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Raise Your Game: What extreme marathon tests have you taken?

Molly Melhuish: The extreme test I have taken is the Marathon Des Sables. Before this I did one ultra marathon, the Thames Meander, which was a 50 mile run from Reading to London. I did this in preparation for the Marathon Des Sables.

RYG: What motivates you to take extreme tests?

MM: Before I was a fitness trainer I had never run properly in a race but as soon as I started running I entered for the London marathon. It was something that I thought I would never be able to do but I did it!

Then I thought 'well if I can do this what else can I do?' It's definitely about confidence and proving what you can do if you set your mind to it.

RYG: Was it easy from the start?

MM: No it wasn't. First of all I did the Barry Waterfront 5k run in 2000. That was the first race I ever did. It was hell. Then I ran the Race for Life after which my legs hurt, my head hurt, stomach and arms - everything hurt so I didn't do anything for about a month.

However I tried it again and this time I only hurt for about two weeks. Then I tried the 5k route again and I only hurt for about a week. After a number of months, I didn't hurt anymore. It was pure determination on my part. I started running as a way to lose weight and I suppose this helped in my motivation. I have always been a fit strong person.

RYG: Do you set yourself goals and targets?

MM: I am always setting myself goals. In the summer I did the Three Peaks challenge. I have just walked up Snowdon and Scafell Pike and I have walked up Ben Nevis Mountain. In July I did a 2k swim in the sea with The British Heart Foundation. I am constantly thinking 'what is going to be my next challenge?'

Sometimes they can be little targets, but there is always something. I think it is very important for adults and children to set themselves targets. When you see athletes competing it just goes to show what you can do and achieve if you work for it.

RYG: What is key to mental preparation?

MM: You have to really want something. You can't do something half-heartedly. The key is belief that you can do it! I visualise myself finishing because otherwise I know I would never win.

That to me is the greatest accomplishment. You only get results by hard work. You have to keep your head around things and realise that experiencing some pain is part of it. I think this is my one shot and I have to go for it!

RYG: What is the hardest challenge you have undertaken?

MM: The first time I ever ran a marathon, the Cardiff marathon in 2003, I hadn't trained for it and I had never run more than 5k in my life. I thought I will do this and if I get halfway I will have done well.

My aim was to do 13 miles. It got to 13 miles and my legs were in agony but I thought I haven't got this far not to finish so I carried on. I walked. I fell over. I walked some more. I collapsed and I got back up again but eventually I finished it! I just thought there is no way I'm giving up. I think that was the hardest thing for me that I wasn't prepared.

RYG: What is Marathon Des Sables?

MM: It is a 150 mile race over six to seven days through the desert. It varies but you are looking at a marathon a day for the first three days and on the fourth day one would cover 50 miles in about 36 hours. If you finish the fourth day in time you get a day off, if not you just carry on. The fifth or the sixth day is another marathon. Then the seventh day is a half-marathon.

RYG: What training and preparation do you do for something like this?

MM: When I trained I was probably not ready to do the Marathon Des Sables. I had no idea what the desert was going to be like. I just thought it was going to be sand and some dunes, but there were mountains, rocks and rubble everywhere.

You were concentrating all the time on where you were putting your feet as there was uneven terrain. I wasn't ready for how difficult the desert would be and how much climbing would be involved. I did quite a few cross country races in preparation for it but I hadn't practised going up mountains and I believe that was my big mistake.

Every weekend for six months I did a race every single Sunday, whether it was a full marathon or a half-marathon, occasionally it was a 10k. During the week I did a 5k run twice a week, and I did a 10k run as well as a session at the gym. I didn't think that was nearly enough. I needed another long run in the week but I didn't have any choice as I had to work and spend time with my family.

I knew everything, I had taught myself how to strap myself up in an emergency. With food I had to experiment. I tried eating Mars bars. I tried glucose tablets they worked but bring on a thirst. Then I tried jelly babies and they worked incredibly well for me. I worked out that if I ate five jelly babies per half an hour that I could get through a whole day.

I also had to practise with a back pack on. Everything you own is on your back: food, water, sleeping bag, saucepans. You carry these things with you throughout the marathon. I found this part of the training quite hard to get used to. As for drinking, we got given on average nine litres of water a day, this is the water you have to drink, wash and cook with. You have to be really strict with yourself and ration the water out so it lasts. I hadn't prepared for this aspect of it, but I think I coped well at the time.

RYG: What keeps you going on a desert run when you face extreme gruelling conditions?

MM: Mentally it was really hard work and it was the hardest thing I had ever done in my whole life. You are constantly thinking from the moment you set off, talking to yourself, watching where you are placing your feet and thinking about when you can have your next drink.

When things get really tough you think 'do I need to sit down and have a rest or am I wasting too much time?' because you have to get to three check points by certain times throughout the day. You constantly have to assess how you are feeling all the time. I found it much more exhausting mentally than I did physically.

I also took an MP3 player with me as a form of motivation, I had things like Eye Of The Tiger, Holding Out For A Hero, and I had the Rocky theme tune. That was the wrong thing for me to do, in a road race that is suitable to keep you going but not when you're in the desert and the heat is around 50 degrees and you're dehydrated.

You have a headache and you are panicking the whole time trying to calm yourself down. When you have music like that playing it has the opposite effect - you feel even more manic. I should have had more of a calming selection of music. I will know for next time.

RYG: What animals and creatures did you have to watch out for?

MM: We all had to take anti-snake venom pumps as a requirement to do the race. I didn't actually see any snakes although you could see the holes and the burrows where they live.

To be honest the snakes didn't scare me I was just trying to stay alive. There were spiders that I had never heard of called Camel Spiders. These are meat eaters and they are poisonous but they only emerge at night.

RYG: Did people fail?

MM: At a guess something like 250 out of the 770 people completed the marathon. On the first day about 12 people got pulled out. You know it's the toughest race in the world but when they show you the race on television they show you the winners and for these people it can take three hours to run a marathon.

For the rest of us you are talking about eight or nine hours. The heat and intensity meant that people often didn't know what to do with themselves. Some people did experience hallucinations, and other people collapsed and had to be put on drips. On the second day about 50 people dropped out. It is the concentration when doing the MDS that is the hardest bit.

On the third day I had started out feeling positive, but halfway to the second check point I started feeling nauseous and my legs were beginning to shake. I had been told on my first day if you feel sick you must stop. I was waiting for a jeep with the anti-sickness pills but no one came.

Usually they drive back and for all the time, but I was not aware of the extensive number of people who had been pulled out and that one person had suffered a stroke and another was in a coma. I needed assistance right away, but no one came to aid me.

In the two hours I waited on top of the sand dune 100 people had been pulled out. I was retching at this point, I suffer from claustrophobia and panic attacks but as I sat there waiting and wondering and feeling incredibly hot in the midday sun desperate for some shade, it added to me feeling hysterical.

The doctors weren't coming and I could see the fireworks going off in the distance. Everything started to become vague and I couldn't calm myself down. A jeep finally came, and in my panic I couldn't communicate in French and the doctors could not speak any English so I couldn't tell them what the matter was. It was mental exhaustion and panic from being on my own for so long. Unfortunately I was pulled out. I didn't prepare for every eventuality but I will do it in 2008!

RYG: What was the worst thing for people?

MM: For me personally it was the feeling of failure. I didn't know that people at home would know but my daughter did as she was on the internet everyday. Obviously the heat and lack of water, as they do starve you of water, it is part of the race to be able to manage yourself. I think most people felt that was the worst thing, I wasn't ready for that aspect but somehow I managed to cope with it. The main thing was the dehydration.

RYG: How did men cope as opposed to women?

MM: As far as I could see I don't think there was any difference. We were all supportive of one another. I met the most amazing and interesting people of my life while I was out there and I keep in touch with them. One of my friends James who was in the top quarter last time is going to join me in 2008. He is doing it so I don't get scared or freak out again but he will stay with me along the way for companionship and moral support.

RYG: What next?

MM: I have got the GR20 lined up which is a mountain route trek in Corsica. I will do that next summer which is good training for the Marathon Des Sables. There are so many to choose from, you can do one in the Amazon jungle, there is one in the Antarctic, and there are other ones in the desert and the Himalayas. I would love to do all of these at some point.