TENZING HILLARY EVEREST MARATHON 29 MAY 2010
A personal account / description by Richard Whale.
This marathon is recognised in the Guiness Book of Records as the world highest marathon. With a starting altitude of 17,593ft (5,356m) at Everest Base Camp.
You have to walk to the start, and the journey begins after a flight from Kathmandu to the worlds highest airport at Lukla (9,321ft). The trek started on 16 May 2010 and camping overnight it took 12 days of walking (about 7 to 9 hours per day).
From my first meal prepared and cooked by the expedition cooks using local food, I found out that my digestive system could not “stomach” the local cuisine, so for the entire journey I forced my self to eat, but then my body rejected it; to try to force my body to extract nutrition I lived on Imodium tablets during the day but once camped for the night and on doctors orders I had to live with the consequences and allow my body to “flush” out what it couldn’t handle. Also to help with acclimatisation it was recommended that I drink at least 4 litres, ideally 6 litres of water per day, the consequences are that every 20-30 minutes you have to pee (24/7). On arrival at Gorak Shep just before EBC the doctors told me to stop taking Imodium as I had taken too much already.
Marathon Day
At last I am at the start! I admit that as far as preparation to run a marathon, this one has not been ideal! I am exhausted from the physical exertions of the trek, not being able to breath, very dehydrated due to the “runs!” literally!, Having not had one nights sleep for longer than 30 mins (toilet) for 12 days, a sore toe and now being the coldest I have ever been in my life so far. Last night the final night here I again got up a few times for nature’s call (tough in this environment), and the sky was very clear. The moon lit up all of the surrounding peaks. Wow. The sheer magnificence of the view and knowing I am on top of the world makes my tiny little inconveniences pale into insignificance.
There were two avalanches last night on opposite slopes from Base Camp. You hear this rumbling and it gets louder and louder. You hope that it will stop before it gets too loud. Of course, EBC is situated to avoid the impact of avalanches (you assume). One of the Sherpa’s said that there was a huge avalanche a couple of weeks ago and the airborne snow settled over Base Camp. A little too close for comfort though.
I got up at 4:45 am to begin my race preparation. That’s difficult to do in a tent that is freezing and only big enough for two, and they didn’t envisage the two would be Teddy (a big hard Polish shipbuilder I think he was made from ‘girders’) and me! I had a little breakfast of porridge and coffee and tried to stay warm but not overdress for the start. Two or three toilet trips followed, but I was happy as I must now be “empty”, I am thinking I hope my body has enough to keep me going, I have a few ‘go’ bars and energy gels in my bum bag and just hope that as my body has remembered that I have eaten these before, so it wont reject them when I eat them on the way! Fortunately, the race officials agreed to pick up everyone’s down jacket and transport them to Namche Bazaar the next day, so I wouldn't have to freeze for too long waiting for the start.
The starting line was about 400 meters further up the icefall from the “mock start” yesterday near camp. It was a tough scramble through the glacier to get there. The race officials started calling people to the line about 6:30. Runners started materializing from everywhere. We had our group of about 25 runners and there were a handful of other Westerns who began showing up yesterday. Several of them have been in the mountains several weeks now getting acclimated and training. Must be nice. The Nepalese were appearing from everywhere, as well. As opposed to the Westerners who were huddled together trying to stay warm and not get too winded at the high altitudes, they were scrambling up and down the glacier and rock piles like it was nothing. I know who’s going to be taking the top prizes in this race.
Most of the Westerners were carrying a small bag of garbage down the mountain during the race as part of a publicity effort of the Extreme Everest Expedition 2010, an organization that is trying to clean up the rubbish that has been accumulating on the mountain for the last 60 years from the mountaineering expeditions and increasing number of trekkers. It was a small token that we could do. It was easy to tuck the baggie inside my bum bag (but I lost it on the way!). oops!
As the start approached, the Nepalese runners began to stretch out along the rocky ridges ready to dash for the few “trails” that led off the glacier and moraine. I was just trying to stay upright and uninjured until we got to relatively stable ground.
At 7:00 am sharp, the whistle went off and there was a mad dash for the narrow paths. With the ice and the rocks, it was like trying to run on thousands of slippery cricket and ten-pin bowling balls. “Run” was relative term, as well. With the altitude and the treacherous terrain, I was just shuffling along.
For the first 5K to Gorek Shep, we were on the Khumbu Glacier and moraine. The group split up pretty quickly and I was on my own as I wanted to wait to see if I could naturally fall in with runners of similar ability. Some times the route was tough to follow and I had to stop to check where to go. But all I had to do was look for the yak dung. I reached the 5K point in about an hour, almost twice as long than a normal road marathon. But I knew that today would be a long day.
The second 5K from Gorek Shep to Lobuche began with two, long cruel uphills. In front was some yak trains which slowed everyone down and having just fallen in with Sanjay (India) and Peter (Germany) we managed to catch up with Mark (USA) and Gerry (Ireland) the yak delay provided much needed rest. Gerry, just like a scene from mission impossible managed to get in front of the leading yak and stop it, we all then very carefully got past and continued with the race. In this section of the course, we could finally get in some running but had to be careful of the footing. At least we were off of the glacier. Mark and Gerry now with a clear path soon left us three. We reached Lobuche, the 10K mark in about 2 ½ hours. At this pace, we were looking at an 9+ hour marathon, in the range that we was expecting.(Well them two anyway!). I was feeling really good and exceedingly overjoyed with the time I was doing.
Finally, after Lobuche, we got into the nicest section of the course. We got into a steady pace of running on the flats and downhills and going up the hills as fast as we could but usually not running. The steep downhill into Thukla was tough, especially finding the right line because there were so many paths. It was like navigating spaghetti junction!
We ran over the rickety bridge and got onto an easy section of the course, the 5K or so to Dingboche. The trail was relatively smooth, it was gradually downhill, the air was getting thicker making it easier to breath. Sanjay said he wanted to look at his feet as he thought he had a blister so we stopped at the water station, I used it for a photo opportunity of the run while he sorted his blister out, one of the water marshals took this photo.
The views in this section were stunning. The trail was about halfway up a high ridge, with expansive views of the valley floor and glacial river a thousand feet below and snow capped peaks above. Magnificent. We also began seeing a lot of trekkers and locals at this point and they all shouted encouragement as we passed. For some reason, the Americans were particularly vocal!
Reaching Dingboche, we were at 14,464 ft, a little over 3,000 ft below the start, boy did it feel good to be in thick air. We began thinking that we could finish in a pretty respectable time, maybe under 9 hours.
Wrong. By 25K, the fun was over. We had dropped down to Deboche at 12,329 ft and crossed the river. Then we began a short, but steep climb through this rhododendron forest to the Tengboche Monastery, at 12,664 ft. Only 335 ft, but it seemed like forever. There was a yak train making its way up the path, but no Gerry to halt it, so we were grateful for the rest and just tried to stay out of the fresh dung. It seemed hopeless.
Topping out at the Tengboche Monestary, we had a much needed drink after the climb and a rest before we began the long, long and steep, steep downhill to the Imja Khosi (river). It was a 2,000 ft. drop over about 4K. I think that it was tougher than the uphills. And dangerous, too. Some of the steep sections were essentially jumping down from rock to rock and hoping not to go over the edge. We were down in the wooded terrain by now though, so any fall would be eventually stopped by trees.
We reached the bottom and crossed the swinging suspension bridge. We knew the next section of the course would be tough, but we were in the home stretch now. How wrong we were.
We reached a medical check point at the start of the long climb to the Khunde Hospital above Namche Bazaar, the finishing point. At this point Sanjay was desperate to get a doctor to look at his feet as he said they were in a mess, I was totally exhausted and felt that I had no reserves left I was in a bad way, Peter said that it was only 6k to go and he was off. It took about 10 minutes for the doctor to see to Sanjays feet, I had an energy/isotonic drink and felt a little better, the thing that spurred us on to get going again was, when I looked up the hill, Peter had only got 200 meters in distance in ten minutes, lets get him I said to Sanjay! It was about 2:05 pm, a little over seven hours into the race. Hmmmm. . . maybe we had a shot to get under 8 hours.
Wrong again. This hill was the “hill from hell” it just went on and on. The only relief was the occasional switchback where the trail levelled out a bit. We just kept going up and up. I was looking at my watch and seeing the minutes slip away. So much for sub 8:00. Maybe sub 9:00. Peter was always up in front of us and we just couldn’t get back to him.
We finally reached the upper valley and the villages of Khumjung and Khunde on the far side where the hospital was located. We didn’t catch Peter and Sanjay sensed the finish and started to pull away I think he was incensed by Peter for leaving us, although he didn’t say, I think he was going to do his utmost to catch and overtake him before the finish. The route was a confusing maze of rock wall lined paths between fields and houses. The race organizers had marked the route with flags from Coca Cola, the race sponsor, but the local kids had snapped them up as souvenirs. I had to stop at each fork in the path and ask directions, but the locals always knew the right way. “Marathon?” They’d point me in the right direction. It was always the uphill path, unfortunately.
Here I got an unexpected boost, I came across Frank (UK) and Kay (USA) who looked to be struggling and they were doing the half marathon, it really is uplifting and really spurred me on to catch them up knowing they had had a 26k head start. I now knew for certain that I was going to finish.
On reaching the hospital I began the long gradual decent back to Khumjung and to the final two obstacles. Past a couple of rather large stupas and long mani wall. There were lot of locals in this area shouting encouragement. At least I think they were. At the end of the mani wall, I started up the climb to Sangboche. I had walked this section earlier 12 days ago so I knew what I was in for -- 315 rock steps. No running here. Just walked up step after step to the top. The time just slipping by and my initial goal of 10-12 hours was now a reality.
Ahh. I finally reached the last step, went around the stupa at the top clockwise (didn’t want to tempt fate), and began a slow shoe shuffle run across the plains to the edge of the ridge above town. Two marshals at the last aid/water station came up to me and walked with me for a couple of hundred meters to show me the right path.
I had reached 40K and now faced the final obstacle: a 1,400 ft. drop back into Namche Bazaar and the finish line. This section was a steep maze of winding and intersecting paths and could be difficult to get off track and end up at the other end of town. Fortunately, they marked this section with white chalk or flour (no flags!), so it was easy to follow. No guessing. Down, down down to finally pop out on a wide flat path that circled the upper part of Namche.
No more uphills or downhills. I had 400 meters to the finish line. I slowly made my way around the upper part of the village, as I got to the last stupa; I could see the finish line and went for it, only to be stopped and told go back and around the stupa and come in from between two houses and into the small field which was the finishing area.
Finally, I was there. Done. Nine Hours and 45 minutes after starting. I had conquered the Everest Marathon, the highest marathon in the world.