Marathon des Sables — The Sahara's Toughest Footrace

Founded in 1986 by Patrick Bauer, the Marathon des Sables, or Marathon of the Sands, is a self-supported multi-stage ultramarathon across the southern Moroccan Sahara. Competitors cover roughly 250km on foot over about six stages in the space of a week, carrying everything they need to survive except water and a shared tent. It is regularly described as one of the toughest footraces on earth, and the format is the reason: it is not one long race but a week of long races, run on rising fatigue, blistered feet and a shrinking food supply.

The total distance and the exact route change every year, but the shape is consistent: several stages of marathon-ish length, one very long stage, and a final shorter stage to the finish, all linked by nights spent in open Berber bivouac tents shared with seven or so other runners. Around a thousand competitors take part in a typical edition, from elite ultrarunners at the front to determined first-timers walking much of the distance at the back.

This page is a practical orientation for prospective entrants and their supporters, not a substitute for the official rules, which you must read in full before you enter. If you are mapping it against Morocco's other endurance events, our Morocco running and trail events calendar places it alongside the mountain and road races, from the flat winter city marathons to the desert mountain-bike stage race that crosses some of the same terrain.

The race is broken into stages of varying length, released to competitors via the official road-book shortly before the event. A typical structure has a couple of opening stages in the marathon-distance range to settle everyone in, a signature long stage of roughly 80-90km that many run through the night, a rest day for the slower long-stage finishers, a further marathon-length stage, and a shorter final stage to the line. Cut-off times are generous but firm, and checkpoints spaced roughly every 10-12km provide rationed water and medical cover.

The long stage is the psychological centre of the week. Faster runners may finish in daylight, but a large part of the field is still moving after dark, navigating by headtorch and glow-sticks between checkpoints across the desert. The rest day that follows exists mainly so the slowest long-stage finishers can recover before the race resumes.

Because the race is self-supported, you carry all your food and equipment for the whole week in a single pack, and the organisers publish a detailed list of mandatory safety items that are checked before the start. Carrying too little risks a penalty or disqualification; carrying too much means hauling extra weight for 250km. The art of MDS packing is shaving grams while meeting every rule and still eating enough — competitors must carry a minimum daily calorie intake, historically set around 2,000 kcal per day.

Water is rationed and distributed at checkpoints and camp against your race number, with time penalties for taking more than your allowance. That rationing is a core part of the challenge and a serious safety system in temperatures that routinely exceed 40C.

The exact mandatory list is published each year and you must run to the current version, but the categories below are consistent and give a sense of what lives in the pack.

The MDS is run in the southern Moroccan Sahara, where the terrain switches between soft dunes that sap the legs, rocky plateaus known as regs, dried riverbeds and the occasional jebel to climb over. Dunes look iconic but only make up part of the route; much of the distance is over hard, stony ground that punishes tired feet just as badly.

Heat is the defining hazard. Daytime temperatures commonly reach the low-to-mid 40s Celsius, and the ground radiates further heat back at you. Nights, by contrast, can be genuinely cold, which is why a proper sleeping bag is mandatory. Managing hydration against the rationed water, protecting your skin from the sun, and pacing to avoid heat illness are the survival skills the race really tests.

If you want a feel for the desert itself before committing, our Sahara desert trekking guide covers the terrain and conditions on foot, and the question of whether the classic dune-field around Erg Chebbi is worth a gentler visit is covered in is Merzouga worth visiting.

There is no qualifying race to enter the MDS, but you must be at least 18 and provide a recent medical certificate confirming you are fit to compete along with a resting ECG (electrocardiogram) dated within the required window. Places are limited and popular editions fill well ahead, often a year or more in advance, so early registration through the official channels or an authorised agent for your country is the norm.

Cost is significant and reflects that the fee bundles the race with a week of desert logistics — camp, water, medical cover and often flights and transfers from a set departure point. Published entry costs have historically sat very roughly in the 3,500-5,500 EUR range depending on the package and the country you depart from, with country-specific agents pricing their own bundles. Treat that as an indicative band only and confirm the current figure for your nationality when you enter; do not budget on an old number.

Build your training over many months, ideally with back-to-back long days carrying a loaded pack in heat where you can find it, and rehearse your exact race kit, food and foot-care routine before you fly out.

The MDS is a wilderness event, not a spectator race. There is no roadside crowd to line up along, and casual visitors cannot simply turn up in the bivouac. What supporters can do is follow the race remotely: the organisers run live tracking, publish daily updates and pass short messages to competitors, so friends and family typically follow from home rather than travelling to the desert.

If you are set on being in Morocco while someone you know races, it makes more sense to base yourself somewhere accessible and enjoy the country independently than to try to reach the moving camp. The desert gateway towns and the classic dune trips are a rewarding trip in their own right, and you can reunite with your runner after the finish. Anyone planning that kind of parallel trip will find our Morocco running and trail events calendar and the broader desert guides a useful starting point.

There is also a genuine emotional dimension to being on the ground for the finish. Runners emerge from a week of self-supported desert racing exhausted, sunburnt and often deeply moved, and having someone there for the final stage matters to many of them even if you could not follow the race itself. Coordinate with the organisers on where and when non-competitors can be present at the finish area, plan your own accommodation and transfers well in advance because the region is remote, and build in slack: the long stage in particular spreads finishers across many hours, so exact timings for meeting your runner are impossible to pin down until the race is underway.