Oman Desert Marathon 2024 – Stage 2

Posted on January 21, 2024 by talkultra

Day 2 of the Oman Desert Marathon and after day 1, there was some anxiety. At 55km’s long, the stage was set to be tough. A planned 0630 start with sunrise, would provide participants with extra time in daylight. However, the weather had different plans. An inversion came in during the night and early morning reducing visibility in the valley to zero, the start was delayed 1-hour.

At approximately 0730, the runners were on the way despite some lingering mist. However, the mist was guaranteed to disappear quickly and it did. While it lasted, it gave an eerie feeling to the desert.

Sadly, Mohammed El Morabity was a DNS today. He was tired and feeling under the weather after long delayed travel and a tough first day. Although sad to see a competitor leave, I am sure Salah Al Saidi and Evgenii Glyva were somewhat happy to have one less El Morabity brother to deal with.

Having run a very strong stage 1, Salah Al Saidi took the race to Rachid pushing the pace. As always, Rachid started easy and looked relaxed while following and Evgenii was pushing to hold the pace.

For the women, Aziza Raji must have felt very confident after her stage 1 performance and huge gap. By contrast, Aziza El Amrany was probably wondering how she could pull back any time? Kathleen Leguin who was a pre-race favourite had suffered with sickness on stage 1 but started the day feeling better and the trio ran together with Veronique Messina behind.

Despite 55km’s, stage 2 was billed as a more runnable and easier day, it wasn’t. There was a great deal of soft-sand, several dune section and lots of heat. It was all too much for Kathleen and sadly she withdrew from the race at cp3.

It is never easy to tell if Rachid is suffering, but today there seemed some signs of fatigue and tiredness at cp3. He left with Saleh but looked happy to hold back and let the pace be dictated.

However, in a typical Rachid move, he finally applied pressure and opened a gap crossing the line in 5:47:24 to Saleh in 6:07:43. Evgenii finished 3rd in 6:23:13.

The two Aziza’s were playing truce today and duo ran together all day, Raji happy not to loose anytime to El Amrany and at the same time share the desert with a friend.

With Kathleen out of the race, Veronique finished 3rd, the times of the top 3 8:31:06 and 8:31:07 for El Amrany and Raji, 9:04:37 for Veronique.

Results HERE and GC ranking HERE.

Albert Jorquera and Pol Makuri were battling the day and due for an early evening finish, in darkness.

A long stop at cp3 allowed Pol to get some treatment for his feet and recharge ready for the push to the line; he’s one tough guy!

Tomorrow is stage 3, the night stage. The runner’s will start in two waves. The first around midday, the second early afternoon and they will go in to the night over roughly a marathon distance.

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Oman Desert Marathon 2024 – Stage 1

Posted on January 20, 2024 by talkultra

Navigating a different route to the 2023 Oman Desert Marathon, stage 1 of the 2024 edition proved to be a tough challenge and one that saw the lead change in the latter stages to provide victory for Aziza Raji and Rachid El Morabity.

Starting in Bidiyah with a gala presentation of local dignitaries and local music, the event had a mass start for the 4-stage race, marathon, 21km, 10km and 5km.

The main event, the 4-stage 165km race navigating an almost circular route back to Bidiyah was initially lead with a charge from last year’s champion, Mohamed El Morabity with Khalid Al Jabri and Evgenii Glyva.

For the women, an in-form Aziza El Amrany forged away at the front looking very strong and focused.

As per usual, Rachid El Morabity paced himself with a relatively slow start keeping the other three protagonists in sight.

Behind Aziza, Aziza Raji and the French lady, Kathleen Leguin were both looking strong and relaxed.

The opening 25km, post-race, was considered to be ‘easy’ in comparison to the tough and challenging terrain that followed; relentless soft-sand, dunes and rollercoaster terrain that sapped the body of strength, especially as the heat of the day came.

It was here that Aziza El Amrany relinquished the lead to Aziza Raji who looked much more relaxed in the challenging terrain.

Kathleen was also suffering, climbing a steep dune she had continuous moments of sickness and at the summit, she sighed, just 9km to go.

Rachid had now made his move and behind Mohamed El Morabity was fighting hard to hold a very strong Salah El Saidi, no doubt hampered by long travel and a very late arrival before race day.

The 2023 champion could not match the pace and finished 3rd, 3:39:20, 3:39:54 and 3:41:29 separated the men, making for an exciting stage 2.

Aziza Raji was super strong in the latter stages of the day and crossed the line in 5:22:36. Aziza El Amrany arrived in a surprising 5:49:18 and Kathleen was overtaken by Veronique Messina to finish 3rd in 6:18:55.

While the fast raced at the front, as in every race, stories begin to form behind. A notable one, Albert Jorquera who raced here in Oman in 2023, who this year runs with Pol Makuri who has Cerebral Palsy in the right side of his body. An inspiration to watch!

The duo finished the day in a brilliant time of 7:41.49, 19th and 20th.

As darkness arrives, the battle for the line continues. It’s been a tough first day here in Oman.

Full results HERE

Oman Desert Marathon website HERE

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Oman Desert Marathon 2023 Preview

Posted on January 10, 2023 by talkultra

It’s countdown time to the 2023 Oman Desert Marathon.

Now in its 8th edition, the Oman Desert Marathon will take place January 21^st to 24^th. A self-sufficient race, the race takes place over 4-stages with a total distance of 165-kms.

January offers excellent conditions for a desert adventure, with highs anticipated and 25-degrees and lows of 17-degrees.

A unique race, the route provides participants the opportunity to explore and discover untouched sands and the highest dunes of Oman while running 47, 55, 42 and 21km.

“The OMD, changed my perspective on ultra-marathon running for the better. The desert is magical and beautiful, but will test you mentally and physically to your limit, but you will be a better person from it. The OMD event should be on every runner’s calendar.” – Adam May.

Arrival in Oman will be on January 20^th with transfers to Al Jawharat Resort in Bidiyah. The afternoon will taken up with admin protocols and a race dinner.

Stage 1 – 47km
Satge 2 – 55km
Stage 3 – 42km
Stage 4 – 21km

Daily start times fluctuate and interestingly, Stage 3 has three starts, 1200, 1400 and 1600.

Stage 4 has an 0800 start with the race concluded by 1300 at the Al Jawharat Resort in Bidiyah resort. In the evening, an award ceremony and prize giving will take place.

The Runner’s

While Omani runner’s will make up the majority of the field, there are participants from Spain, France, Ukraine, Italy, Germany, Poland, Britain, Belgium, Switzerland and not surprisingly, Morocco will have the main contenders for overall victory.

King of the desert, Rachid El Morabity, 9x winner of the Marathon des Sables will once again lead the field and he is without doubt, the hot favourite for overall victory.

Rachid’s brother, Mohammed, will be his main contender and should Rachid have a bad day, his brother will be able to pounce.

For the women, desert specialist, Aziz Raji, also a winner of Marathon des Sables, will be the main protagonist not only for the female victory, but quite possibly, a highly-ranked overall placing.

How to follow:

Daily reports and images will be issued on this website (connection allowing) each evening and a full and detailed race summary will follow after January 24^th. On IG, @iancorlessphotography and @marathonoman

We look forward to welcoming you to the Oman Desert Marathon experience.

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