Everest Marathon 2007
Getting Ready for the Everest Marathon
Kath Turner / 14.11.2007
‘There is no way that all that kit is going to fit into that bag’.
‘How much? We can only take how much?!’
These are the words resonating in 75 households around the globe as almost a months worth of essential personal items are being stuffed into purple duffle bags with the words ‘Everest Marathon’ printed on the side.
The challenge of getting to the start of the worlds highest marathon; and the miles of training we’ve all had to do to get fit enough to run it, are absolutely nothing compared with – getting all of our ‘must haves’ into the 12kg maximum kit weight limit.
There’s no way we can sneak anything into our bags as we’ve already been threatened with a ‘weigh in’ at Kathmandu, and those kitten-heeled sling backs will never escape the ‘eagle eyes’ of race organiser Diana Sherpani, even though they are on my ‘must haves’ list, unless of course I can justify them as part of my fancy dress outfit - but that’s story for another day …
What to pack?
It’s going to be cold - which goes without saying, after all we are in Nepal, at altitude, in winter. This actually helps with the minimalist approach to packing though – as we will wear the same kit, every day, and every night. 4 years ago when I was last there, my husband Greg wore the same clothes for 3 weeks – he never took them off, it was just too cold.
But it doesn’t matter because at altitude, as everyone will tell you, you don’t smell. In fact, the reason that you don’t smell is because everybody else does as well. You don’t actually discover this for yourself until you return to Kathmandu from Lukla airstrip and unload your kit from the plane, and standing next to you on the runway waiting to board are a party of clean, showered trekkers. Then, and only then, do you realise that what you’ve been led to believe isn’t true, and that old mattress smell is actually you.
SleepMonsters
