The Extra Mile
A Himalayan Trek With Peaks, Valleys
THE WASHINGTON POST, USA, 2006
By Jim Hage
Less than 10 minutes into the Himalayan Run & Trek, a 100-mile five-day stage race in India last week, a light bulb clicked on in my head, albeit with the force of a sledgehammer: Trek means hike, not run. So I began trekking — anathema to any road racer — into the thin air of the world’s highest mountains. ……

…… More than five hours and 24 miles later, after slogging through an opening stage so tough it would make Donald Rumsfeld cringe, I finished at Sandakphu, elevation 12,600 feet, from which I could see four of the world’s five highest peaks, including Everest. If I hadn’t been facing four more days of trekking, I might have enjoyed the view. ……

…… Lance Armstrong claimed that running the New York City Marathon last week was the toughest thing he had ever done. I’ve never ridden in the Tour de France, but I have run nearly 100 marathons, and after competing in the Himalayan foothills, running on paved city streets for 26.2 miles seems like, well, a bike ride along the Champs-Elysees. It wasn’t the thin air, the cobblestone yak paths, the hors categories climbs or quad-busting downhills. Toughest was the strain of knowing that it started all over again the next day. ……

…… Of course, it wasn’t all laughs. Competitors from around the world rendezvoused near the Nepal border for five days of hard running and living in Sherpa huts with minimalist accommodations. Why? It would be glib to say because the mountains are there, but it’s a fact that many came to bask in the aura of the snowy Himalayan peaks. Others came to answer the challenge of the world’s most difficult stage race. ……

…… The group, only about half of whom spoke English as a first language — and I’m including the Irish contingent here — bonded like soldiers; nearly everyone finished many with tears of joy. The winners, ultramarathoners Martin Rea from Northern Ireland and Albert Majos Cullez from Spain, averaged nine and a half minutes a mile. That they competed nearly stride for stride and finished arm in arm is evidence of the camaraderie forged during the effort and accomplishment of a lifetime……