The rest day allowed participants an opportunity to relax, look after their bodies and recharge ready for stage 5. However, sand storms throughout the day caused consistent problems, gladly, they eased when darkness came.
With 2 starts for stage 5, 0630 and 0800, bivouac awoke early with the eagerly anticipated marathon stage.
Enthusiasm was high with the long day done! It may sound crazy, but the minds of the runners now think, ‘it’s only a marathon today!’
The early part of the day was cloudy and cool, allowing for some great running temperatures.
Around 0900 the sun started to appear but was constantly arriving and disappearing and on occasion, small amounts of rain would fall. As the day progressed, once again the winds increased for some challenging conditions.
The route, new for MDS took participants through 3 key sections, Znigui Dunes, a mountain pass j. el Beg’e and finally a return to Znigui Dunes.
The men’s race was as expected, not a race. The top-3 contenders ran together for much of the day. It was only in the latter stages that Rachid and Mohamed pulled away from Ahmed to finish in 3:26:15 and 3:26:55 with Ahmed 4:26 later for a finish of 3:30:41.
For the women, Aziza pushed hard from the front, constantly fighting and never giving up.
However, Maryline looked calm and relaxed, she is in incredible form this year. Eventually she caught and passed Aziza to open up a gap of 03:37 to finish in 03:45:27.
Aziza crossed the line in 03:39:04 and as expected, Annelies Brak charged looking to get back time after a 2-hour penalty and regain the 3rd position. She finished 3rd on the stage in 04:14:22.
Tomomi Bitoh who is in 3rd overall finished 6th losing time to Annelies and 4th place on GC, Francesca Canepa had a tough marathon stage finishing 12th in 05:00:08 which has now moved Annelies to 4th on GC.
With 21.1km’s tomorrow, Tomomi has a substantial 40-minute lead over Annelies. Can Annelies do something remarkable?
Full results are HERE
Men ranking HERE
Women ranking HERE
Marathon des Sables Website HERE
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IAN CORLESS 