Hello everyone, 

Here is a  draft report on my last week race in Tunisia: the Trans 333kms. Non-stop race of about 208 miles, making it the current longest desert race. 

39 runners from I believe 10 countries at the start, (although mostly from France and UK) Only 1 woman participant (Alicjia Barahona Polish Canadian from New York who won the race last year and finished 5th this time, despite suffering quite substantially from her back during sections of the race).

Instead of being a race staged from point A to B as in previous years in Mauritania, the race this year, moved to Southern Tunisia, had more of a figure 8 shape with 16 checkpoints.  The race took us through chots (dry salt lakes), sand dunes, Star Wars movie location, canyons, Algerian border, a small mining town and a few other interesting villages along the way.

Weather was quite drastic: going from around 4 Degrees Celsius at night to 30 Degrees Celsius in mid day, making the race more challenging, requiring racers to carry more gear in their small backpacks to deal with shivering nights... We even experienced cold rain on 2 nights, yes in the bloody desert, where it had not rained substantially for the last 6 years! 

Food & water: was well provided at each checkpoint about every 20 Kms - Did not have to worry about getting sick with the local mountain goat stew as in last year race in Mauritania....  In deed, the race provided ready meals that could be heated "au bain marie", similar to MREs but better tasting.

We were also provided with the best and freshest dates the Tunisian desert can offer !

Support: provided by local Tunisians all coming from the same district in Tozeur, for the most part eager to please the racers and competing among themselves to be recognized as the best checkpoint ! They were definitely helpful and received additional support from the 6 doctors provided by the organization called Doc Trotters that usually handle medical care for expedition type racing. Definitely a great bunch of professionals who understand clearly how to handle "extreme" runners (as are the Trans 333k finishers called...), willing to do whatever it takes to help us patch ourselves to make it to the finishing line, no matter what !

Talking of which, my personal experience this year was not as successful as last year.... I made the mistake to run a 100km race (trailwalker in Hong Kong) the previous weekend, supposedly for training. I ran the race the last 5 years without any complication but this year, I hurt my Achilles tendon and was not fully recovered a week later when it was time to start the Trans 333km in Tunisia. I was aware of it but decide to start the race in any event to test my endurance, similar to what I would have to experience if I got hurt after 100km in a 433km race ! ;-) 

The race was due to start on the Saturday night at 5pm as in last year to let us adapt ourselves to the local temperature but instead had to be postponed to the following morning, because of the following reason: The weather was not the best on the Saturday afternoon (Sand storm) and the Tunisian army did not give us the permission to start in the evening since we were going to run along the Algerian border for a while and they were concerned that during the sand storm some of us could get lost on the wrong side of the border and could be potentially detained or better yet shot by the Algerian army....    Not your typical race, as you can see... ;-)

So, having arrived the morning before from Tokyo, I was quite glad to be able to enjoy one extra night in a bed at our comfortable hotel in Tozeur.

On the morning of the race, we were brought in by 4x4 to 40kms away from Tozeur, near a mountain called "le dos du chameau" since it was peculiarly shaped like a Camel profile. Prior to the race start, the RD asked for 1 minute of silence in memory of the 2 experienced trail runners that died in La Reunion the previous month, one of a heart attack and 1 (friend with a few runners present)  while passing a competitor on the edge of a precipice. We then on to start the race at a pretty good speed.

The winners of the 3 previous years were there at the start and actually finished this year 1st, 2d and 5th. The first person (Frenchman Claude Hardel) finishing in 49 hours, barely having stopped at any of the checkpoints and only taking a 15 minutes nap along the way.

33 runners completed the race out of 39 with a few very strong runners having to drop out, having pushed themselves to hard at the beginning, trying to keep up with Claude Hardel.

Not feeling too much of the Achilles tendon pain at the start, I took advantage of it and started to run, applying the concept "it's money in the bank!". By the 20th km, I was still in the top 10 but then had to start to "hike and run". By the 33km, I was reduced to simply "fast walking" and that was going to be the case for the next 300kms where I never ran again...

A race can seem quite long when one cannot run for a huge amount of it and it started to remind a bit of the 350 miles race I hiked last Feb in Alaska where I had to pull a chubby sled !

In any event, my concept from the race, viewed from the rear, completely changed from there on. I dropped to 35th place, and progressively moved back up to finish in 23rd place in 93 hours (3 days, 21 hours), applying quite a steady pace, where I took the time though to eat substantially and sleep a total of 7.5 hours.

Along the way, I spent about 70 hours walking alone in the desert, which was once again quite a great experience: beautiful full moon, meteor storm(http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/14nov_leonidtips.htm), ramadan period, screaming/ mating camels ;-), interesting hallucinations at one point. I met local children often asking for pens along the way (like if we were going to carry some in our backpacks for 333kms....) but receiving some of my energy bars instead...

Quite enjoyed the exchange in French with desert nomads, not comprehending the concept of the race and not understanding why I was not willing to accept their donkey ride offer while I was racing, no matter how tired I might have looked.... ;-)

I also spent about 16 hours walking with fascinating walkers in the race, such as Camille (a well experienced desert runner from Corsica, who usually organizes his own "desert crossing" booking his own camel (!) to go across the Gobi desert or sections of the Australian Bush) as well as  Jean Pierre (French expat living in Moscow, after having experienced a few years in Vietnam and prior to that in La Reunion where he worked and ran some fascinating races).... Sharing their fascinating lives, they were great walking companions, especially while dealing with sleep deprivation.

All and all, I can say that there is a great sense of camaraderie in this event and this is definitely going to create an attractive reason for some of us to return in the future.

Now as far as next year is concerned, The French race director is planning on moving the non-stop race out of the desert to another somewhat remote location: Trans 333km might be staged in Fall 2003 across the jungle of Papua New Guinea (North of Australia).

Finally, he is planning the first of his 555km non-stop race for Feb 2004 where only 22 experienced "extreme certified" runners will be invited to participate in the Niger desert (near the tree of Tenere). 

I am already considering partaking in one of these two events if my schedule allows...  let me know if you are interested as well. Let's just hope that I will be able to run a much greater section of the course that time! 

Later,

Dimitri