Himalayan Challenge Marathon
Day Two: “Never have we seen such beautiful views of clouds!�
Jacqueline Windh / 04.11.2013
With the wind battering our hut all night, I dreamt that we had been caught in a 5-day Himalayan windstorm. Which ended up being close to the truth. Mr. Pandey had informed us at the briefing the night before that this bad mountain weather was being sent up by a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, and that we could expect more of the same for the next three days.
“You have come to the most beautiful race in the world!” he exclaimed. “And never have we seen such beautiful views of clouds!” I think we had all long given up hope of seeing the mountains by now, anyway - we just wanted to survive this rough mountain weather.
We received the usual twice-daily warnings from him: “Do not go to the Nepal!” and “Do not break your ankles or your knees!” as well as a reminder that the aim of the race is not to win, but to experience and enjoy. But on this foggy day we received an extra warning, too. “Today you have a 100% possibility of lossing yourself!”
Then Mr. Pandey sang us a little motivational song, that went something like “Whether the weather we go, we run, we go, we run…” and then we were off.
I feared the cold, and today’s 32 km (20 mile) route was all on the windy ridgeline that is the India-Nepal border. The unexpected cold weather had most of the runners dressed in everything they had brought. I decided to not take risks, and hike today’s route rather than try to run it and then risk getting sweaty and then cold, so I dressed in all of my camp clothes prepared to hike. But once we set off, between the long gentle downhill start and the better trail conditions than yesterday (less rock), I found myself running. So within a kilometre, I had to stop to strip off layers.
It was hard to tell what the views might have been like. All we could see was steep slopes down on either side, fading into the mist, and stark dead trees standing in the fog. Today’s “relatively flat” and “rolling” out-and-back route proved to be a very long downhill, which was quite strange because with the fog we couldn’t see where it would end, then a smaller hill, then a big uphill.
As I neared the turnaround, the sun popped out briefly, and for a few minutes the grey world appeared in colour: green hills, black dead trees, some blue sky. I pulled out my camera, and just then, race leader Martin Cox (UK) flew past, already on his way back. Five minutes later, Greg Barton (UK) came past, and another minute after Marit Holm (Norway) and Dan Dosedel (USA) ran past together. They all were putting out a pretty impressive performance for our first day running at 3500 m!
I had fallen to the very back of the pack right from the start, when I stopped to strip my clothing, but had gradually moved back up in the pack. So, when I made the turnaround, I stopped for a quick bite of potatoes and a banana (standard fare at every food station on this race), then saw a few of the stragglers still coming up as I headed back.
Because of the weather, I had planned on hiking the entire route today. However, the day did actually warm up somewhat. (It was actually quite hard to stay the right temperature, because if you were in the lee of the ridgeline and the sun was pushing through the clouds, it could suddenly get quite warm. Then if you emerged on the ridgeline and into the wind, you could chill down immediately).
Towards the end of the route, the fog cleared somewhat, and I finally had some views of the surrounding countryside through the mist - steep slopes falling down either side of the stone road, in some places open with a few standing dead trees, and in other places forested with Himalayan blue pines and rhododendron bushes.
I had planned for a 7 to 8 hour hike, but ended up jogging much of the route, other than the steep uphills, and finished in 5:30 - second day that I was well ahead of my expectations. Martin and Marit finished first and second again - both of them very impressive runners! Here are top three for Stage 2 (32 km, approximately 1000 m cumulative elevation gain/loss):
Men:
1. Martin Cox (UK) 3:15 - 1st overall
2. Greg Barton (UK) 3:29 - 3rd overall
3. Dan Dosedel (USA) 3:35
Women:
1. Marit Holm (Norway) 3:20 - 2nd overall
2. Clare Glazebrook (UK) 4:10
3. Thamar Houliston (South Africa) 4:20
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