THE HIMALAYAN 100 – A Remarkable Tapestry
By Patrick Johns, USA
World Environment magazine – Issue 31

Each year on a rough trail in the West Bengal region of India, near the border of Nepal a vivid tapestry is created. This tapestry is not crafted out of dyed silk or wool; instead it is carefully woven from colorful human fiber and threads provided by a spectrum of international athletes from around the globe. Their willingness to meet a challenge, “The Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race and the Mt. Everest Challenge Marathon” provides the pattern that result in the closest kind of metaphor, a living tapestry.

In 2004, there was no shortage of raw material to complete this unique work of art. Participants from 12 countries provided the palate of colors and much of the fiber for this creation. The countries include United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Argentina, Portugal, South Africa, Hong Kong, Japan and New Zealand. The remainder of raw material was offered by the local people demonstrating their cultural diversity along the trail. All of this is set in the spectacular back drop of one of the most amazing natural phenomena in the world, the Himalayan Mountains.

As a third time participant, a so called “repeat offender,” I had the opportunity to see a number of changes in this event from year to year. As a result of the differences among athletes who participate, the tapestry’s pattern is changed with diverse motivations, energies, and styles.

There is however one constant thread of fiber in this annually changing kaleidoscope: the path itself. It consists of cobbled roads along the border of India and Nepal, traversing unrivaled mountain passes, pine forests, isolated jungles, and remote villages. With well marked trails and fully stoked aid stations, racers coped with the effects of altitude during the initial 24 mile stage which ascended from 6350 feet to 12,000 feet.

Plodding along now about 35 miles into this ordeal, and now running on one of the few smooth portions of this trail, the thought went through my mind, “I wonder what Aga Khan, who ordered the trails construction in the early 1900’s, would say if he could see us now. His wish was to travel to what is now Sandakphu National Park, our primary base camp for much of this race. His obsession for wanting to get to this place occurred because from here and only here, you can see four of five of the worlds tallest peaks: Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Kanchenjunga.

To think that this pockmarked path would play such an important part in enlarging our consciousness and feeling immense satisfaction on achieving what few others have achieved is something the Khan himself could never imagined.

I bet he wouldn’t mind if we borrowed his remote trail for five days. This marvel of a corridor has provided passage for some of the most elite endurances runners in the world for the past 14 years. Fitting company for a ruler, I’d say.

In 2004, the following runners, Chistian Schiester, from Austria won the 14^th International Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race with an overall time of 14 hrs and 43 minutes, a record, received the Sant Nagpal Baba Memorial Gold Award. The second and third positions were won by Johannes Schmid (Germany with a time 15hrs 38 minutes) and Kai Stuke (Germany with a time 15hrs 49 minutes) respectively. While Dolores Avendano (Argentia with 20 hrs 14 minutes) and Rachel Toor (USA with 21 hrs and 14 minutes) won the first and second positions among females, Marina Anderson from UK with 22 hrs and 26 minutes was declared the third winner. The finish rate was 95%.

At the end of the race there was award ceremony and gala dinner. The runners regarded the experience as rich and eventful. The significance of friendships they made along the way bypassed the need for words.

If asked to describe this magnificent experience in a single simple word my choice of word would be “Incredible”. I am also asked quite often why I keep returning to India to explore the country and to run “The Himalayan 100” and my answer to this question is equally as simple: “I’m not done yet.”

For me it’s more than just the race. It’s about the enormities of our environment, the human spirit and the thrill of finishing an arduous event in the company of friends. To find all the parts of these elements interwoven the best place to look is Himalayan 100 Stage Race, frequently referred to as the “The World’s Most Beautiful Marathon.”