Bring The Heat: Ultra X Morocco
Written By Dr Jasmine Winyard
03/11/23
Our TrailMed team of eight rendezvoused with the Ultra-X crew at Marrakech airport, ready for the 4 hour drive over the Atlas Mountains to Ouarzazate, where the first Ultra-X Morocco race (110 or 50km) would start. It was great to finally meet the crew, after the online briefings and emails. I was glad I had made it out of the airport with all of our medical kit; the five defibrillators had caused some excitement to the Moroccan customs officers and I had had to use pigeon French and a lot of miming (including a mimed demo of the action of a defib) to explain what they were for.
After a day of briefings, recceing of the route, checkpoint locations and finally the hotel swimming pool and bar, we were all ready to go for the race start. Roughly 118 runners set off from the old town of Ouarzazate to run out into the desert. The route was “flat”-ish but involved some technical sessions. The checkpoints varied from a lovely desert oasis to barren desert. The team did a wonderful job looking after the runners. We had a few runners who needed a bit more TLC due to heat injury. I think it is fair to say that I had not expected to be loading a sick runner into the back of a Moroccan police 4x4 to get them to camp, nor had my team expected to be able to work so closely with the Croissant Rouge who were a very friendly and useful addition to check point 3 on both days.
The overnight stop was in a campsite that unexpectedly had a swimming pool. We were keen to jump in, until we realised how many unwashed runners with blisters had got there first! Instead, we enjoyed the Moroccan hospitality for the evening as they cooked the crew a traditional Moroccan lamb cous cous dish.
On the second day, the medical team were up early for the usual blister clinic, as were the therapists who were motoring through their K-tape for knees and ankles with unexpected rapidity. Perhaps the route is not quite as flat as expected… We sent the 110km runners on their way and welcomed the 50km runners who were enjoying the almost chilly start to the day and possibly not realising quite how hot it would be by the end. The finish line, at the Atlas Film Studios, set the scene for a great race finish. The runners passed the Kingdom of Heaven (film set) before heading into the main studios and entering “Egypt” where they completed their Moroccan adventure and received their Ultra-X medals.
