Kemble man runs desert marathons

Duncan Barber covered 159 miles in the six marathons across the Sahara Desert

A former Gloucestershire soldier has completed six marathons in the Sahara Desert to raise funds for charity.

Duncan Barber, from Kemble, ran for several hours every day for five days to raise funds for an Iraqi-Kurdish charity that promotes peace through sport.

What an experience; incredible, would I do it again in another desert? Absolutely not! Duncan Barber

Speaking just after completing the run, Barber said: "That was without any doubt the most physically demanding, spectacular and satisfying challenge I have ever taken on.

"The Sahara is a stunning place, every mile looks different and the weather is something else, it actually hit 49C on the third day and then rained for 10 minutes in the evening."

Duncan covered 159 miles for the challenge he completed on behalf of The Salah Rahman Sports Foundation which promotes sport to children, women and men of all ethnic and religious groups in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq.

His daily routine in the desert race was to wake up at 6am for a breakfast of dehydrated high calorie meals and coffee.

Then he would begin taping up his slowly deteriorating feet, which he described as "looking scarier each day".

Duncan ran for several hours every day for five days

Final preparations before the day's running included preparing electrolyte and energy drinks for the first stages and packing all his kit into a backpack that weighed about 13kgs.

Duncan was managing an average marathon time of approximately eight hours, usually finishing a day's running at about 3pm.

The final day was a 54-mile run which began at 6am and he finished at 1.20am the next morning.

"After 19 hours and 20 minutes of racing on that last day, I was utterly exhausted, though in complete awe of the achievement," said Duncan.

"What an experience; incredible, would I do it again in another desert? Absolutely not!"

The final stage was a ceremonial formality running 2km through the Pyramids of Giza to the finish line after six days and 159miles of running, in an accumulative time of 50 hours and 4 minutes, placed 49th out of 127 competitors.

The Salah Rahman Sports Foundation was established after Salah Rahman, an Iraqi Kurd, was killed in a terrorist attack in 2004.

The charity promotes community bonds through sport and has a range of activities, from fun-runs to encourage health, to promoting women's soccer and providing much-needed sports facilities.

Whilst working in Kurdistan, Duncan was inspired by the Salah Sports Foundation efforts to help children in Iraqi Kurdistan and is raising money through his Just Giving website.

"The Kurdistan Region in Iraq is a peaceful and stable state and I know the money raised will go towards strengthening that peace and developing bonds between all the groups that make up Iraq.

"Iraq has been devastated through years of fighting but now its people have a real chance for peace and I want to do my part to help its people."