The Tenzing-Hillary Marathon: Full Throttle at High Elevation

One of my latest editions to the ‘daily reads’ list happens to be the Mountainfit Blog, over in the UK.  Mark is always offering up something a bit different from the rest of us, yesterday it was Pro Surfer Kelly Slater taking home the Globe Pro title, and today he takes a look at the recent running of the Tenzing-Hillary Marathon.  This marathon , named after Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary, could quite possibly be the highest marathon in the world.

The Tenzing-Hillary Marathon runs over a course that is 42 kilometers in length, from Mt. Everest Base Camp to Namache Bazaar.  Most of us are use to hearing about the reverse of this course as climbers prepare to tackle Everest in the Spring.  Also, much like the mountain climbers, those participating in the marathon must arrive close to 3 weeks early in order to allow time for acclimatization.

Mt. Everest base camp sits at 17,149 ft in elevation.  The runners will eventually end up at 11.300 ft. in Namche Bazaar.  Well, at least they are going downhill–slightly.

Mountainfit offers up a who’s who of the leader board, giving us the results of this technically challenging marathon in the high Himalayas.  This race was recently ran on May 29th, which just happens to coincide with International Mountain Day, a Nepali holiday set-up in commemoration of the late, great Sir Ed.

Mountainfit also gives a slight teaser for another upcoming event in the high Himalayas, the Trans-Himalayan Mountain Bike Race, scheduled for next year.  Now there’s some downhill action that could challenge even the best of Pros.  We will have to keep an eye on this one.

By the way, for all the altitude and length, in the ladies marathon–the top three finished within one second of each other.  Some close competition at it’s best!