Tenzing Hillary Everest marathon.... Race day

Our last night at EBC was cold and punctuated by avalanches. It's a curious thing, too dark to see where they are, and knowing a number of hanging sceracs still threaten EBC.  Around 2 AM I walked the short distance to the squatty potty tent.  Finding​ my way back to our sleeping tent was an interesting experience. It is absolutely dark, the ground is uneven and frozen, I was doing my best not to shine my headlamp into other participants.    Race day morning the weather was beautiful. We had breakfast at 5 AM for a 7AM start.

Only ate about half my porrage and as it goes ate very little during the run.  The beginning was a bit of a clusterufck.  Joan and I waited toward the back on the pack since we were planning to trek the course.  That was a bit of a mistake.   The section out of EBC is the sketchiest of the entire run.  There re many icy spots to negotiate and apparently many road runners are kind of feaked out by that.  I figure we lost 15 to 20 minutes easy just escaping EBC.  Once o our way it was just a steady fast walk.  We only stopped at the checkpoints and grabbed water at the same time.  It's strange taking several days gaining altitude and distance only to cover the same ground in hours.  Partnering with Joan was fantastic.  I pushed her early on by setting a pretty fast pace.  Then, late in the day at the two final uphill stretches she challenged me.  There is no way I'd have been as fast alone.

So, yes this was a marathon.  But I always was open that I was fast trekking ad not running it.  I was hoping to finish in under 12 hours.  As it so happens we completed the course in under 10 hours!  During the run, a Finn couple in our group, Joan and I had passed and been passed by several times told us "You hike really
fast.  We've been staring at your backside from 300 meters for a very long time!" 

So the race was a success.  I still feel like I completely screwed up my packing and prep but we went fast and were complemented by many of the runners.  I suppose I under valued the skill sets hikers have that can give them an edge over road runners. 

I am so happy I did this!  I may well do it again in the future.  What a fantastic way to live!!