Marathon De Sables

I have a friend heading to Morocco for the Marathon De Sables. Meghan Hicks and her friend Bryon Powell will be running the 24th Marathon de Sables across the Sahara Desert starting in a few days. It's a 7-day stage-race that is 250km. Each person has to carry all their gear and food for the week on their backs as they navigate. Fluids get restocked each day, and a tent is waiting each evening.
This is one of the major world events, like an EcoChallenge or the Tour de France. This is the shit! And these folks are the pinnacle of human adventure. Wish them luck.

If you go to the weblink, hover the mouse over the Marathon de Sables tab and the drop-down will have a "Live" link. At the time of this writing, you'll still get last year's stats, so Meghan isn't listed yet - not until the race starts. Some of these pages are for this year's 24th running, some are still for the 23rd. You have to pay attention to whether it's still listing for the 23rd or 24th.
First race-day is April 2nd. They'll be quite busy in the days leading up to this start, but that's when the race begins.
We can actually leave messages for Meghan during the race via sat-link in the desert. through the "Live" link. Each evening, she will get her mail.

This is a very complicated process, getting accepted, getting prepared, getting registered, checked, getting yourself all the way there and getting all the official requirements right. There are many critical things each person must do and have. If any one of these things is amiss, they won't let you even start the race. I never did like red-tape. I'm nervous for Meghan and the race hasn't even started! But she's more of a pro with these sorts of things than I ever plan to be, so I probably worry for nothing.

Maybe some day when my son is graduated from High School I'll go galavanting myself. But until then, I just watch people like Meghan and Bryon in awe.