23/04/09
Faculty manager completes 156-mile Sahara ultramarathon
After running for 22 hours straight through blistering sunshine and bitingly cold black night, up teetering stacks of rock and down the sheer faces of slippery, baked dunes, most of us might want to go home, collapse, and not move for a week. The Faculty's Administration Manager Amanda Ashley, however, was faced with the prospect of running another 26 miles through the searing Sahara desert with swollen, blistered feet – and she was delighted.
While the UK was enjoying the first blooms of spring, Amanda was taking part in the gruelling Marathon Des Sables in the Sahara. A total of 812 competitors from 39 countries gathered in Morocco for the six-day, 156-mile ultramarathon, equivalent to five-and-a-half regular marathons. Amanda, 45, signed up for the infamously tough event two years ago, when, after years devoted to raising two children, she decided she wanted to take on a huge personal challenge.
On the 30th March Amanda took her place at the starting line with the other runners for the first leg, some 20.5 miles over some of the biggest sand dunes on Earth.
“The dunes were incredibly high but the scenery was absolutely beautiful,” said Amanda. “It was hard going in the heat and my pack weighed at least 14kg in that first stage. Near the end, every time I went over a dune I thought I’d see the bivouac camp and then when I did, it was an awesome sight.”
After completing the first stage in six hours and 42 minutes Amanda spent the night sharing a bivouac with seven other competitors, among whom “the camaraderie was amazing” and who she now counts as friends for life.
The second stage was 22.4 miles, which Amanda polished off in seven hours and 29 minutes. But the third stage was a brutal 56.5 miles, the longest and toughest in Marathon Des Sables history.
“When they told us that we’d be making history, everyone was cheering at the starting line. Although this year’s race was shorter than other years because of recent heavy rains, it was definitely tougher.
“To put things into perspective, I remember thinking that my two daughters would have been going to school while I was at the starting line, then they’d have come home, done their homework, eaten, gone to bed, then got up again the next day and would be heading back to school while I was still running. It was surreal.”
The encouragement of other runners helped Amanda across endless barren vistas, up rockfaces and over 400-metre dunes.
“When I finished that stage and realised what I’d just achieved, I felt amazing. The final day was standard marathon length and my feet were already blistered and swollen. I was nauseous and hadn’t been able to eat much, and I’d hardly slept. Despite all that, I felt it would be easy compared to what I’d already been through, and it’s a great feeling knowing you can achieve something like that. When I finished, it was just sheer elation.”
As well as achieving an outstanding personal goal, Amanda has raised £1,400 for the Marathon Des Sables charity Facing Africa, which helps children with NOMA, a form of facial gangrene.
