Ken Shuart during his recent 250-kilometer (154-mile) Sahara Desert marathon. The gaiters that Ken wore around his shins and feet kept the sand and grit out. The seven-day race took place during the last week in October. (Courtesy photo)
Galesville resident Ken Shuart is what you might call an adventurous guy.
At 49 years old, he has completed the Marine Corps marathon, raced in a couple of triathalons, climbed Mount Kilamanjaro in Tanzania in 2007, and in 2008 completed the Race Across America, where he rode his bicycle from Oceanside, Calif., to Annapolis in less than eight days.
So last year, when the Washington Post Magazine ran an article about a man in Northern Virginia - Frank Fumich - who was training for a 250-kilometer (154-mile) race across the Sahara Desert in Egypt, Ken's wife was quick to throw the magazine out, lest he get any ideas.
But by the following Wednesday, Ken's neighbor, Don Buchanan, had brought a copy of the Sunday magazine over to show Ken.
"He thought it was a great story, and so I decided to do it," Ken said.
Last month, Ken not only competed in, but also completed the Sahara Desert marathon, which is part of a four-part "Racing the Planet" series of desert marathons around the world. Ken has yet to sign up for the other three, which are held in Chile, China and Antarctica.
After Don brought the magazine over last year, Ken made contact with Frank to talk about the race, and then hired a trainer. In January of this year, Ken began his training, running for five or six hours at a time with a backpack full of gear.
Yes, the Sahara marathon includes the requirement to carry all gear - except tents and water.
Ken trained by running up and down Muddy Creek Road, and then running an Annapolis marathon course mapped out by the Annapolis Striders.
In addition, he would go to his brother's place in Fenwick Island, Del., so that he could practice running on the sand at the beach.
During the Sahara race, Ken said that he spent about half his time running and half his time walking. "It would get so that the sand was so soft that it was difficult to run."
"My goal was to finish. I knew if I spent my energy running in soft sand, that I would put my body in jeopardy for the next day," Ken said.
The seven-day race is divided into six stages, ranging from 10 to over 50 miles. Each stage of the race is completed in a day. The 54-mile stage was the longest.
The weather also played a factor - "it was 110 degrees and one day it reached 120 degrees," Ken said.
Each day, the race would start at 8 a.m. Some of the runners completed the course by noon, but Ken would finish around 2 p.m., which was the hottest part of the day. On the day of the 54-mile leg, Ken took 18 hours to finish.
Although Ken carried his own gear, the race organizers would provide hot water, oatmeal and instant coffee each morning. Once the racers left camp, the organizers would load everything into trucks to go to the next site for setup.
Water stops were manned every 10 kilometers (six miles). "There would generally be about three water stops in a day," Ken said.
One of the best things that Ken purchased before the trip were gaiters for his feet, shins and ankles.
"You have to keep the sand and grit out of your shoes. … People that didn't have what I had, had to stop and empty the sand out of their shoes," Ken said. Photos of his feet posted to his photoblog show that his feet were still pretty beat-up from the experience.
"Each day you get back to the tent and say, 'I'm exhausted, my feet are killing me, what am I doing out here?' but you get something to eat, you get a good night's sleep, and you do it again," Ken said.
"About a week later I said, 'I really had a lot of fun,' " Ken added. "You wouldn't have heard me say that when I was over there, but now that is how I feel," he said.
Ken's initial inspiration for the race Frank Fumich and a group of other runners who competed in the Sahara race, are doing another one in Australia.
"Some of my tent mates have offered to put me up in April, but I'm not currently training for it. But maybe if there was another one next fall," he said.
"It's still too early now," Ken said.
The South River High School Craft Fair is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the school, 201 Central Avenue East in Edgewater. Admission is free. For more information, call 410-721-5446.
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