Up Hill Challenge Half Marathon

Yes, I know I have been lazy about updating my blog. After my rafting mishap, I was just relaxing in Kathmandu, being social and exploring the Valley. The Everest Marathon was held at the end of May and most of the runners were staying at the same guest house as I was. I love Nepal, it is the adventure athletes paradise. It was great to chat with them and hear what it's like to run a marathon at an altitude of 5300meters! We hung out at one of the local bars and met more Everest summiters. The next day Lincoln Hall was hobbling around the guest house. For those who don't know, he's the Australian mountaineer who was pronounced dead on Everest at the end of May. A few sherpas left him on the mountain and told the people at base camp he was dead. They even called his wife and family and told them he'd died. He stayed on the mountain at 8600 meters for some ungodly amount of time with no oxygen or food. Some Canadians found him and brought him back to base camp. He lost most of his fingers and some toes, but I spoke to him 3 days after the rescue and he was in great shape. His story put my rafting to shame and it was pretty surreal to talk to him! I was inspired by all the athletes and decided to enter a mountain biking race. No matter where you are in the world, bikers are always the greatest and coolest people. I was really excited, but hurt my tailbone (long story) and couldn't really sit, let alone a bike, for about a week and a half. I bailed on the race, "took rest only" and escaped to the Kopan Monastery with my other crippled friend, Sally. She's from England and just got out of an ankle cast. We had been hanging out in Kathmandu together, both sympathizing with each other and decided to stay at the Monastery for a few days since she couldn't walk and I couldn't sit. It's a little outside of the city and the grounds are beautiful. No, I am not going to turn into a nun, it's a common thing for people to go stay there and being in the country where Buddha was born, it made sense. We had a blast and definitely saw sides to monastic life that one would never expect. They aren't as pure as one might think!

It was nice to be at the monastery and be called "Alia" again. My "real" name on my passport is Farah, not Alia, so I have to register at every hotel as "Farah" (long long story). The staff at the Kathmandu Guest House are overly friendly and it took me a good week to realize they were saying hello to me (well, Farah) morning, noon and night. A friend had stopped by to leave "Alia" a message and they said they didn't have a guest by that name. I figured out they knew me as Farah and had been greeting me as such for over a week. I never bothered to correct them and everytime they say "Hello Farah", I just burst into uncontrollable laughter! My friends think it is funny too and have started calling me Farah as a joke. I ran out of pages in my passport and had to go the US Embassy to get more pages put in. Luckily I had bills from the hotel as Farah to support my "identity".

I got back from the Monastery and decided to run the local half marathon since I missed the bike race. The name of the race, Club Himalaya Up Hill Challenge, should have been a good indication to the course terrain! And I probably should have run the 10k instead of half marathon, but I thought it would be a good "challenge". Needless to stay, I couldn't convince anyone except Yubaraj to run it with me. My biker friends told me that the Nepali's had some really strong runners and I believed them, but in the US people always run races casually. Well, not in Nepal. The race started in Bhaktapur (around 1000meters) and went up to Nagarkot (2100meters). The first seven miles were rolling hills and the next 6 plus miles were all uphill! It was tough and the hills/mountains were unforgiving! About 35 men competed and 8 women; 5 Nepalis from the national team, myself and 2 Japanese ex pats (no, it wasn't featured on the Japanese travel channel). Luckily the weather was good; light drizzle (which turned into heavy rain after I finished) and thick fog up the mountain. The fog was probably better, it kind of hid the steepness of the never ending mountain. Even the finish line was on an uphill! Inga, it puts Boston's heart break hill to shame! Sporting events are always a good way to judge a country (at least I think so). Nepali runners are fast and fit, and compete without any of the usual nonsense you find at races in the US. No fancy heart rate monitors, ipods, arm straps to hold walkmans, expensive dry fit shirts or flashy "running" caps, no power bars or gel, no gatorade, no fancy waist belts to hold all your accessories; just pure athletes! You really realize the non sense industry that corporations have created! We had sufficient water stops and had more race support than runners. After the race, we had a great buffet. The food was probably one of my best meals yet! I was back for a day and then headed to Chitwan Royal National Park for a jungle safari.....more on the later.