I have just completed theMarathon des Sables, an endurance race in the Moroccan desert, to raise funds for Motivation. The event itself began rather dramatically with a cancellation to the first leg of the race due to freak flooding, in the desert!  The big question was: would the race still go ahead? Thoughts turned to the prospect of water-logged packs and wet sandy feet. After two years’ build up, and the fantastic support from family, friends and even people we hardly knew, what we wanted more than anything was for the race to go ahead. The race finally got the go ahead, to our collective relief, and we were off.

The first day was straight into 14km of classicSahara sand dunes, with another 4km at the end for good measure. Day two brought the first batch of blisters and a steep learning curve on how to treat them! By now ‘Tent 80’, which was home to our group, had decided that we would keep going through the night to complete the long stage (91km) and have some time to recover before the next marathon. Keeping going for hour after hour is not possible with just physical fitness. Thoughts of family, friends and the amazing support I have received kept coming into my head and helped me to keep going. At 04.10 in the morning – more than 19 hours after setting off, I crossed the finish line for that stage. It was a fantastic feeling.

I will never forget my view of the finish on the final day. After winding up and round a rocky corner; on the horizon down in the valley below were the camp and the finish. It was very emotional and I mentally savoured every step of the run towards the line. As the competitors finished, we lined up cheering and clapping people in. I am thrilled to say that the support I have received from friends, family and supporters enabled me to push myself to the absolute limit and I finished the race 389^th out of over 820 starters. I was also the 30^th woman; a great personal achievement.