The race was run in pretty remote country and the maps were not accurate enough to enable realistic map reading. There was no one you could ask the way most of the time and the trail we took was not always the most obvious route from A to B. Therefore we had the route marked for us by none other than the world famous Lizzy Hawker. For those of you who do not know who she is this is a list of some of her accomplishments:
5 times winner of the 160k Ultra Tour Du Mont Blanc
Former 24 hour world record holder
Former 100k world champion
Winner of 155 mile Spartathlon
In 2016 she ran the 1600k Grand Himalayan Trail across Nepal in 42 days
Lizzy and Menai
Lizzie would set off at about 4.30am to lay a trail of orange ribbons and spray paint for us to stop us from getting lost. She was meticulous in setting the trail and it rarely let us down. The only time nearly all of us got lost was on stage 2 when the villagers decided to help themselves to the ribbons. We saw yaks, bikes and dogs decorated with orange ribbons on our travels. At the end of the day the sweeper would collect all the ribbons again and cross the finish line looking like some sort of orange rag doll.
Lizzy was great to have along on the trip and had wise words for us about the trail. She is incredibly modest about her achievement and it was quite hard to get her to talk about them. She obviously is happiest in the mountains and running.
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