The infamous Marathon des Sables – often described as ‘the world’s toughest footrace – is actually completely achievable by the anyone with a little amount of training. With generous cut-off times and a 93% success rate in 2019 (the year we ran it), you should not allow the intimidating title and rumours to put you off. I’m no superman but I did feel that the event is billed to sound harder than it actually is.

This is how I got to the finish line.

Application process.

The two ways to enter: pay for your place; or enter through a charity. The MDS website lists the main charities that have places:  https://marathondessables.co.uk/charity-places/

Private entry

You have two methods to enter privately; via the French entry or Rest of World.

Registering via the French approach will require a French address (surprisingly!). This will cost you €3300 (around £2850) and is by far the cheapest option for entering. You apply directly to ‘Atlantide Organisation Internationale’ (AOI) and transfer the cost by BACS using different payment options. I paid mine through 4 or 5 international bank transfers every 3-4 months which was completely manageable (I bank with Santander and they charged around £15 for each transfer).

Be aware, the system is not quite as slick as entering via the UK company (some emails are badly translated from French and you don’t get automatic entry to the UK expo). That said, I’d happily take that stress again to keep the entry costs manageable. You’re also accommodated in a lower quality hotel – however could easily pay to upgrade if you wanted.

Entering via the UK / RoW entry is done through a third-party company that adds extra costs. Anecdotally, some of my tent mates that went through this company paid £4250 (£1400 more than my French entry!). For that price, you do get entry to the UK expo and a better hotel (as well as dealing with a UK company for any queries or problems).

Charity places

I’m all for running events for charity – however the MDS is a big ask.

A charity that I approached for a place a few years ago told me they expected me to raise at least £10,000. Whilst this may not seem much for some (so I’m told), the challenge of trying to raise that much seemed like too much to add on top of quite a challenging training schedule, family commitments and running a company. So, I decided to self-fund my place and fundraise for a cause of my own choice.