Paola Gamboa, the first Ecuadorian woman to finish the tough Marathon des Sables

Paola Gamboa, from Guayaquil, competed in the Marathon des Sables, held in the Moroccan Sahara desert between April 23 and 29, and became the first Ecuadorian woman to finish the sporting event.

Exhausted, she reached the finish line in 16th place among women, covering the 242-kilometer race in 41 hours and 40 minutes.

But the journey to that goal did not begin in the Moroccan desert. Paola devoted herself to triathlon for years, and in 2022 she wanted to try another sport: trail running. She ran at The Costal Challenge Costa Rica, was third and got “hooked” on long races.

On that trip, someone told him about the stars of the Moroccan desert.

Paola wanted to see them too.

“The runner-up of the last edition of Sables was in Costa Rica, she talked about how beautiful the desert is and the stars at night (…) that I have ever heard in ESPN marathon”, says the athlete who decided to train in order to reach that competition.

The self-contained long-distance race, also known as the Marathon of the Sands, has a reputation for brutality.

In this edition, number 37, had 6 stages, including an ‘ultra’ of 90 kilometers.

In addition, a heat wave was added. The temperature rose to 45 degreeswhich caused the dropout rate to rise to 30%, when the career average is between 5% and 10%, according to The world of sports.

Exercise

Guayaquil trained with Joaquín López, one of the best runners in a clue in Ecuador, with which they worked a more aerobic process, “since I will not run on the street as usual, but in a clue, in the sand. There was also training in the gym to strengthen my back,” he explains, since in the race each competitor carries the weight of his belongings.

That backpack must weigh no more than 10 kilograms. There he takes food, some clothes and other technical material.

Race

Paola arrived at the match with high expectations. The runners were divided into groups, and there were seven men in his group. He wondered where and how I would change my clothes? Is there a bathroom? Will I sleep with seven men next to me? These worries were short-lived. “It was incredible, they were great gentlemen,” he says.

Strong bonds are formed in this type of long and extreme racing. People help each other regardless. Paola points out that if you needed something, if you wanted to eat more, people were always willing to help. Some have shared theirs sleeping bag or their air mattresses.

And with time you get used to unusual things. From just snoring at night to seeing people defecate. “People first walked very far with shame, then they only took a few steps, squatted down, cleaned themselves (…) scenes without shame, totally normalized, like the behavior of animals”, account.

Apart from these details, the demand of the Marathon des Sables marked it exceptionally.

“Every day was a different race. You never know what can happen – story – I said ‘it’s only 33 km in one day’, but it was hot, dunes, 33 percent gradient, ropes had to be used, and the legs were already tired (.. .) I thought I was used to the heat, but this was something else”.

In the first days, it was a five-six hour journey. At each finish, each runner was given a gallon of water that they had to share to drink at that moment and in the next race and to clean up. Although according to her, people barely use water for cleaning: “You clean yourself with a few rags, and your hair is not washed.”

One of the things he learned walking is that you shouldn’t walk on sand that everyone else has trod on because it gets heavier. Also, that your body can fail you in a second and surprise you at the same time.

The hardest day was the 90km ‘ultra’, a distance I’ve never covered, except in the desert.

“At the fourth KP (break) I ran out of water, I got cystitis, I felt like I was burning inside, they gave me a pill there: if I asked for water, they punished me with time, so I asked for water and cried,” she says.

Despite this, Paola continued to run, but the pain was still felt. The moment he had a signal on his phone, he spoke to Joaquín who recommended that he walk the remaining almost 18 kilometers. And that’s how he reached his goal that day.

“Those were very strong emotional moments,” he says. I could never imagine the pain of blisters, we all had them on our toes, on our heels… putting on shoes was a pain… Many times Paola doubted her strength to be able to get up the next day and continue running, but “the body recovers, adapts, it never ceases to surprise me”, she emphasizes.

Goal

After 90 km, there was a day of rest, and then a marathon to the finish line. “I ran 42 km well, at my pace (…) you can hate everything, but you see the goal and your heart breaks, you cry… I stayed hugging the race director for about 5 minutes,” recalls Paola.

After that week in the desert, Paola concludes that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for her, where you have to dedicate your will and have to find your happy places to move on.

He believes that, although it was very extreme, it fits into this type of variety competition, in which you have to dose energy over several days, a process that is very different from that of a triathlon, in which a huge effort was invested, but only for a few hours.

After a week in the desert, Paola believes she went to Sables because of “an inner search for ‘something else,’ for the transformation that is generated from the day you decide to run to the day you cross the finish line.”

And for the stars he enjoyed on his way: “You go alone, turn off the lamp and the sky is completely clear. I’ve never seen stars so bright.

Paola Gamboa, a woman of steel who proudly represents Ecuador

Data

Triathlon training sessions, in which three sports are practiced, are longer than trail training sessions. Paola is a mom and the hours she devotes to the track allow her to spend more time with her family.