Leitrim man completes 'the toughest footrace on earth'

Con Conlon, 54, from Ballinamore, Leitrim was among 1,350 athletes who took on the mammoth 270km Marathon des Sables known as the “the toughest footrace on earth” this month. 

Con, who is businessman based in Chennai, India, and finished in 441st place, made a video diary of the event.

He said he wanted to the do the race because of the "attraction of the pure experience that lies in wait: an opportunity to live in an extraordinary landscape for a week" as well as emulate his childhood heroes including Christopher Columbus, Captain Cook and Vasco da Gama. 

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He started "serious" training in February 2025 "pounding the roads and parks of Chennai, London and Leitrim" while learning all he could about the expedition. 

He said: "I really would not know what I was in for until I was out in the desert, but I knew enough to know I wouldn’t stand a chance unless I prepared thoroughly."

Con's (third form left) tent mates: Blaine Lawrence (London), Jonathan Moore (Devon), Glen Anderson (Essex), Anthony Hennessy (Carlow), Justin Dutton (Wicklow), Peter Barr (Down), Ross Thompson (Wicklow).

After battling flu and food poisoning, Con arrived at the first camp on April 3, where he met four Irish and three English lads who turned out "to be absolute gems". 

The race commenced on April 5 with Con commenting that "two weeks of travel and sickness have left me in trouble just 5km into a 270km race. The heat, the back pack, the muscle pain, the pace: I’m struggling badly and my morale is already on the floor."

The following day is "worse" and Con walks instead of runs to conserve as much energy as possible. 

He says the sleep at night has been "terrible; eight men snoring, farting and shuffling around one small tent isn’t ideal sleep hygiene."

Day four is the "monster: it is basically two-and-a-half marathons" and by "11.0, I’m struggling again. I tell the other lads to crack on without me". 

However, he said his "body is finally adjusting to the shock of what I’m asking it to do" and after a two hour rest, he's back on course until "a vicious desert wind is whipping sand across my legs and face for about 4km."

After hitting a wall, he said "I’m on my own and lost in my own misery" and "down in the dark place that has afflicted hundreds of other fellow pilgrims on this Via Dolorosa. But they are putting one foot in front of the other and so am I."

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He talks of "Shackleton and his great Irish hero of the Antarctic, Tom Crean; I think of Joe Simpson in Touching the Void, his desperate ordeal in the Peruvian Andes; George Mallory on the upper slopes of Mount Everest in 1924. ‘This is nothing like what they endured. Keep going for f**k sake man, just keep going.’"

A "saintly" volunteer takes "my arm and brings me to a deck chair and helps me out of my back pack. He brings me a bowl of vegetable soup, which makes me weep. It is not a big thing for him but it’s an emotional gesture of kindness to me. I can barely drink the first bowl as my hand is shivering badly and the plastic spoon is too small. I drink two bowls. It’s a life-saver."

He then meets a "Belgian lad, in his 20s I think. He is panicking because of the descending dusk; he’s afraid he’ll wander off line and get lost. I reassure him that the illuminated path markers will keep us on course."

Alone again, he says that "running in the dark is treacherous underfoot because there are rocks and stones and tough desert shrubs scattered everywhere."

At 85km and 17 hours on the road, he meets another fellow participant and "we share his light and we make a pact to get in before the clock strikes 12. We run the last 8km, many of them sub seven-minute kilometres, in the dark, which is quite incredible at this stage."

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On day five, a rest day, he "cannot sleep a wink. For five hours I squirm with the pain stabbing through my legs. Our Garmin watches tell us we burned 9,000-10,000 calories on that longest day. But we consumed only about 2,800 calories, so that’s another reason we are absolutely shattered. My phone recorded 124,000 steps for the stage."

The rest day is marred by a huge sand storm. "My tea is sandy. My dinner is sandy. My seven tent mates lie covered in sand, sunglasses on and buffs around the nose and mouth. Everyone is destroyed."

By day six, the storm has died down and "we run the whole damn thing."

He added: "We keep going and there is no stopping us, even through another seemingly unending set of dunes over the last 4km.

Day seven, the final stage, is full of dunes at the beginning and at the end. 

He says: "We pick up our medals and sit for five minutes in silence. Many people are emotional. 

The Marathon des Sables: seven days of hell but also seven days to experience the kindness of strangers and the best of humanity.

My mind is floating with memories and vignettes: beautiful sun rises, the night sky shining with stars, spectacular landscapes, Berber nomads gazing at us, visions of human suffering and indomitable human optimism; dead rivers, barren lakes, amazing sunsets on arid hills, the mesmerising speed of the elite athletes as they cover the terrain like antelopes.

Con was running on behalf of The Batemans Trust, a UK charity that helps underprivileged children in Chennai.

Donations can be made via: https://www.justgiving.com/page/con-conlon-1