The race will be held from September 25-30 and it will have a maximum of 500 runners.
This morning, Fuerteventura hosted the official presentation of the Half Marathon des Sables, a spectacular stages race which will take place between the 25th and the 30th of September 2017.
The president of the Cabildo de Fuerteventura, Marcial Morales, the race’s directors, Patrick Bauer and Fernando González, and Mario Valle in behalf of Playitas Resort assisted to the act.
The legendary Marathon des Sables has been held in Morocco since 1986, and it is one of the most famous stage races all over the planet. It will now expand to Europe and America. Fuerteventura has been the selected place for it, as Marcial Morales explained: The European edition will be in the South of Fuerteventura, which gathers the required conditions for an international, self-sufficiency race as this one. This will mean an enormous boost for the island as sports destinations”.
This first edition will have a maximum of 500 runners coming from all over the World, who will be the best promoters of Fuerteventura’s beauties and its perfect conditions as a destination for this sport which has experimented such an enormous growth in the last years.
The sandy and desert-like landscapes in Fuerteventura will be essential for this kind of event. This is one of the reasons why Patrick Bauer, the race’s founder, chose this place in the Canary Islands for it.
Patrick Bauer wanted to thank the collaboration of all the administrations which will make the Half Marathon des Sables Fuerteventura possible. He described the island as wild, with a unique nature and with similar weather conditions as Morocco.
Bauer revealed that the event will take place from the 25th to the 30th of September 2017. The race will have the the same philosophy as the original one: a multi-stage event, in self-sufficiency where you fight against yourself in a desert like landscape.
The total distance will be of 120 kilometres, divided in a yet undefined number of stages. The race will have a couple of basecamps during the course, starting from the South of Fuerteventura and ending in Gran Tarajal.
All the runners who are accepted for the challenge will receive a specific WAA tent, where they will be able to sleep during the race, as well as some carbon hiking poles.
Bauer wanted the presence of Arista Eventos in the direction of this prestigious multi-stage event. Thus, Fernando González and David Déniz, managers of the company in charge of races such as Transgrancanaria HG or Haría Extreme Lanzarote, were both present in the presentation. Amongst other tasks, Arista will handle the logistics of this massive event. To learn about the philosophy of the race, they will assist to Morocco in April to live the African event.
Mario Valle, in behalf of Playitas Resort, was also in the presentation as they will also collaborate with the event. “We’ve been promoting the sports and high quality tourism, and that is why we will support the celebration of the Half Marathon des Sables in Fuerteventura, in collaboration with the Cabildo de Fuerteventura with the only goal of having a successful event”, he stated.
The 2017 edition of the race, sold out in less than 14-days and now, with just under 3 months to go, Ourea Events have a definitive list of those who will toe the line – 23 nationalities will be represented at the 2017 event.
This race has Caroline Chaverot’s name written all over it and no disrespect to the other female competitors but I don’t see anyone coming close to this French lady. Caroline was on fire in 2016 and was for me, THE, female ultra-runner of the year. She was unstoppable with a sting of high-profile victories. In summary, anyone who wins UTMB, becomes UTWT champion, becomes Skyrunning World Champion and IAU World Trail Champion all in one-year deserves the upmost respect. I think she will win the race by at least 1-hour!
In the closing stages, Melanie took advantage of Anna Comet and Anna Frost relaxing into the finish with Sondre Amdahl – the trio had run together from half-way enjoying the closing of the 2017 TCC. Elisabet Barnes completed the stage 30min behind Ester in 6th place and 4th overall.
After CP1, the climb continued on single track in shaded and dense forest undergrowth. At 10km the runners reached the summit and highest point of the course. From there on followed a succession of rolling hills on an undulating course to CP2 at 12.7km. The course was a mix of grassy trail and forest fire trail. Temperatures at this height were a lot cooler and there was a pleasant breeze and quite a lot of shade until CP3 at 19.1km where the adventure category started.
After CP3 aka Donkey’s Hill, the runners continued on a relentlessly hilly rollercoaster course. At 24km the course took them down a grassy descent to a shaded river-bed section where the runners had to contend with running on slippery stony riverbed and across moss-covered rocks on the embankment, ducking jungle undergrowth and overhanging branches.
After a summit at 1000m, the runners started the final descent in what looked like an earthy tobogganing slope – a downhill vertical VK to reach sea-level in 4km.
Jason Schlarb was in second position, followed by Chema Martinez who was working hard. In fourth was Erick Aguero who was looking very strong. After CP3 Chema was closing the gap on Jason who was “enjoying the trail” until he looked over his shoulder to see Chema ominously threatening his second place.
Jason put his foot down and reopened the gap, dropping Chema. Then Costa Rican Erick Aguero caught up with Chema in the descent to the riverbed securing third, pulling away comfortably in the riverbed section and nailing it on the ensuing hills.
IAN CORLESS 