In the desert of the Nabateans: the Petra Marathon

Petra, Jordan. September 2022

Starting in Petra’s Treasury, our footsteps echoed in gorges that hide lost civilizations. We heard the “piercing crunch of the sand” that fascinated Lawrence of Arabia, and we put ourselves to the test climbing dizzying slopes under a blazing sun.

🌍 The trip 📷

First of all, a warning: flying on 31st of August from Barcelona is a bad idea. Our airline forced us to board our hand luggage due to the crowds of tourists trying to return home, and while we were landing in Amman, our suitcases were lost in Rome, where we had previously stopped.

But we were not (yet) deterred by it. We went ahead to the Dead Sea. The Petra Extreme Desert Marathon is organized by the Danish agency Albatros Adventure Marathons, and the package includes such a stay.

The Dead Sea is surrounded by a desolate landscape, with stony beaches and brownish hills. In the villages there are no pavimented streets, but plenty of shops that are over-lit… and full of floats. We did not buy a float, but we did buy a pair of swimsuits (at “tourist” price), since our suitcases continued their “dolce vita” in Rome. We were confident that our luggage would arrive in time for the race… but it did not.

By the time we settled in Wadi Rum it became clear that we had to “depend on the kindness of strangers” (to paraphrase Tennessee Williams):

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers

“A streetcar named desire”, Tennessee Williams

Already on the five-hour bus ride, we asked one of the guides to ask if someone could lend us shoes and clothes, and when we arrived at the “Race briefing“, the race director transmitted our desperate message: “First of all, a request: two unfortunate runners have lost their baggage…”. The response was amazing and overwhelmingly positive. We got all the equipment and I must especially thank one Dutch lady named Petra, thanks to whom I was able to race… in Petra. She even gave us magnesium pills!

🏃‍♀️ The race 🏃‍♂️

None of them came from the desert, but their lives followed the same pattern. An incomprehensible passionate longing pushed them into the desert.

The seven pillars of wisdom, T.E. Lawrence

We left the hotel at 5am, with sporting clothes than ended up being even better than our own! Ours were still in our lost suitcases.

It was still dark, and the 250 runners covered the kilometer and a half towards the start with the only illumination from our mobile phones and with the risk of spraining an ankle. Only the day after, in broad daylight, would we be aware of the impressive pink sandstone gorges we traversed, like the rugged bowels of an imagined world, and were able to take in all the wonders that the ancient home of the Nabateans has to offer.

First kilometers

At 6am we set out in front of the “Treasury“, the most famous building in the hidden city of Petra. The historical site was not yet open to tourists, so the fairytale atmosphere offered great possibilities for a photograph. We felt like Indiana Jones in the very famous “Indiana Jones and the last Crusader“: a movie that is often sported in tourists gift shops in here, by the way.

But, if the start is one of the most beautiful in the world, the race is one of the toughest!

In the marathon you have to overcome more than a thousand meters of positive slope and a thousand more of negative slope, under a scorching sun and through sandy areas.

The terrain of the first 2 kilometers is difficult, and it gets worse. At least the temperature was still pleasant at that early hour, and we got to enjoy the views of the royal tombs. Soon the slopes began. And they were so hard that we even thought that the altimetry graph (which indicated the worst climb from kilometer 10 to 17) was wrong. Spoiler: it wasn’t. The worst was yet to come.

Kilometers 6 to 15

At kilometer 6 we left the road and went along sandy paths and capriciously shaped mountains, to the gorge of the Siq Al Bard river bed. Some locals, mounted on camels, greeted us with mischievous smiles. They surely considered us as a bunch of crazy people!

The organization was good, and a relief, with regular refreshment stations with water, isotonic drinks and even coke and bananas. Until, indeed, at kilometer 10, a slope began… which turned out to be brutal: endless asphalt that went up, up and up to a rocky massif. We walked up and I smeared myself with sunscreen.

The final kilometers

Once the hard process was over after more than an hour and a half of walking painfully, we began to ache from the borrowed running shoes.

But we held on, crossing long gravel paths, until we headed downhill and finally reached Wadi Rum, where we entered the finish line with a speaker dressed in the typical hatta shouting our names!

After the race… 📷

After the race, the package includes a visit to the incredible site of the hidden City of Petra. It also includes a magnificent dinner and a visit to Petra at night, which I have described later.

Visiting Petra is an unforgettable experience and, despite our tired legs, we spent a couple of days enjoying the big archeological site.

P.S. The bags arrived on the last day of the whole trip, just before our return flight.

But, anyway, what we took with us from Petra could not fit in them: the pride of finishing a grueling race in which you cross gorges of pink stone, see ancient tombs of lost civilizations and experience all the harshness of an epic desert.

🍜 Carboloading 🍝

The trip also includes a celebratory dinner in a desert gorge, under the stars 🌟🌟🌟 During this dinner, we could see the video of us running and the fastest runners received their prizes.

It was an amazing experience, with a magical atmosphere, and we could enjoy traiditional dishes like Kabsa or Maqluba, flavorful rice dishes that include meat (usually chicken or lamb).

For before the race, Jordan’s most famous dish, Mansaf, made with rice, lamb, and a fermented yogurt sauce known as “jameed”, is a significant source of carbohydrates.

🏆 Petra’s Extreme Desert Marathon (42K) / Half Marathon (21K) Number of runners: 250. Cut-off time: 7h for the full marathon.

⛰️ Difficulty Very high. More than a thousand meters of positive slope and more than a thousand negative. High temperatures, and difficult surfaces: sand, gravel and rock.

🌐 Website https://petra-desert-marathon.com/

🗓️ End of August / beginning of September in Petra, Jordan.

👟 Trail shoes. Do not forget to bring them in your hand luggage! 😅 Please read here the recommended equipment for hot climates.

🏅 You will get home with a technical marathon shirt (Albatros Adventure Marathons have special good taste in the design of their shirts), and upon arrival, a nice and robust medal.

✅ Very well organized: every detail is taken care of.

✅ The visit of Petra included in the tour allows you to visit a wonderful place.

❌ It is a very difficult race, and there are quite a few runners who fail to complete it within the 7 hour time limit.

“Appointment with Death”, by Agatha Christie

The Agatha Christie novel “Appointment with Death” is also set in Petra, in which Hercule Poirot must discover, among a handful of English tourists, who killed a bad-tempered widow.

In that valley, sheltered in a cave like a priestess of an evil cult, was Mrs. Boynton…

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📖 “Seven pillars of wisdom”, T.E. Lawrence. 🎬 “Lawrence of Arabia”, 1962. 🎬 “Indiana Jones and the last crusade”, 1989.

“Seven pillars of wisdom”, by T.E. Lawrence

I read this book when I travelled to Saudi Arabia, but it was the landscapes in the current Jordan where the book shines the most. Wadi Rum was the operations center of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), in 1917, during his campaign to take Aqaba, which he faithfully describes in his extensive tale.

A long, detailed and insightful book, that is interesting to understand how a British educated fellow understood the particularities of the tribes inhabiting those lands, how he ended up loving the desert… and why the Arab revolt was doomed.

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