The Everest Marathon
The Everest Marathon; How it all Began
Rob Howard / 23.11.2009
In October 1985 Jan Turner, an artist from London, and Tony Hunt, an antique dealer from Norfolk, set off for a trek to Everest. When they reached Namche Bazaar, the Sherpa 'capital' they decided (for no good reason) to hold a 13km race from Namche to the Tengboche Monastery and back again.
Fourteen runners from 6 countries were rounded up from the lodges and 12 of them finished the course. (No one knows what happened to the other 2!) Two local boys, Mak Bahadur and Rishi Gurung, won in 3 hours 7 minutes, followed by Julian Tober, a Birmingham dentist. The locals thought they were all completely mad, but enjoyed the spectacle.
Jan and Tony returned with the idea of staging a full marathon to raise money for Nepalese charities, but it wasn't until November 1986 that they found anyone else to help them. They got together with Diana Penny, who runs the trekking agency Bufo Ventures Ltd, and professional photographer Rob Howard, and after an all night session in Rob's flat the plans were laid and the date set for the first race – November 27th 1987.
It was to be a sporting first, no one had staged a race so high before, and there were plenty of critics from the medical profession and the press. The Daily Telegraph ran a piece entitled 'Marathon Madness on Mountain – the race they tried to ban'. It featured John Webster, a Scottish minister taking part, who was said to have chosen his funeral hymn before leaving!
There was the small problem of measuring the course too. Tony Hunt and friends Dave Blakeney and Mike Bickley set off in advance with a measuring wheel and met deep, deep snow on the course. It was hard to tell where the path was under the snow sometimes. They had to make careful notes every time they stopped at a teashop too, as the children would play with the wheel and might have added many miles to the course! After finding it was 20 miles from Namche to Gorak Shep they explored lots of options to find the extra 6.2 miles and eventually put in the loop at the end of the course along the Thamo valley.
The first race was a success, everyone made the start line at 5184m, there were 42 finishers and 3 runners completed 20 miles. There were no injuries or crises. The race never looked back and has taken place every 2 years since, with few changes to the plan adopted for that first race in 1987. It is still listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the marathon with the highest start line in the world.
SleepMonsters
