Everest marathon 30th November - race day

So at last the big day is here. We woke at 4.30 with the alarm but Menai had to push me to wake me up to turn the alarm off. I had at last drifted off into a nice sleep. We were both a bit groggy so the porridge at breakfast was hard to down. Many others were in the same position. So at 6.15 we headed to the start line in the sandy bowl at Gorak Shep and it was not as cold as we had feared.  We still had our down jackets on for the roll call before the race and put them on tarpaulins before the start. The start was delayed because 5 Nepali runners were late.  At 6.33 we were off. As expected the Nepali runners set off at a frantic pace across the bowl and up onto the moraine. We followed and eventually settled into a rhythm. I was following Alison in a small group and she set a sensible pace that at least allowed us to breathe ok.  A couple of faster runners overtook us and we overtook a couple here too. After the moraine I pulled away, first from Alison and then Dan, who both had colds. I was with Nicola Rai by the first aid station at Lobuche but as I stopped to take off my fleece and have a cup of hot water she raced away. After Lobuche I was following TK and feeling good on the flatter ground. I spotted that TK had taken a wrong turn which would have taken him up the wrong valley.  It took me some very loud shouting to warn him as he was listening  to music. I made it to Dungla and Eric, the Marshall, in good time and took on water as well as stowing my gloves. The next leg was familiar as I had run it a few days before but is seemed to take ma an age to get to Pheriche. I was feeling a bit of chafing from my pack at this stage so asked Eamon and Kirsty if they had any Vaseline.  I had to make do with lip salve which did the trick brilliantly.  Then there was quite a long downhill leg to Pangboche and things warmed up nicely.  I was still feeling good at this stage and had not seem another runner since TK going wrong.  In Pangboche Susan at the aid station told me that there was an injured runner back up the track which made me worry  about Menai.  I plodded on down the steep downhill to the river followed by the climb to Tengboche.  I was beginning to suffer a little at this stage but still climbing strongly. I had made sure that I have taken on either a gel or a bar between each aid station so still had energy but at Tengboche Kathy and Nishma provided rice pudding, apple pie and Snicker bars.  I could barely force down the rice pudding. I then had the very steep long downhill to the Dhud Khosi followed by the equally long and steep climb to Kanjuma. On this I ran with a Nepali woman for a little before overtaking her on the hill.  Not before she had outwitted me with short cuts for a while.  Higher up the hill I went past a couple of other Nepali runners suffering for their fast start.  At the top of the hill Nichola was at the aid station where I had a couple of cups of water before plodding onto Namche.  I found this section harder than expected and the hilly sections were a real effort, however I overtook another Nepali runner before Namche where it was good to see Mark.  Then into the last 6 miles on the Thamo loop which was very, very hard and only made better by getting some encouragement from the faster runners.  I saw Simon doing very well followed by a Jamie having a blinder of a race and then Mira Rai and Ken.  I saw one Nepali woman getting assistance and then came to the turn round for the final 3 miles. Scarily Alison seemed to be hard on my heels but she assured me that she was 10 minutes behind me. Nevertheless I really focussed for the final excruciating miles and was very pleased when Ben, coming towards me, told me that Namche was just round the corner. So then the last run down the steps into Namche, through the high street and to the finish.  I was 19th, 6th non Nepali, 1st over 40 vet in a time of 6.26. Feeling shattered I went for a shower and then started to worry about Menai making the cut-off at Namche Bazaar 14:30. So after a quick shower I went up the long long stairs to Mark and the Namche check point.  I needn't worried because Menai had gone through the the checkpoint an hour before the cutoff time. So after a chat with Mark I headed back down the hill for a cup of tea in a vantage point to see Menai coming through the the town at about 3.30 looking remarkably fresh. She finished in a fantastic time of 9.08 in 38th.

Me at the first checkpoint wearing my Nepali hat which I won and wore for the whole race. 

Everest marathon 29th November

Today we had a slow slow walk back up to Gorak Shep where we would be staying the night before the race. Beforehand we had to see one of the doctors for a medical check which we both passed. Our O2 saturation and pulse were fine. We then had a kit inspection which caused a few problems for some of the runners and they ended borrowing kit from others. After this we were issued with our numbers. I was number 3 and Menai was 27. It was quite useful to remind ourselves of the route and pick out faster paths.  We got to Gorak Shep at about 11:30 and settled into our rooms in not a great lodge but our porters provided a good lunch. In the afternoon we got our kit ready for the race as there was a practice start at 3.30. We took a couple of staged shots in our running gear before the practice start.  This was a bit of a chaotic affair with the Nepali runners jumping the gun. The BBC wanted some shots of Mira Rai at the start so we had to stage quite a few starts for them.  Then we had a long afternoon and evening of waiting. The Race starts at 6.30 in the morning with a very early start for breakfast.  We slept in our race gear. We both had a pretty awful night with me getting a headache from the altitude.