Today, Sunday, April 7th, is the first day of a six-day ultramarathon our colleague (and somewhat insane friend), Steve Homsey begins. His first step into the sand today in the Sahara Desert will bring a lot of joy and friction as he takes on the Marathon Des Sables.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_des_Sables

http://marathondessables.com/en/marathon-des-sables/figures

A few facts of Marathon Des Sables:

• Everyone must carry their own food and shelter for the entire six-marathon-a-day run through the desert. This means it does get lighter by the 5th days since you have less food to carry.

• The organizers do supply water (which is rationed) and will send out search parties if the runners lose their compass or don’t show up at the end of each day.

• All previous Marathon Des Sables runs, since 1984, have not had anyone representing Attache Corporate Housing.

Anyone who has attempted or completed a race beyond a 5K knows that these events require planning, sacrifice and ability to overcome obstacles (sanity, however, is not necessarily part of the mix). Over the past 9 months Steve's training has included work-outs in Saunas above 100 degrees and running on beaches along the East Coast and Puerto Rico...and running in a traditional marathon or two.  We’re hopeful that Steve accomplishes his personal goals (you’ll need to ask him what place he’s aiming to finish) and comes back with amazing stories to share.

Everyone at Attache is excited for him and we’ve made an effort to support him while he’s away for these three weeks.  We made three symbolic sponsorship purchases to help him compete and complete this sandy jaunt. Since we didn’t want to add to the weight or detract the durability of his equipment and clothes, we didn't add our logo or any #StayAttache monikers on him, and instead paid for his shoes and his hat to help support him ‘head to toe’.  And since this marathon requires everyone to carry all their own food and supplies for the entire duration of the race, we also paid for his backpack.  Since Steve has carried Attache over the years with his grit and charm, covering the cost of his backpack seemed like an obvious fit.

We'll plan to update everyone as we find out more.

Go Steve! We hope this run is easier than calculating sliding scale, multi-person per diem lease terms, or at least, more fun.

Also, Steve, we’ll be counting these days off as sick days because, I don’t know any who is well and would do this...

P.S. - track Steve using Bib #280 http://marathondessables.com

Name: STEPHEN HOMSEY
BIB: 280