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A friend introduced him to the Marathon des Sables in 2015, but several more years passed before he began to seriously consider it as an option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His usual 100-mile races were becoming monotonous, and he took a break from racing when the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020. By the end of the year, he had fallen into a funk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a trip to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in January 2021, he awoke in his hotel room to an overwhelming lack of motivation. He couldn\u2019t muster any excitement about the sortie he had just flown, or an upcoming deployment the next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was like Groundhog Day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kabanuck turned to his computer and checked the Marathon des Sables website \u2014 registration for the 2022 race had opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI decided immediately that I had to sign up,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of a sudden, I found rejuvenation. \u2026 I was stoked about running again, and life. I had something cool to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the Air Force came calling: It needed more instructor pilots. So Kabanuck, looking for a change, left his job as a special operations pilot in the U-28 Draco reconnaissance plane at Cannon AFB, New Mexico, in November 2021 to become an instructor in the T-6 Texan II, a turboprop plane used to teach basic flight skills to new aviators. He arrived at Laughlin\u2019s 85th Flying Training Squadron last July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That training prevented him from running the 2022 Marathon des Sables, but he had made up his mind: He would go to Morocco this year instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The race appealed to him because it was less cookie-cutter than 100-milers had become, and because he missed having to fend for himself in unusual places after his 2021 deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI could do ultramarathoning things, but I also had to survive in the desert and do this austere living thing, which was similar to my deployment life,\u201d he said. \u201cI could bring these two things together, and then I could test all of my skills that I\u2019ve garnered over all these years and see how I fare against the best in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frequent racing in 2022 took its toll on his body, he said, for months making it too difficult to run double-digit distances. He began training for Morocco in earnest in February, two months before race week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI pretty much ran 50-mile weeks from the middle of February until the end of March, and then I got one 85-mile weekend,\u201d he said. \u201cI just decided, I\u2019m going to do the best I can, with the best training that I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kabanuck would fly training sorties for at least 12 hours a day, then log several miles after work, he said. He snuck in quick runs on days without an early morning flight, or in the afternoon between sorties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was straight mental fortitude,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d go to my car, take my flight suit off, put my shoes on and go run from the parking lot before doing anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was granted three weeks of leave for his trip to Africa. Racers stay in the desert for two days ahead of the starting gun; Kabanuck arrived on April 21 to sandstorms and a multitude of unknowns ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m semi-exhausted already,\u201d he recalled of his arrival. \u201c[It\u2019s] a different state of mind, a different type of environment than you\u2019d normally start any race. But you\u2019ve got to go forward 22 miles through the desert (the first leg), with a course you don\u2019t really understand, and somehow figure out a way to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In lieu of roads, Marathon Des Sables competitors follow a trail of rocks and sticks laid out to mark a point-to-point course through sand dunes, rocky hills and salt flats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are allowed to eat only the food they bring in their own pack, plus water provided by the race organizers. Temperatures can hit 120 degrees Fahrenheit before dropping into the 50s overnight, when runners camp together in Bedouin tents supplied by the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their bags must weigh between 6.5 and 15 kilograms (14-33 pounds); participants are required to carry dozens of pieces of equipment, ranging from a compass and sunscreen to a distress-signaling mirror and a venom-removal pump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kabanuck aimed to finish in the top 100. He ran aggressively the first day, then eased back in the more difficult second phase. Each leg left him \u201czapped,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would run next to guys for long periods of time and we wouldn\u2019t say a word to each other,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no congratulations. Nobody asks you how you\u2019re doing. You just go forward. \u2026 It makes you really realize what it takes to be a tough human.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the course, he said, his thoughts revolved around his own peak performance: \u201cWhat\u2019s my caloric situation? How are my feet? How is my body responding to the terrain? \u2026 Where can I beat somebody?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He forgoes music to listen to the tapping of his own feet, or his occasional mumbling. And he forced himself to appreciate the vast, desolate Sahara, saying: \u201cThis terrain is psychotic, but beautiful, and you\u2019ve got to take that in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He relied on a mix of high-fat foods for slow-burning calories and sugary treats for quick energy: Trail mix, stroopwafels, gummy bears, and \u201cbattery packs\u201d \u2014 a mix of coconut oil and almond butter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the evenings, he would drink tea with runners who came in around the same time before returning to his tent with a fresh ration of water to wait for the daily sandstorm. Dinner consisted of 1,000-calorie freeze-dried meals, after which he superglued spots on his feet to prevent blisters, and conked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stomach troubles hit on the third day, forcing him to scale back further; he finished each of the first three stages in around five hours. The fourth and longest stage at 90 kilometers lasted an \u201cagonizing\u201d 22 hours, on blistered feet over sand dunes in the dark, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He grinded through the fifth and final competitive stage, followed by the charity leg of the race over six miles of dunes. (He\u2019s supported the Special Operations Warrior Foundation in at least one race before, but said he wasn\u2019t running for a charity in the Marathon des Sables.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n An exhausted Kabanuck had finished his stockpile of food ahead of the final day in a strategic move to replenish his energy and lighten his pack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re, at that point, happy to be done,\u201d he said of the finish line. \u201cElation isn\u2019t really available anymore. \u2026 Grateful is probably the most appropriate adjective, that we were able to finish and that we were not wounded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their celebration was brief: Race organizers soon loaded the horde of unshowered runners onto a charter bus and out of the desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a six-and-a-half-hour ride through the Atlas Mountains back to the official hotel, Kabanuck put down his bags, bought four beers from the hotel bar and polished them off in his room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was just so freaking relieved that I was able to pull together a good race and end up in the top 200,\u201d he said. \u201cI was able to dig in and keep driving and not settle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kabanuck credits his competitive professional environment with fueling that drive, and for teaching him how to be uncomfortable and survive in austere environments. He\u2019s deployed nine times with Air Force Special Operations Command, including three times to Iraq, two to Afghanistan, two to Djibouti, one to Manda Bay in Kenya and another to Niger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know how to ruck. I know how to go without food. I know how to live in a tent and get my butt kicked, and I know how to go from surviving to thriving,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Air Force provided me with all those templates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both pursuits have instilled calm under pressure, and taught him to focus on long-term accomplishments over instant gratification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the Marathon des Sables behind him, Kabanuck is turning to unfinished business: completing the \u201cGrand Slam\u201d of ultrarunning in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That requires him to finish three of the four oldest 100-mile trail runs in the United States \u2014 the Old Dominion in Virginia, the Western States in California, the Vermont 100, and the Leadville Trail 100 in Colorado \u2014 plus the Wasatch Front 100-miler in Utah within the same year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He had a shot at a Grand Slam in 2015, but had to miss the Wasatch when he deployed to Iraq that summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kabanuck also plans to run the Pinhoti 100 in Alabama in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While he said there\u2019s no organized ultrarunning community in the Air Force, Kabanuck offered advice to anyone who wants to give running a shot: Start somewhere, and don\u2019t compare yourself to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverybody can run,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you have to walk, walk. It\u2019s not a big deal. Just be kind to yourself and enjoy the process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kabanuck crossed the final finish line in 43 hours, 18 minutes and 22 seconds, placing 183rd of 765 runners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":72114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":13,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,89,26,13],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3381],"class_list":["post-38294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-newsletters","category-off-duty"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4YPIWSEV4ZH6VLQNX6GAI3XX6M","arc_canonical_url":"\/off-duty\/2023\/05\/23\/air-force-instructor-pilot-tackles-toughest-footrace-on-earth\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Chas-Kabanuck-desert-web.jpg.jpg\")
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