Page 5

No clue. But the prize money and the invites are for the ‘elite’ race. Boones also released five hundred ‘fun runner’ places – if you can call a race of this type ‘fun’ – for people who want to pay a hefty admission fee for the privilege of running in the desert. They’re not there to compete, just to have the experience – mad sods. But that’s probably how he’s managed to raise the dough.
Mac:
What if one of the fun runners wins?
Jason:
I’m sure Boones has a plan for that. But I can tell you, the elites will be as motivated as hell.
Mac:
Who do you think you’ll be up against?
Jason:
Rupert, of course. I assume the top Moroccan runners will be there. Farouk Lazaar and Nabil Alami. They’ve dominated desert races in the past. Then there’s people like Pete Wendell, Alexander Schmidt, Mariam Hussein … but who knows? There are some wild rumours flying around.
But what I’m truly interested in this year, is who is going to be Boones’s runner thirteen?
Mac:
Runner thirteen – that mean something?
Jason:
It’s Boones’s pick. His ‘runner to watch’. Whoever gets the number-thirteen bib is the runner he thinks is going to win – or, sometimes, the runner he thinks is going to flame out spectacularly.