Biography by Alice Hunter Morrison, Moroccan-based Journalist, winner of Best Africa Blog, RunUltra, author of “Dodging Elephants”, 8000 miles across Africa on a bike and Special Correspondent to Hope So Bright

June 20, 2016

Mohamad Ahansal is a Berber from Morocco. He belongs to the Ait Atta tribe. His ancestral home is Zawiyaat but his family were nomadic. He was born and raised in the small village of JbelBani, which is about 25K from the Saharan town of Zagora.

Although Ahansal’s birthdate is listed as January 1, 1974, he does not know the exact date of his birth. His family moved from place to place with their animals and he and his brothers were born in different locations. Ahansal’s parents were illiterate and did not keep a record of dates or places. They did not consider it important. He says, “My mother says I was born during a year in which there was a lot of rain and insects. Every year in Africa is marked as special in that regard and this is how she remembered it”.

Ahansal did not start running competitively until his teens but everyday life in his village meant that he was conditioned from an early age. His school lay 7K away, so he would run to and from school every day. When he was 17, Ahansal entered his first competition, theEid Al Arshor festival of the coronation, on March 3rd . Part of the festivities included races for the young men of the area. Ahansal signed up with all of his friends. He didn’t have proper running shoes, so he wore his football boots, which were very heavy. They were green, with heavy plastic soles. When he saw that everyone else had trainers on, he took his boots off, left them at the start,and ran barefoot. Ahansal came in second place and that was the first time he realized his abilities.

Ahansal had his brother, Lahcen, as an example and training partner. The two men would go on to become the greatest champions of the Marathon des Sables (MdS). The story the Ahansal brothers like to tell is that they were in their village near Zagora when the runners from that year’s edition of MdS passed by. “Why are all these men running through the desert,” they asked, “and why are they running so slowly!”

In 1991, Lahcen, ran the MdS without an official race entry. Although he was first, he pulled back just before the finish line to allow the first official winner to run through. Once it was possible for Moroccan entrants to be sponsored and participate in this race, the legend began.

1n 1998, Ahansal won his first MdS with a record breaking time of 16 hours 22 minutes and 29 seconds. He has won this race four times, in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2013. He has also been a runner-up 10 times and has run the MdS a total of 21 times.

Ahansal has run races internationally, winning Fire and Ice in 2014, and recently won the Iranian Silk Road Ultramarathon 2016. Additionally, he has created his own ultra multi-stage race, the Trans Atlas Marathon, which traverses the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco in six days.

Up next: Mohamad will be running as a Hope So Bright ambassador for autism awareness at the Grand to Grand Ultra Marathon on September 20^th -26^th, 2015