Nepal Impact Half Marathon
Guest author Hannah Walker, my wife, has taken over the keyboard on this one for a different perspective on our Nepal Adventure. As usual, don't believe anything she says about me!
Over a year ago, whilst discussing with my fiance at the time ideas for our honeymoon, Matt said “how do you feel about Nepal?” My mind instantly wandering to exploring the city, views of the mountains and eating my way around a country that has always fascinated me…. Suddenly I was brought back to earth with a thud at the word “marathon’. Erm… WHAT?! Wait?! I’m not a runner…. But after telling me more about Impact Marathon Series and their incredible work supporting local villages and charities, I was hooked! And with the mention of a half marathon so I didn’t have to do the full distance I was well and truly on board. How hard can it be?! 21km isn’t that far…. Wait… there is 1000m of ascent?! Ahh go on! What’s life without a few challenges….
My training was well… sparse! I really struggle to motivate myself with running and it’s never been something I have found that fun and I haven’t understood why people get “the running bug”. But after a few training runs with Matt in the hills…. It clicked! Turns out, I don’t hate running…. I just don’t like road running. Thinking about times cripples my enjoyment and trying to pace myself after years of no exercise makes me hate the fact I am not as fit as I once was. As soon as we got off the roads and into the trails, realising the trails have no time cares and that every run is different even on the same route, I found my love for the sport. Just a shame this happened about 5 weeks before we were due to fly and a week before our “lets make sure we can run the distance” runs at Kielder Marathon Festival….. Ahh well, again, what’s the worst that can happen?!
Back to race day….. Why does everyone keep talking about hills training?! Are we all not just planning on walking up the crazy hills?! Oh god, now I’m really nervous! But as I look around at the newly formed friendships and see everyone looking calm and maybe even excited I realise that Megs and the Impact team were right…. This isn’t about times, it’s a “victory lap” for the week before this point and something for us all to enjoy and savour.
I position myself on the start line with my new running buddy Courtney. The times she banded off for what she was aiming for scared me a little but I knew that if I was not only going to get through this, but enjoy it, I needed someone to keep me going and we both vowed that we would stick together and have a good time no matter what! We were also joined by Cara who wanted to stay at the same sort of pace and we all talked of selfies and walking picnics along the amazing route. My mood lifted and the excitement of what we were about to undertake kicked in….. Dear god I am 6000ft above sea level about to run my second EVER half marathon in one of the most beautiful countries in the world with some of the best people I have ever met….. BRING! IT! ON!!
With a level of enthusiasm only Nick Kershaw can muster, he began to tell all the Nepalese runners and other non-Impact runners about the course and what to expect. I zoned out…. The pre-race briefing the night before had sent my anxiety racing so I didn’t really want a repeat of that. Words like “death” were banded about by the medics so, you know…. This seemed like the best idea to keep my head in the game! Before I knew it, we were counting down to the start!! TINGLES!!! Every inch of my body started to buzz with excitement and my feet were itching to get going…. 3….2….1…… we were OFF!!
Running out of the parade ground, we met our first “hill” up into the village. I can’t walk yet surely?! All the children and locals powered off up in front of us but we stuck to our game plan, even if we were only a few hundred metres into the run! As a group everyone else seemed to know what they were doing so I followed their lead and also knew that I have a distinct ability to go off FAR too quick normally so this was clearly the best plan. We settled into our rhythm and were rewarded with our first descent! Megs did say there was as much up as down so…. YAY!
As we ran through the village we chatted about what was to come and how we were feeling. Thoughts turned to the week past and what we had achieved as a group as well as stories of evening conversations and what we would take from the week. The route meandered through the paths we had walked towards the entrance to the Scout Hut where we had all been staying the last week. Familiar faces of the medics smiled and waved us off as we started our journey into the National Park for our lap through rough trails and up and over mountains. First few kilometers down…. Ok this doesn’t seem to bad, maybe I can do this!
Wow these are TRAILS! Not the usual country walks I am used to in Northumberland or around Chopwell Woods but REAL HARDCORE TRAILS!! God this is fun….
Distance passed and we kept our spirits up by noting each kilometer as it came and went with whoops of excitement that we were absolutely rocking this and I won’t lie…. I was LOVING IT!! We had been given a few “points of note” on the route to watch out for and as we approached the waterfall we were joined by Len and Nicola and all laughed at the fact that the Military who were supposed to be there to help us across were nowhere to be seen! Turns out they had gone for lunch and not come back so we had to make our way across the obstacle ourselves, which was actually a breeze especially as Len was acting as our knight in shining armour!! The mandatory group selfie was taken and the clan was affectionately named “Len and his Harem”!! Onwards into the breach….
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Kilometers fell and the group settled into a rhythm, with now the 5 of us taking it in turns to dictate the pace and enjoy the scenery as we went. As we trudged up one of the inclines the shout came from the back of the pack of other runners. Wow, these guys were QUICK! As we were struggling with the hills, these two incredible Nepali runners made it look like they were just jogging round a Saturday Parkrun…. And a flat one at that! Cheers were exchanged as we watched them ascend the hill with ease and my thoughts turned to the film we had watched the night before of Mira Ria and her amazing accomplishments. People out here were born to run this terrain and my imposter syndrome returned with avengeance! My thighs burned and my head started to worry about how far we had to go… But with one call from Len cheering on his harem and everything was right with the world. Head was firmly back to where it should be… that this isn’t about times, this is about why we are all here! The charities we are supporting and the people back home cheering us on.
We settled back into our running with frequent calls of “tree route”, “water” and “loose rocks” from the front of the group guiding us along the trail. I giggled to myself. Surely that would be a constant throughout this, but as I did this, I relaxed a little too much and lost my footing a little. Yeah, definitely worth having people around you when you aren’t that confident on this terrain. Thank god for my Salomon Speedcrosses! No way my normal road shoes would have given me the comfort on this type of race or the confidence to have fun and just go for it a little more on the downhills. I was slowly realising that I actually loved downhills…. Everything Matt had ever said to me about how he enjoys the freedom of running downhill resonated in the silence of the hills and as my feet skipped between the terrain, I was in my element with a huge smile on my face grinning like a Cheshire cat! Hey, this is fun!!!
All of a sudden, out of the dense woodland, came the most familiar voice! Matt! It’s not often we see each other on runs. Normally as he is doing a bigger distance than me, be off in the front of the same distance to greet me at the end, or usually I tend to spectate rather than actually run! At 9km into the race, seeing him and Tam come along the trail towards us put the biggest smile on my face. Not only as, you know, it’s nice to see him, but also as it meant he was kicking butt and smashing out a cracking time around the course! They were the first non-Nepali people we had seen! I jumped into his arms for the biggest mid-race PDA but I didn’t care! We aren’t normally a PDA kind of couple, but at that moment, everyone else disappeared for a split second to me and it was just me and him! I realised then how happy I was that he twisted my arm into doing this.
After we bade them on their journey, the group and I carried on towards the first aid station of the course. Greeted by huge smiles from the Exile Medics, Megs and Tanya we strolled in and began to discuss how we were getting on, take on some fuel and water and discuss what was coming up. Megs and I had had a long chat a few nights before about things and it had really put my mind at ease but the fear of the run was still there then. At this point, I was on a high and when she asked “how are you getting on?” my response of “OMG I LOVE THIS!” was probably the realest thing I have said in a while! The smile on my face clearly showed I was hooked. I grabbed a honey sarnie from the medics, rammed it in my face even though I didn’t really want one but felt I should fuel seen as at this point, I hadn’t had any gels and didn’t feel like I wanted one either…. This was weird! Or at least from what I had gathered from other runners, fueling was a big part of races anyway so I was shocked my body just seemed to be ok and not need anything! Ahh well, as long as I felt ok surely that was all that mattered?!
Off we set into the park again and continued our journey having been told we had a few km’s of downhill before the dreaded “Savage Summit” was to join us on our adventure, not a portion of the race I had been looking forward to! The downs were fun… skipping between roots and rocks and dunking my peak hat into the streams we passed to try and combat the heat that was now taking hold for the day. This was a trick I had heard Matt use on fell runs and WOW did it work! The cool water keeping my noggin fresh and bringing me back into the moment, so gorgeous. A few occasions I got a little toooo keen and had to rein myself back in as my skill level didn’t quite match the pace my head wanted to go, but I spent the whole time running with a huge grin on my face.
Then we reached it…. The start of Savage Summit and boy was it savage! The relenting climbing grounding us to a slow trudge, the group spreading out as we all powered our way up and up into the hills. Ok so I am not a fan of up it seems… But my years of walking with Matt and his super long legs means that apparently I am not too bad at it, as long as I keep going. We soon realised that stopping and starting was just not the way to get to the top and so vowed as a group to keep going and meet at the top where we could enjoy the views and plan our descent. Great, just keep putting one foot in front of the other, hands on knees…. This was a REAL trail and very aptly named savage for sure.
When we started the race, not only were there all the Impact runners who we had spent the week with, but there was also a large group of local people from the village and surrounding area who had joined us for this epic race. Most notably, children! If you told most kids in the UK they were off for a 21km run they would probably kick you out of their bedroom and go back to their XBox…. Not Nepalise kids! Not only were they running, but they were running in shoes most of us would wear to the beach! Plimsolls more akin to the primary school sports hall than the hills of Nepal donned their feet but away they went. As we were making our way up this mammouth hill, we came across 3 young girls who were taking on the challenge. We passed each other on a few occasions as our pauses seemed to be out of sync… as well as the shoes, I also noticed their lack of water! All of us had full hydration packs, as per our race requirements from the Impact team, but these girls and many of the Nepali runners had nothing. After a few exchanges of “well done” and “keep going” one of the girls stopped us and asked if they could have some water. As the others had been taking on much more than I had I took off my pack and tried to let the girls drink from my hose. After a bit of juggling, and realising that the pack needed to be higher than them to get water out, the three girls pretty much drained it. They clearly needed it much more than me, and in the Impact spirit, it’s all about helping everyone get round. I knew I could call on my fellow harem members should I need any at a later point and could easily fill up at the next aid station back at the scout camp. Good running deed done!
As we continued on our quest for the summit, a Nepali guy who was doing the full marathon appeared behind us making his way through the group, giving us encouragement that we were nearly there which perked us all up…. Needless to say he was lying and we did in fact have a bit more up to go until we finally reached what felt like the summit and the trail started to give us some much needed downhill relief!
We paused, checking with each other that everyone was ok and taking on water and some food. Suddenly I looked up and WOW now THAT was a view! From the highest point of our run, over the trees, were the Himalayas! SELFIE TIME!!!! We all huddled together and “Len’s Harem” made sure we captured the moment before exchanging oooo’s and aaaaa’s. And then…. The fun bit!! DOWN WE GO KIDS!!!
This was technical. Much more technical than any running I had ever done before. So we kept the pace sensible and stuck together. My head cold from the week was raging, the pressure from the altitude clearly taking its toll on my sinuses and my nose was running, which was more than a tad annoying when I was trying to enjoy myself with the final 6km of the run in site. I shouted to the girls in front to stop for a second so I could wipe my nose and BANG…. NOSE BLEED! Oh and it wasn’t a little bit…. Oh no!! Great, just what I need! I know they say to give it all you have and leave a little bit of you on the hills with these things, but I don’t think they meant my actual blood across the trails!! Luckily as an ex rugby girl, this was not my first rodeo and I knew that as I didn’t have a headache or dizziness, it was just a mild annoyance rather than anything serious. The trick…. Stopping the bloody thing!
A few minutes of pinching passed and it seemed the only way to stop this was to get lower. So with some tissues grabbed from Nicola, I shoved a roll of them up my nose and told the group to carry on along the trail. Views ranged from “it’ll be alreet” from my fellow rugby player Len to “we need to call the medics”. No, it’s fine seriously, I was determined to get going and could get it sorted when we got to the medics. After another stop to change tissues, Courtney and Cara decided it was best to press on ahead and warn the medics I would be arriving somewhat bloodstained and not to worry and Len, Nicola and I would shove another roll up my nose and carry on at a slightly slower pace. Needless to say, running on a technical downhill with vision impared by a tissue and one hand holding it in place was not the easiest but hey…. It was a story to add to my week if nothing else.
Even with the blood issue, the descent was incredible! I really do love downs on these things and I was starting to find my feet much easier through the technical terrain. Maybe it was the urge to get to the medics or just that after doing a fair bit of up and down at this point I was becoming something of a pro, but either way I even found myself giggling away admiring the scenery and generally having a good time. As we approached the scout hut I knew the Exile Medics would be there to sort me out and get me back on my journey. There was no way in HELL I was letting a silly little nosebleed stop me from finishing this thing!!
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As we arrived, the girls who had gone ahead greeted me as well as calls from the medics of “it had to be you didn’t it?!” Well they had moaned there wasn’t much for them to do so clearly I was just giving them what they wanted. Standard nose bleed questions ensued and remedy for stopping started…. Pinch and pinch HARD! Minutes felt like hours…. And I could tell the others were getting cold. Don’t worry guys this isn’t the marines… you can leave me behind! Courtney and Cara set off to finish and not far behind Nicola also went on her way leaving Len vowing to stay with me no matter what. There are no words to describe that man. He was my rock! After 15 minutes of pinching and the blood still flowing, my emotions got the better of me. Tears streaming, frustration was well and truly at the front but reassured by everyone, including Mark who had text the finish to tell Matt I was ok and just plodding along and not to worry, I put on my big girl pants and after 25 minutes we had managed to stem the bleed and I was cleaned up and Len and I were on our way. The medics had said to “take it easy and maybe walk” but no…. That wasn’t going to happen. Worst case it was a few km with another tissue blockade!
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We carried on our journey towards Hell Hill…. Dear GOD! They weren’t kidding!!! Our pace was now much the same as turtles in treacle but WE WILL NOT BE BEATEN!! Conversation stopped and only words of encouragement came out every now and then but after what felt like a lifetime, we reached the stupa! A site famous on the Nepal Impact Marathon and one that put a huge smile on both of our faces! Now just a few more km and we would be done… across that finish line and reunited with all of our comrades in arms. Now an important question was raised…. What EPIC pose would be create upon crossing that all important finish line?! Len was quick with an answer and it was set. Now legs, get us to the parade ground!
We ran through the streets of the town, retracing our steps from the start of the race. So much had happened by this point it felt like a lifetime ago but somewhat familiar at the same time. As we reached the corner of the parade ground, the music blasting and Nick on the mic, everything became a blur. My eyes teared and my chest felt tight with emotion. Oh my god I’d done it. Me. The non-runner. As Len and I began our lap of the parade ground I could see Matt running around next to us cheering us on and my heart was actually fit to burst. Last push for the line and WOW, what a rush of adrenaline! Next thing I know, Len and I are on the floor in our “finish pose” and my jaw was hurting from laughing and smiling. I got to my feet and grabbed Matt for one of the biggest hugs of my life…. Everyone disappeared for a second and in that moment I got it…. Why people train, push themselves to the limit and do these crazy runs….. And to have Matt at the end was just the best feeling.
The best thing about Impact races though….. The team! Every single person hugged me, told me how well I had done and hugged some more. These people I know will be friends for life. Bonded by the race but so much more, every moment from the week leading up to that. Some may want rid of me, I get that but unfortunately for them….. I doubt I’ll be going anywhere any time soon!
To quote Dave…. “When I did the Nepal Impact Marathon in 2019……”
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