Everest Marathon - the report (bit long)

As per subject :-)

Well, that was an experience and a half!

Synopsis is that I went, trekked, completed the marathon and came home then
spent the next week at death's door.

Pictures (lots of them) can be seen at
http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/7302411

Longer version is....

Flew out with David (my ex who was marshalling) Thu 15 Nov to Kathmandu via
Doha. Kathmandu wasn't quite what I expected - was much bigger. I had
envisaged it being more like Leh in Ladakh, India for some reason, which is
a rather cosy little placed. Did a bit of sightseeing then had a fun run on
the Sunday - 12km downhill. We were split into 3 groups, red, white and
yellow (the best!) and had to get our kitbags down to 12kg max - didn't
leave much after the sleeping bag, down jacket and thermarest were packed.

On the Monday, we flew up to Lukla - said by some to be one of the 5
scariest things one can do. Personally I found it fine - the runway is
incredibly short and on top of a mountain, so I can see why some would get
twitchy. Unfortunately, the red group leader rather generously passed his
stinking cold on to me, so I was feeling pretty crap by this time.

We trekked up to Namche Bazaar over the next couple of days, staying at
Phakding the first night in tents. Namche was quite a nice little place -
totally tourist based as this really the start of the main base camp trail.
Our group stayed in the Khumbu Lodge, which was a lovely place with cracking
food. After a couple of days acclimatisation, we headed off on the race
route - we had to learn the route on the way up, so spent a lot of time
looking behind us.

We veered off the route in order to explore the Gokyo valley and get a bit
more altitude under our belts. Several days trekking and acclimatising, we
were camped at about 4900m and most of us made an ascent of Gokyo Ri
(~5300m). The scenery was wonderful. By now, due to the altitude and very
dusty trails, most of us had developed the 'Khumbu cough'. Honed athletes,
my arse! Most of us sounded more like a crowd of lame ducks.

Eventually back onto the race route, we had dropped back down in altitude
only to then start climbing in earnest. Along the way, several folk dropped
out or were airlifted out due to illness and/or altitude. The white group
lost 5 of their folk at one point. Most people suffered either the cold or
D&V (the more unfortunate had both). I was pretty lucky really - had no
D&V. David had a night and a day or so of D&V then he was fine.

During the day when the sun was out, it was generally warmish. However as
soon as the sun went, the temperature plummeted and it was freezing. Think
it got down to about -15/-20C at night. It was too cold to wash either
ourselves or our clothes - I did try once or twice but came to my senses
eventually. By the end, everyone smelled the same anyway, so no matter.

We got to Lobuche, which was our penultimate destination and the place from
which David would be marshalling. It was a hellhole, with really nothing
going for it. We spent 2 nights there, the second of which we awoke to find
it blowing a gale with the snow swirling around. There was some doubt as to
whether we'd make it to Gorak Shep for the start. However, whilst the
medicals and kit checks were going on, it cleared enough for us to trek up.

The night before the race, we were lucky enough to all get beds in the
lodges, so didn't have to mess around with tents. As was the norm, the
rooms were freezing, but the main eating area was toasty. None of us slept
well the night before and there were a flurry of last minute illnesses.
Highlight was one of the Sherpas singeing his eyebrows/lashes when he threw
a little too much kerosene onto the stove - flame height was impressive.

Next morning we were up at 4am, breakfast at 5am, bags to be ready for
portering by 6am and the race started a half hour earlier than originally
specified at 6.30am instead of 7am. 6.15am saw us all heading to the start
line - I was shivering in my (well David's) down smock, the Nepali girl in
front of me was in a t-shirt!

Then we were off! Running from the start, it quickly became a shuffle as we
hit the first uphill bit. I decided to take it nice and easy for the 3
miles to Lobuche - I'd never struggled with the altitude as much as I had
during this trip, permanently breathless etc. Still, an hour later saw me
passing through Lobuche and on towards Dughla. David was going to catch me
up when he'd finished marshalling and accompany me the rest of the route.

I did jog when I could, but came to the conclusion I'd get on better just
keeping up a brisk walking pace - every time I tried to put some more effort
in, I felt breathless and light-headed. The aid stations were spaced every
3 miles or so, allowing me to tick off a station an hour. David finally
caught me up around mile 11, but to be fair he'd had breakfast before
setting off. We lost a little time on the ascent up to Tengboche, the steep
descent down from there which then went into the steep ascent up to
Sarnassa. Sarnassa was at the 17 mile mark and marked the end of the worst
of the ascents. From Sarnassa, it was on to Namche. Sadly, although the
race finished at Namche, this point only marked 20 miles, so we had to go
past Namche (where we could hear finishers being cheered) and do the Thamo
loop of 3 miles out, 3 miles in. David left me at Namche, to go buy me some
clean clothing for the finish and I continued the final 6 miles with a
charming French chap from our group, called Gerrard. Gerrard had been an
absolute star the whole trip - 63 years old, he'd done over 30 marathons and
he spent the whole trip being typically Gallic, kissing all the women :-)
He was the same during the Thamo loop, as we saw other competitors on the
way in as we were going out. Not a woman passed that he didn't embrace and
kiss.

Anyway, the Thamo loop was the worst part of the whole thing - it took an
age to get to the aid station and it was uphill in both directions!! I
don't normally take over 2 hours to do a 10k. Finally we got back to
Namche, meandering our way through the streets, which were the most lethal
footing in the whole event. We crossed the finish line together - 10h 14m
after starting. It was an incredibly long day. Just for comparison, the
first Nepali runner crossed the line in 4h 12m, the first western runner in
4h 54m and the first lady (Angela Mudge, who some may have heard of) in 5h
2m, breaking the woman's record by 14 mins.

Was a pleasure to get back to the Khumbu lodge, although the shine was taken
off slightly when I went for a shower, got all lathered up and the water
went off. It was sorted but not before I got into whimper mode. I'm still
convinced that David used up all the hot water.

Next day was a rest day - following day was up early to be helicoptered to
Lukla in a dodgy Russian helicopter, then fly out to Kathmandu. The first
group's helicopter take off didn't bode well, as it taxi-ed along the grassy
runway on its front wheel! Fortunately, the pilot had sorted out his
takeoff by the time he got to us. Spent the rest of the day relaxing in the
hotel grounds, drinking beer. The next evening was the awards ceremony.
I'd managed to pick another lurgy up and felt like crap. Following morning
it was up early again to fly back home. My mate Keith picked us up - his
first words to me were "You look like ***", which wasn't quite the greeting
I'd hoped for.

So, I was off work all week with lurgy, which was a bit of a sod - feeling a
lot better now, although I had a stinking headache every morning for some
time after. Probably should go to the doc and get checked out, but not
gotten around to it.

Upshot is that I'm very glad I did it and feel very lucky to have completed
it. I don't think I'd do it again though and I don't think I'll be camping
for quite some time. Nepal is a beautiful country with spectacular scenery
and very friendly, genuine people and is well worth a visit. Everest is not
the most impressive mountain, but mostly due to it being surrounded by other
big mountains. Very poignant is the number of memorials to people (Sherpas
and others) who have lost their lives on Everest.

Money wise, I've yet to gather in all the sponsor forms, but it's looking
like approaching the £700 - £800 mark, so thanks to all the folk who
sponsored me. I'll post the actual amount once I add it all up (after NY).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Cheers,

Charlene


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