Marathon des Sables race guide

Key dates for 2027

If you already have a place, the dates that matter now are the cancellation steps and the medical paperwork window, which opens only a month before the race.

1. 31 October 2026
   Cancellation charge rises

   Until 31 October the organiser keeps 25% of the price. From 1 November it keeps 50%.

2. 31 December 2026
   Last day for any refund

   After this date you can still defer, but not cancel for money back.

3. 2 March 2027
   Medical paperwork window opens

   Your certificate and resting ECG must be dated from 2 March onwards.

4. 26 March 2027
   Last day to defer to a later year

   Free, once only.

5. 31 March 2027
   First free bus from Marrakech

   Buses also run on 1 April. The trip takes about five hours.

6. 2 April 2027
   Meet in Ouarzazate and travel to the bivouac

   Food self-sufficiency starts when you arrive.

7. 3 April 2027
   Technical, administrative and medical checks
8. 4 April 2027
   Stage 1
9. 7 April 2027
   Long stage starts

   Stage 4 runs over two days.

10. 10 April 2027
    Final stage and medal ceremony

    Bus back to Ouarzazate the same day.

11. 12 April 2027
    Departures

Source: official race website, checked 19 October 2026.

What it costs and how to get a place

There are two packages, at the same price wherever you live. Classic, at €3,990, includes the race and two nights in a standard hotel in Ouarzazate after the finish. Superior, at €4,390, puts those two nights in the Berbère Palace. Both include your bib and race kit, eight nights in the bivouac, water during the race, medical support, repatriation if you withdraw, and the medal.

Flights are not included, and there are no charter flights any more. You book your own to Marrakech or Ouarzazate, plus a hotel in Ouarzazate for the night before. The organiser runs free buses from Marrakech on 31 March and 1 April.

Registration usually opens in June for the following year. All 2027 offers were fully booked by October 2026, with a waiting list. A waiting-list place gives no right to an entry. You must be an adult on race day, and there is no upper age limit.

• How race entry systems work

The stages

The route changes every year and stays secret until the roadbook is handed out at the bivouac. You will run six stages over seven days. The long stage is about 80 km and continues through the night, and the fastest runners start two to three hours after everyone else. It is not always in the same place in the week.

The 2027 page uses the 2025 stages as an example. The 2026 race was the longest yet, at 270 km with a 100 km long stage.

Food, water and self-sufficiency

From the moment you reach the bivouac on 2 April, you feed yourself. You need at least 2,000 kcal for each race day, 12,000 kcal in total, and organisers check it at the kit inspection. Plan 24 meals from dinner on 2 April to lunch on 10 April. Repacked food needs a readable nutrition label. Gas stoves are banned, so most people use solid-fuel tablets.

Water is the one thing you are given. Each checkpoint has a supply, and you get 5 litres at the end of each stage to last until the first checkpoint of the next day. Water from any other source earns a penalty of at least three hours.

Your pack, with all food and kit but no water, must weigh between 6.5 and 15 kg. The organiser recommends 6.5 to 8.5 kg, plus about 2 kg of water on the move.

• Pack for a desert stage race
• Plan plant-based fuelling

Mandatory kit

The 2027 regulations list these items. They are checked on 3 April and can be checked again during the race.

• A 20-litre race pack (the WAA Ultra Bag or an equivalent).
• A sleeping bag.
• A headlamp of at least 400 lumens, with spare batteries or a charged spare battery.
• At least 1.5 litres of water capacity.
• A compass accurate to 1 or 2 degrees, a whistle, a lighter, a metal-bladed knife and a signalling mirror.
• A survival blanket, skin antiseptic and 10 safety pins.
• Two stock cubes per race day.
• At least 50 ml of sunscreen, and sunglasses.
• €200 or 2,000 dirhams in cash.
• A passport valid for at least a month after the race, plus your original medical certificate and ECG.

• Organise your ultra kit

Medical paperwork and safety

You need the official MDS Legendary medical certificate, downloaded from your account, and a resting ECG with its tracing. Both must be paper originals, signed and stamped by a doctor, and dated on or after 2 March 2027. A stress ECG is recommended for runners over 40 but does not replace the resting ECG. Because the paperwork comes after the last refund date, a failed medical means no refund.

Every runner carries a GPS beacon with an emergency button, and doctors work on the course, at checkpoints and in the bivouac. The desert can still be dangerous. In 2021, when the race was moved to October, temperatures went above 50°C and almost half the field did not finish. Organisers told the Guardian a runner who died that year was the third death in the race's history. In 2026 a runner died in hospital after a medical incident at the bivouac.

Weather

The organiser estimates April averages in the Merzouga desert at about 30°C by day and 14°C at night. Recent races have been hotter: 2025 brought temperatures above 40°C, sandstorms and some rain, and the 2026 long stage was run in extreme heat.

Nights in the open-sided tents can feel cold after a hot day, which is why the sleeping bag is mandatory.

How many people finish?

Most years more than 88% of starters finish. In 2026, 1,350 of 1,435 starters made it, 94.1%. The exceptions were the October 2021 race, when heat and a stomach bug spread through the field, and 2023, when about a third of starters did not finish.

Results and records

Moroccan runners dominate the men's race. Rachid El Morabity has won 11 times, the most in MDS history, and his brother Mohamed won in 2023 and 2026. Before them, Lahcen Ahansal won 10 times and his brother Mohamad five. Maryline Nakache of France won the women's race in 2023, 2025 and 2026, winning all six stages in 2026.

Prize money has been equal for women and men since the first edition. In 2027 the winners receive €5,000.

History

The first Marathon des Sables was held in 1986 with 23 runners. It was created by Patrick Bauer, who had crossed part of the Sahara alone on foot in 1984. It passed 1,000 runners for the first time in 2011. In 2023, after 37 years, the race moved to new owners, and it is now organised by What An Adventure (WAA) of Paris.

Its most famous story is from 1994, when the Italian runner Mauro Prosperi got lost in a sandstorm and survived alone in the desert for 9 or 10 days, depending on the account, before a nomadic family found him far from the course.

Training for the MDS

Train to walk well as much as to run. Cutoffs allow 3.5 km/h, the average pace is about 5.2 km/h, and over 30% of entrants walk. What tends to end races is heat, feet and the pack, so practise long days carrying the weight you will race with, in the shoes and gaiters you will race in.

The organiser's general advice is to train with a 3 to 4 kg pack two or three times during the final two months. If you can, do some sessions in heat, and rehearse the routine of cooking, eating and sleeping from your pack.

• Pack for a desert stage race
• Compare single-day and stage races

Life in the bivouac

You sleep in numbered, open-sided Berber tents for eight people, grouped by country, and usually keep the same tent all week. You can choose your tent-mates in your account. Women-only tents are available. There is a medical tent, but no charging for devices, so plan power for your headlamp and any watch.

Your suitcase is left at the technical checks on 3 April and returned at the hotel after the race.

Running for good at the MDS

For many years the race was linked with Solidarité Marathon des Sables, an association in Ouarzazate supporting children and women. That partnership ended with the change of organiser. In October 2025 the association, led by founder Patrick Bauer, renamed itself Solidarité Enfants des Sables. It is no longer the race's charity. The short charity stage that used to close the race was also dropped after 2023.

The current organiser lists three commitments: inclusion, including the MDS Handi wheelchair format, environmental responsibility, and local cooperation through local suppliers and temporary jobs. Large water containers replace individual bottles and are reused or recycled locally, and courses and camps are cleaned to leave no trace.

This site has its own Moroccan connection. The original Running for Good Ultra was a separate stage event in Morocco in 2021 and 2022, involving Fiona Oakes and five-time MDS winner Mohamad Ahansal.

• Read the original event history
• More on running for good

Questions people ask