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.

Everest marathon 28th November

Everything was frozen in the morning but despite this we both had a good night's sleep.  After breakfast we set off for Gorak Shep ( the start of the race 5100m) where we will be sleeping the night before the race. We have the chance to climb Kalar Pattar (5623m) after getting to Gorak Shep but we were not sure if we really felt like it.  The walk up to Gorak Shep was really rough with some pretty awful moraine to cross and will make for a pretty tough couple of miles of the race. It took a couple of hours to get up to Gorak Shep and we were both a little tired. However after a coffee we both set off for the top of Kalar Pattar with Menai unsure if she would get to the top. We both plugged on to the top. I took about 1 1/2 hours to get to the top where it was very windy and a bit precipitous.  I took the obligatory photos including a couple with Nima and then headed down. After about 15 minutes I met Menai so went back up to the top with her.  We had a gentle descent and then had lunch before heading back to Lobuche. We got back at about 3.45, so quite a long day. 

Everest marathon 27th November

An early cold start and a medical demonstration of what to do in case of an emergency. Basically if someone is hurt you have to stop and help if you have to stop for a long time your time will be adjusted. We then set off up the valley retracing my run the morning before. I took Menai a long time to warm up and she found the climb up to Dungla difficult. We had a tea break at Dugla before taking on the toughclimb up to the terminal moraine of the Khumbu glacier. At the top there were some sobering memorials to those who have died on Everest- there were lines of memorials going into the distance.  We then had a steady climb up to Lobuche for an hour. On the way we saw a huge eagle and a rescue helicopter on a mission up to Lobuche. After a good lunch a few of us headed to the moraine wall to look at the glacier which was pretty ugly, covered in moraine, pitted with lakes and deep crevasses. At we went along the ridge of the moraine we saw more of the western ridge of Everest, Lho La into Tibet but the scene was dominated by the beautiful Pumori to the west of Everest.

Everest marathon 26th November

It was really very cold in the morning until the sun rose over Ama Dhablam. As it was a rest day timings were quite relaxed. In the morning we headed up the ridge above the camp at 9.30. At the top of the ridge Menai continued with the main group whilst I decided to follow the top ridge path to Dungla which is a refreshment post on the race day. I then ran down the race route back to Pheriche. The route is stony, wet and muddy but on race day it will probably be icy! After lunch we had a lie down as we were a bit tired before heading off down the valley to make sure we knew the best route from Pheriche on race day. In the evening we had a bit of a sing song and dance with the sherpas and porters.  Surprisingly we both slept very well despite the cold and dogs barking.  The campsite was pretty awful really with yak dung all over the place and smoke from numerous yak dung burning fires.

Everest marathon 25th November

uAs we were still on the race route we had to make sure we knew the route today. The first thing we noticed after about 30 minutes walk through lovely woods was that a big girder bridge had been destroyed in the earthquake. We had to cross the river by a smaller bridge and then climb up the other side of the river. This will be a tricky descent on race day.  The rest of the route to Pangboche was a comfortable traverse. In Pangboche, which is a refreshment stop, three of us decided to go with Nima to look at the monastery in the upper village. It was a nice walk via a mass of mani stones to the village which was very different to the lower village with little farmsteads spread amongst the fields. Inevitably the monastery was closed so we headed back down to the race route to walk for another hour to the lunch stop. On the way we passed the BBC crew with Mira Rai. After lunch we only had a shortish one hour walk to our night stop in Pheriche. On the way we had to be careful to make sure we identified the right route because of yet another washed out bridge. Pheriche is a bit of a one horse town and a bit grim placed in the middle of a wide valley. It was cold when the the sun disappeared at 3.30 but the lodge was warm even if the toilet facilities were primitive.
We had a great night's sleep getting up at 7.30 the next morning.

Everest marathon 24th November

I thought that it had rained in the night as I had heard what i thought was the sound of rain on the tent.  It was actually the wind in the prayer flags above our tent. It was a beautiful morning but as we were  in the shadow of Thamserku we were in the shade and it was pretty cold.  Menai had to attend a marshall meeting and i wrote up the journal as I waited.  Luckily the sun came up out and warmed things up. We had a long walk down from Kyangjuma down to the river and as this was the race route we knew that we would have to climb up the slope on race day. Apparently this is the hardest part of the route coming at about 15 miles into the race.  From now on we will be paying careful attention to the route.  After the river we had a long 75 minute climb to Tengboche (3867m) where there is a monastery and on race day there will be an aid station. We picked at an uninspiring packed lunch but did buy coffee and cake which made up for the packed lunch. We wanted to look around the  monastery but had to wait about 40 minutes for it to be opened. There were no monks in the monastery so the look round was a little boring. There were lovely views from Tengboche up the valley towards Everest, down towards Namche and up the Gokyo valley. We headed down to our camp site at Debouche (3757m)  which had a lovely lodge and views. We all seemed to be really hungry so appreciated the veggie momos.  We both had a great night's sleep.