Running from Shadows

…my Marathon des Sables

It had started so modestly: a few short runs to try and finish the London Marathon. Never again. Until other marathons attracted attention, as did ever-greater extremes… As a mid- to back-of-the-pack athlete, Mark Roe was never going to set records or finish in the top 10%… that wasn’t the point. The fitness gained, the camaraderie of fellow competitors and the enjoyment of the outdoors was enough of a reason to compete. But eventually, squeezing training for marathons alongside qualifying as a lawyer, something had to give. It was the fitness, camaraderie and enjoyment that lost. After four years of complete inactivity, Mark reflected on the stereotypical shadows he was now casting in early middle-age with little focus other than to work: excessive weight gain, an inability to sleep, irritability – all results of a poor lifestyle grabbed in between hours spent commuting or in the office. If nothing changed, the shadows would grow longer, darker, more serious… So Mark signed up to run the notoriously tough Marathon des Sables: 153 miles across the Moroccan Sahara in seven days. Running from Shadows is the author’s honest account of his journey across those miles. Collapsing unconscious, dancing with scorpions, sleep deprivation and hallucinations were all part of a life-changing experience that saw him turn his back on his profession and emerge with a new purpose. With a foreword by Rory Coleman, finisher of 10 Marathon des Sables, over 800 marathons and ultra-marathons and holder of 9 Guinness World Records, this is a book for extreme endurance junkies and lovers of autobiographies.