Army - The Soldiers' Newspaper

British Army exchange officer Maj Mike Cole takes a breather during his 240km run across the Sahara in the Marathon of the Sands race. Photo provided by Maj Cole

CA Lt-Gen Peter Leahy chats to Maj Cole during his fundraising run outside AHQ in early March where he raised $1500 in two hours. Photo by Cpl Tracy Tillman, WAUR

It ain’t half hot, mate
Brit raises $17,000 for cancer research

By Cpl Sean Burton
Land Command Reporter
BRITISH Army exchange officer Maj Mike Cole has run 240km across the Sahara desert in the ‘world’s toughest race’ for the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.

The LHQ-based legal officer received $17,000 worth of sponsorship in his bid to give something back to his host country before his return to the UK this month.

The Marathon of the Sands has competitors from 30 countries taking part in the annual event, now in its 18th year.

Men and women run 240km across the Moroccan Sahara for seven days carrying all their own food and gear.

A ration of nine litres of water and an open-sided Berber tent were provided daily to competitors by race organisers.

Looking back on the race, Maj Cole said it was what he had anticipated, with the hardest thing being getting up day in day out and running across the endless sand of the Sahara Desert.

“After the first day it was sand and more sand – it was pretty miserable actually but I knew it wasn’t going to be fun.

“Two minutes after crossing the finish line I had a Heineken beer, it wasn’t a feeling of euphoria, it was more like ‘thank God that’s over’.

“Bizarrely it wasn’t the toughest thing I’ve done because I was able to sleep five-to-seven hours a night.

“But even then it was hard because of the terrain and the temperatures, which were up in the high 40s with 6 per cent humidity and the constant dry wind.

Maj Cole finished in a very respectable place considering he was hit with sunstroke on day two of the race.

“On the second night I got pretty sick, I couldn’t keep any food or water down so I got a drip in to rehydrate myself.

The effects of the sunstroke pushed him back from 300 place to 590 on day three but he fought back to come in at 390th.

He averaged six hours a day running, the longest day being a 17-hour phase, which started at 5am and finished at 2am.

Even after running hundreds of kilometres some competitors were still able to put in superhuman efforts, like that of the eventual winner who ran a 44km phase mid-race in 2 hours 53min.

Part of his advice to future competitors is keeping your equipment as light as possible.

“I started with 13kgs of gear which went down as I ate my way through my supplies.

“Buy and train with a good quality running pack. If you don’t you will suffer on the day – it might be a bit more expensive but it will be worth it.

“A big tip is get a pair of Gaiters to stop the fine desert sand getting into your shoes which caused real problems for some competitors.

Thirty people dropped out including an unfortunate Canadian runner who had a pint and a half of fluid taken out of his feet on the fifth day.

Maj Cole said his next posting was to Sierra Leone with the International Monitoring and Training team for a year but he was happy to have completed the world’s toughest race.

“I’m glad I did the race, the itch has been scratched but if I hadn’t given it a go I would always be thinking, ‘but what if I had?’”