Huw Williams Completes the Marathon des Sables
6 Marathons in 6 Days: 156 Miles Across the Sahara Desert
10th May 2017
Huw Williams, Business Development Manager at CCICM has just completed the Marathon des Sables, a race which is widely accepted as being the hardest physical challenge a human can undertake.
The race consists of 6 marathons, run over a total of 6 days across the Sahara desert – considered to be the toughest terrain on the planet.
“Many people imagine the Sahara as a never-ending sea of sand dunes and very little else” said Huw. “There is, of course, plenty of sand. Some dunes called jebels are just under 1,000meters in height with safety ropes attached towards the summit. But there are also a lot of hard, rocky outcrops, plateaus and hills.”
“Reality hit home the end of the first day when a runner was airlifted out of the desert after a heart attack on the course”
He added “My training was a mix of running in the Snowdonia National Park, which is rough, mountainous terrain and along the Llyn Peninsula coastal path. However the Sahara was in a completely different league. Temperatures ranged from 52 degrees Centigrade during the day to minus 3 degrees at night. We were running across huge sand dunes and steep, rocky ground, battling sandstorms and carrying all our food and equipment.”
The race is broken down into one marathon per day on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, a double on Wednesday and one on Friday. It finishes with a 4 mile charity run on Saturday.
“The double marathon on Wednesday was the toughest part” said Huw. “I suffered a persistent nose bleed in the early part of the race due to the heat. At one point the medics said I’d need to pull out if it didn’t stop. Thankfully it did, and I was able to carry on and complete the whole race.”
Out of a total of almost 1300 runners, 1137 finished the race with Huw in 549th place.
“It was an incredible experience but definitely once in a lifetime!” said Huw. “I’ll enjoy watching it from the comfort of my sofa next year!”
Huw has raised over £6,200 for Scope so far, which includes a £500 donation from CCICM. If you are interested in donating, you can either visit his JustGiving page or email him for more information.
