Henry O'Grady (Brambletye Old Boy from the 1980’s) on Saturday 24th April.  Henry O’Grady gave a most memorable and engaging talk on his successful completion of ‘The Marathon des Sables’. He held his audience captive with amazing accounts of the 154-mile, six-day test of endurance, in up to 120 degrees of heat.

• “The Toughest Footrace on Earth”.
• 6 marathons over 6 days across the Sahara Desert, carrying all food, clothes, medical kit, sleeping bag and some water.
• 154 miles - the longest MDS ever.
• Day 4 – 2 consecutive marathons.
• (or Birmingham to London and then a full marathon)
• (or once around the M25 and down to Brighton)
• Oh, yes, and all the above in a desert at 100 - 120°F, carrying 12-15kg.

The Marathon Des Sables is a multi stage self-sufficiency foot race through the Sahara Desert. The course varies from year to year but is always approximately 250 kilometres in distance over seven days, with a double marathon on day four. A Dune day is also normally included, which as the name implies involves running over continuous sand dunes for about 40 kilometres.
You have to carry all your food, sleeping bag and mat, personal items, spare clothing, cooking utensils and obligatory kit (anti venom pump, space blanket, distress flare, signalling mirror, a minimum of 2000 calories of food per day, knife and space blanket) in a back pack and water ration for each day. Around 800 people take part each year with 250 – 300 of these from Britain.
The stages are broken up over six days and camps are set up by the organisers each night, with runners sleeping in open sided traditional Berber tents with eight people per tent, shoulder to shoulder on a rug thrown over the hard desert rock.