanks to everybody who helped me in getting prepared as best as possible for the unknown: Aeneas, Anke, Birgit, Brigitte, Marco, Markus, my coach Timon, and all those not specifically named.

CONTENTS

Stage One – Beyond Imagination

Herr Hammermann

A Person’s Currency

Stage One – To the Bivouac

Emergence of an Idea

Stage Two – String of Pearls

Preparation and Equipment

Stage Three – Call of the Berbers

Arrival in Morocco

Stage Four – Steps Ahead

Ultramarathon

Stage Four – Nightfall

The Bivouac Experience

Stage Five – Highway to Hell

Notes on Running

Stage Six – Running for a Cause

Epilogue

Picture Moments

Equipment List

Food List

Marathons and More

TIMGALINE to WEST AGUENOUN N’OUMERHIOUT

STAGE ONE

BEYOND IMAGINATION

Flowing.

A river through the desert.

The body moves over the ground. Undulating muscles make a rhythm for the beating heart and aspirations, and my breath and my shoes hitting the sand are the only audible instruments as I flow through the dunes. Time has been left behind.

The morning heat has brought out a sheen of perspiration on my skin; my body feels like a well-oiled machine. I am 10 kilometers in on the first day of the 32nd Marathon des Sables. Any doubts or fears I may have had about the race have been dispelled.

I am flowing through the desert, near euphoric, overwhelmed by nature. There is a line of small dunes on either side of me, and towering, majestic dunes off to my left. The sky is vast, and an open horizon holds no secrets for kilometers.

This is fun, and the fun is set to continue for another six days. I and nearly 1,200 other participants are attempting to cross 237 kilometers of the Sahara Desert in southeastern Morocco. The Marathon des Sables is one of the world’s most grueling races, and I know that many people regard what I’m doing as insanity, but all I’m feeling right now is joy, something like the ecstasy whirling dervishes or congregations with raised and waving hands shouting praise must feel. I could do a few whirls too, but besides joy, there’s something else I’m feeling: thirst.

I check my watch and see that it’s well over 15 minutes since I took my last swallow of water. The beauty of the moment had captured me. I am carefully monitoring my water intake to make sure I have a few sips every quarter of an hour. I started the race with 1.5 liters of water divided between the two bottles attached to the front shoulder straps of my backpack with a straw in each for easy intake. Depending on the stage, I’ll get one or two 1.5-liter PET bottles at every checkpoint during the race and use the first bottle to fill up the shoulder strap bottles. The second bottle I’ll affix to the top of my front pack. I swallow two tablets of salt with the first sip from an opened PET bottle to give me the electrolytes I’ll need to keep my body going. It is morning and relatively cool, only around 20 degrees Celsius, though I’m still losing water and salt through my sweat. But it is nothing compared to what I will be losing when the sun makes the desert a blazing oven, pushing the temperature over 40 degrees Celsius, which will be baking all the moisture out of me in only a few minutes. I will be drinking water every 5 minutes by then.

If you are unfamiliar with the ultramarathon scene, then you probably believe people who run them are insane, and in a way, I’d agree, we are. People often ask me why I do it, why I would push my body and mind to their breaking points, and the simple answer I usually give is, “Because I can.”

Of course, there is much more to why I run than that.

At the starting line today, there were people from all over the world and all walks of life. Scientists are running, engineers, doctors, mothers, people searching for a path. Some were in costumes, and one man was even strumming a ukulele and singing, and it looked like he would be strumming and singing throughout the race. Yes, maybe many of us are somewhat crazy, but all of us are also connected: we are all runners who want to push ourselves past the impossible.

All of us have done a lot of preparation for this race, and maybe I am romanticizing or projecting onto the other runners what I consider to be one of my greatest strengths – and running has helped me to attain it – and that is balance. I sensed at the starting line that all of us had a certain balance, and if we didn’t have it, we wouldn’t be running this race, let alone finishing it.

The story I am telling as you run with me in the desert is not so much about running as it is about what running has given me and what I’ve discovered about myself and life through running. Much of it is about where the pounding of my feet has taken me in my thoughts and how I have applied what running has gifted me.

I am not a runner fighting for championships, so don’t expect tales of my duels with the world’s best ultrarunners. I grew up in Basel, Switzerland, and not Copper Canyon in northern Mexico with the Tarahumara. I have run two sub-3-hour marathons – a feat many healthy people could probably reach with the right training and discipline, and if they start young enough … and have a bit of luck – and though time was important to me because I had set myself the goal of breaking 3 hours, the greatest race for me has no clock, and that race has always been the one with myself. It took me many years to realize that. Some of the lessons I have learned from running long distances are that difficult phases can be overcome, that difficulties and pain are teachers, and you come out as a better and stronger person, or at least I hope I have.

I take a few sips of water as my feet pick their way over an oued, a dried riverbed of packed sand and rocks. I had heard that running on these dried riverbeds can be brutal, that it can feel as if the sand and stones beat the energy out of your calves, but here at around kilometer 10, all is going well.

The small dunes on either side are wondrously sculpted, and the towering dunes off to the left are so magnificent that it is almost difficult for me to accept that they are there, that they are not from my imagination. I would not be surprised seeing T. E. Lawrence atop one of the dunes scanning the desert with his camera. It is a magical setting, and there is a softness to the harsh landscape.

It is said that you can sometimes hear the dunes singing. Wind moving over the dunes creates overhangs of sand, and when an overhang eventually collapses, it triggers an avalanche of grains of sand. Amazingly, grains of sand sing at different frequency levels depending on the region. While Moroccan dunes sing in the neighborhood of G-sharp (two octaves below the middle C), the Omani sands may cover frequencies between F-sharp and D. I haven’t heard the dunes singing yet, but I hope that I will before the race ends.

Water and salt are going to save me today, and I better not get too distracted by the beauty around me, by the seductress that is Mother Nature. Even though the first day is the “introductory” run, a relatively short jaunt of 30.3 kilometers, the first day always sees a few unfortunate souls already having to drop out. I would bet that at least one person who won’t run after today didn’t drink enough water.

I cannot recollect if I was thinking about it while entranced by the dunes around kilometer 10 on that first day, but it’s a good place to pretend I was and talk about something I’ve thought a lot about on many of my runs. Though I am an executive at a large consultancy, money has never been what has driven me, and I never judge a person by what is in his or her Porte-monnaie.

What is a person’s currency?

HERR HAMMERMANN

Like all great teachers, running has seemingly unlimited patience. It is always there waiting for you, whether you want it to be or not, and some mornings when the bed is warm and Sirens beckon from the land of sleep, you may wish you had Socrates and his dialectic instead of the command to move.

My passion for long-distance running started in 1998 after a friend of mine, Tobias Scheuring, told me about the incredible experience he had running a marathon. Up to that point, I had participated in some races, a few 10Ks and half marathons, but running was more a way to keep in shape than a passion, than a way of life. I was more into cycling back then, but it did not have a hold on me or even come close to giving me what running has.

Listening to Tobias talk about the marathon – and he had chosen the Lausanne Marathon to be his first – inspired me to give it a go. Though the Lausanne Marathon is not a big name when it comes to marathons, not like Boston, New York, London, and Berlin, it is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful in the world. It starts in the city of Lausanne and follows the shore of Lake Geneva and alongside the Lavaux Vineyard Terraces, which are in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Running in such a setting, as Tobias described it, with hundreds of runners becoming part of the city and the amazing landscape with the finish at the Olympic Museum, made me want my first marathon to be in Lausanne too. What made me want to run even more than the setting, though, was what Tobias had said about the physical and mental challenges of running such a distance.

I had run a few half marathons, but I had never “hit the wall” because I had never run far enough. After listening to Tobias relate his sensations of hitting the wall and his struggle to push past it, I knew that I had to experience the hammer coming down on the body. I have always enjoyed challenges, and the transition from when the body burns up all its carbohydrates and switches to using predominantly body fat for fuel, as crazy as it may sound, was something I needed to experience. Challenging myself has always been what has kept me going, and that applies to my professional life as well.

I did not immediately start waking up early and go running because that is not how I go about things. For good or bad – and I would argue much to my benefit, for it is how I enjoy going about things – I first researched running marathons and prepared a training plan and set a goal for myself, which was to finish the marathon in 3 hours and 30 minutes. Looking back at that time, I see how much the world has changed in the last two decades. I was not searching the internet but was flipping through magazines and books searching for the best information on how to prepare for a marathon. The book I found, written by Thomas Steffens and Martin Grüning, had just recently been issued by Runner's World. It included a systematic plan for successfully running a marathon at different target times, and that was the perfect approach for me. When I have a goal, I always make a plan on how to reach it, and I stick to the plan. I would say that it is one of my strengths.

My wife Monika and I saw the marathon as a daring goal but not something that would turn into the passion that it is today, or that I would someday push myself to even longer distances. The plan called for four training sessions per week, with long runs on the weekend every two weeks. Our daughters, Manuela and Simone, were still small, and with the help of Monika, I was able to have time for the runs and still pursue my professional obligations and duties.

As the day of the marathon drew near, I could feel my adrenaline levels spiking. I was nervous at times, and now and again, a voice in my head would ask what the hell I was doing. But I was mostly excited, and the training had gone well. I had only missed a couple of training sessions at most and felt confident that I would conquer the marathon.

Tobias would be with me for my first marathon. We took the train from Basel to Lausanne the day before the race and checked into a hotel by the lake in Lausanne Ouchy. After picking up our bib numbers, we left our own drink bottles to be distributed along the racecourse as you can do at some marathons, and that allowed me to use my proven sports drink. It was a little thing, but when you add up little things, like loose change, you can purchase something, and in this case, I was buying a psychological boost. Perhaps that boost would be there when I needed it most.

We had decided to pass on mountains of pasta at the pasta party and instead chose to dine at a cozy restaurant in the old part of town. Some runners may frown, but of course we raised glasses of a fine red wine and made a toast to a strong race. A glass of red wine helps get a better night's sleep. It is also said that the penultimate night before a race is more critical, and I had slept well in my own bed beside my wife.

The body should have at least 3 hours to get going before the start of a race, so I had set my alarm clock for 6:00 a.m. and had also asked my wife to call me just in case. A third hedge was the wake-up service of the hotel. That may sound a bit over the top and probably is, but putting the little things in place gives me the certainty that what I can control will not go wrong.