The Original Everest Marathon

By Richard Hardy

The Everest trip was definitely the trip of a lifetime. Nepal and the Himalaya are amazing. It seems a life time away that I left home on 14th November for the trip. In the 4 weeks we packed so much in. I managed to do all the trekking and got to Everest Basecamp and also climbed a small mountain Kala Pathar 5550m to have great views of Everest itself.

The race was Monday 2nd December. It started at 6:30am. The temperature was a chilly -19C. When the gun went off I was a amazed to find myself leading the race for the first 10 minutes. The route is a full marathon distance and goes over boulder fields, rocks, and paths. Although the course drops from 5200m to 3400m in altitude, there is still nearly 1000m of climbing involved so the overall descending is close to 2800m.

I thought I had a great race. I finished 6th male and 8th overall. In the 32 years the event has taken place, the best time by an over 60 was 8 hours. I finished in 7 hours 6 minutes so was over the moon. Unfortunately for me there were two other amazing athletes in the over 60 category who were top Ultra and Fell runners who both beat me. However if there were an over 65 category I would be the outright record holder as the other guys were in their early 60’s.