Trail runner’s 50th birthday treat: tackling 251km Sahara Desert race the Marathon des Sables

Three days into the ‘toughest foot race on earth’, Hong Kong’s Karin Holzschuher faces scorching heat and venomous snakes during the day and freezing temperatures at night as she celebrates a milestone birthday her way

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Trail runner Karin Holzschuher trains in Hong Kong wearing the gear she is running the 251km Marathon des Sables in. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 7:18pm, 12 Apr 2018Updated: 7:17pm, 12 Apr 2018

For her 50th birthday, popular Hong Kong trail runner Karin Holzschuher arranged a “big gift” for herself: she is among the 977 participants in the Marathon des Sables six-day multistage 251-kilometre race through the Moroccan Sahara. The race kicked off on April 9.

“They say it’s the toughest foot race on earth. I say OK, why not?,” she says. “I signed up for it last May, and since then, my life has been centred around it. My flat in Shenzhen looks like an outdoor gear shop: food, gear, gaiters, shoes with Velcro, backpack … I have tried so many things over the past few months.”

Holzschuher’s backpack will carry everything she needs for the race. Photo: Nora Tam

She has also put in the training. In the past decade, she estimates that she has run 85 races of 42km or longer, in about a dozen countries, mostly in Asia and her home country Germany. None have been as daunting as this self-supported event that requires participants to carry everything they will need to wear, eat (14,000 calories’ worth), use and sleep on.

Holzschuher’s venom extractor is part of her mandatory race kit. Photo: Nora Tam

Mandatory equipment includes a head torch and spare batteries, compass, lighter, knife, signalling mirror, aluminium survival sheet – and an anti-venom pump. Not only is Holzschuher contending with changes in temperature that can range from freezing during the night to 45 degrees Celsius in the heat of the day, she could encounter a desert horned viper, the most common venomous snake in the sand dunes.

For this experience, participants paid €3,100 (US$3,831)to cover bus transfers, water throughout the race, technical support, medical help and a medal, T-shirt and certificate for finishers. They also paid for their own flights.

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On April 9 (day one), they ran 30.3km; day two, 39km; day three, 31.6km; and day four – Holzschuher’s birthday, 86.2km. A look at the online tracking system showed she had traipsed 58.9km through a blinding sandstorm in 16½ hours and was still on the move. Twenty-three participants had dropped out during this Herculean stretch. Over the next two days, racers who survive this will face a marathon (42.2km) on day five, and a friendly 7.7km run on day six.