A brave Irish man has completed six marathons in seven days while battling temperatures of up to 54 degrees in Morocco.
David Caffrey from Co. Louth spoke to The Irish Mirror this week after completing the Marathon Des Sables known as the toughest race on foot in the world.
He, along with his brother Fran, were two of 25 Irish people to compete in the race that sees participants traversing a course of 251 kilometres over the Sahara desert.
Fifty-year-old David explained this he and his brother Fran had secured their spot in the race in 2013 and had been “running around 70km each week” in order to prepare for it.
David pictured at the event (via The Irish Mirror)
“You have to do heat training as well. We’d bring the temperature in the house up to about 45 degrees and run on treadmills for an hour-and-a-half,” he said to The Irish Mirror.
“Nothing can prepare you for when you reach the desert and it’s 50 degrees.”
The race kicked off at the beginning of April, with more than 1,000 runners from all corners of the globe taking part.
“One of the most common injuries was that people would have the skin ripped off their feet from running in such heat.”
He added that all who took part raised money for Unicef, while also raising money for their own causes.
Cover picture: Fran and David pictured (via The Irish Mirror).
