To Sindhupalchowk, and back
On Friday, I hopped on the bus in Patan, thinking it was just going to be a "short" 2 or 3 hour bus ride to Jalbire for the Sindhupalchowk International Trail Race that Ram Puri invited me to. Little did I know that getting out of the city alone, with the late afternoon traffic, was going to take an hour. Despite the incessant honking, I somehow managed to dose off until we stopped to meet the other two buses and reconfigure who was on which bus for the rest of the way. And then, as roads got smaller, narrower, and muddier, the driving not only slowed down, but also involved some backing up to let vehicles pass, and some crazy (even scary) maneuvering. A month after arriving here, I actually still don't know whether to be impressed or frightened by the stunts the drivers manage to pull off. A bit of both, probably.
More than five hours later, the two buses carrying those doing the 21km race (which turned out to be more than 25km, FYI), pulled into Jalbire, where the villagers looked on at us from their door frames and the side of the road. In a rather unorganized fashion to say the least, we were roughly split up and sent to various corners of the town to spend the night (and presumably have dinner). After dropping my stuff off in the room that I would share with two lovely French women, we went down into what seemed like a community space or perhaps restaurant to have the traditional Nepali food: rice and daal.
A word on rice and daal: I've become quite fond of this dish, especially after being shown how to eat with my hand, which is actually a really effective and tasteful way to eat food. Although food here is spicy, I'm pretty used to it, partly thanks to Agastya and Théo for showing me how to make and enjoy Indian food this past year. It is not uncommon in Nepal to eat rice and daal three times a day, which indicates its near perfect combination of carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Not to mention that it's usually a vegan friendly dish. Although I've heard some horror stories of stomach issues after eating certain foods or drinking bad water, I've been pretty lucky thus far. I'll spare you all the details, though.
In any case, at this point I started to get more excited about the race, and the excitement translated to nervousness. After a short night of sleep, I was up and ready to get started on what I imagined was going to be a "chill" 21km hike/run. I wasn't there to race, so I wasn't worried about being the fastest, and just wanted to enjoy the experience. I was about to find out otherwise, though...
Although many of us were ready by 7:30AM, we would wait until 8 to get started, so we took some photos as we waited around. The girl on the far right in the above photo would be the one to win the race for the ladies! Finally, about 10 minutes before starting, we huddled in the start area and listened to the debriefing, which involved being informed that the race would in fact be more like 23-25km, and that the first 11km were straight up. Collective gasps and chuckles all around, along with comments like "well, I guess my warmup is going to be 11km of hiking." Well, those 11km were brutal, let me tell you. The first half (about 5 or 6 km to our first checkpoint), was, no joke, a steep staircase. I didn't have a fancy watch to give me statistics along the way, but I was later informed that we did more than 2,000m of elevation gain from start to finish.
I was soon sweating like crazy and leaving a trial of sweat drops in my wake. If anyone couldn't see the many ribbons that marked the path, they probably could have followed my sweat trail! I wasn't keeping any track of distance/time, but it probably took about an hour to cover almost 3km, so that should tell you something about the difficulty of that first section of "trail." It didn't really help that the villagers - who were spending their holiday (Saturday is the Nepali weekend) watching a bunch of people go through their villages - were laughing and definitely making fun of us. They were probably particularly amused by this red-haired, red-faced, and sweating white girl trying to make her way up.
Some of us talked about this later, and we concluded that they probably have a hard time imagining why anyone would do this kind of thing for fun, when they have to go through these mountains every day for work and school. It definitely puts things in perspective! I have the privilege of being able to choose to do this, they don't.
In any case, the children were definitely amused by it all, and many laughed, chattered, and asked questions in English and Nepali, the most common being "what's your name?" The kids in the following picture were more than happy to pose for the camera:
Despite the immense difficulty of those initial kilometers, I was mentally in an amazing state of mind. I knew that I was going to finish somehow, and I just focused on enjoying the experience. I stopped occasionally to take pictures (as you can tell) and enjoy the spectacular views granted by the high elevation. Although I did hike the uphills (AKA probably about 75% of the race), I tried to run most the flats and downhills. I also managed to pretty much keep my space in the second half of the pack, which meant that I was on my own for most of the race. This also meant that I had a lot of mental downtime, and I think I finally understand my mom when she says that trail running is meditative, because in many ways I did nothing but put one foot in front of the other for six consecutive hours.
If any of us thought that the race would get easier after those initial 11km, however, we were wrong. The next chunk of distance (until the second and last checkpoint at about 17km), was almost all downhill, which went much faster considering it was pretty run-able, but was nevertheless difficult on the knees and other joints. After maneuvering down a rockslide, I stopped at the river, took off my shoes, and waded into the cold water. After a little while, I saw a blur of color out of the corner of my eye, and before I knew it, the first of the 51km (AKA 58km) runners was beside me at the river, splashing his face with water before quickly going on his way again. They had started two hours before us, but still, his performance was admirable to say the least.
I followed behind him, at a much, much slower pace. This next uphill would prove to be as brutal, if not more brutal, than the initial uphill, because by now my legs were starting to feel very tired.
And then, somehow, I made it! Exhausted, I gladly accepted a slice of watermelon and not long after sat down for a proper meal.
More than five hours later, the two buses carrying those doing the 21km race (which turned out to be more than 25km, FYI), pulled into Jalbire, where the villagers looked on at us from their door frames and the side of the road. In a rather unorganized fashion to say the least, we were roughly split up and sent to various corners of the town to spend the night (and presumably have dinner). After dropping my stuff off in the room that I would share with two lovely French women, we went down into what seemed like a community space or perhaps restaurant to have the traditional Nepali food: rice and daal.
A word on rice and daal: I've become quite fond of this dish, especially after being shown how to eat with my hand, which is actually a really effective and tasteful way to eat food. Although food here is spicy, I'm pretty used to it, partly thanks to Agastya and Théo for showing me how to make and enjoy Indian food this past year. It is not uncommon in Nepal to eat rice and daal three times a day, which indicates its near perfect combination of carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Not to mention that it's usually a vegan friendly dish. Although I've heard some horror stories of stomach issues after eating certain foods or drinking bad water, I've been pretty lucky thus far. I'll spare you all the details, though.
In any case, at this point I started to get more excited about the race, and the excitement translated to nervousness. After a short night of sleep, I was up and ready to get started on what I imagined was going to be a "chill" 21km hike/run. I wasn't there to race, so I wasn't worried about being the fastest, and just wanted to enjoy the experience. I was about to find out otherwise, though...
Although many of us were ready by 7:30AM, we would wait until 8 to get started, so we took some photos as we waited around. The girl on the far right in the above photo would be the one to win the race for the ladies! Finally, about 10 minutes before starting, we huddled in the start area and listened to the debriefing, which involved being informed that the race would in fact be more like 23-25km, and that the first 11km were straight up. Collective gasps and chuckles all around, along with comments like "well, I guess my warmup is going to be 11km of hiking." Well, those 11km were brutal, let me tell you. The first half (about 5 or 6 km to our first checkpoint), was, no joke, a steep staircase. I didn't have a fancy watch to give me statistics along the way, but I was later informed that we did more than 2,000m of elevation gain from start to finish.
I was soon sweating like crazy and leaving a trial of sweat drops in my wake. If anyone couldn't see the many ribbons that marked the path, they probably could have followed my sweat trail! I wasn't keeping any track of distance/time, but it probably took about an hour to cover almost 3km, so that should tell you something about the difficulty of that first section of "trail." It didn't really help that the villagers - who were spending their holiday (Saturday is the Nepali weekend) watching a bunch of people go through their villages - were laughing and definitely making fun of us. They were probably particularly amused by this red-haired, red-faced, and sweating white girl trying to make her way up.
Some of us talked about this later, and we concluded that they probably have a hard time imagining why anyone would do this kind of thing for fun, when they have to go through these mountains every day for work and school. It definitely puts things in perspective! I have the privilege of being able to choose to do this, they don't.
In any case, the children were definitely amused by it all, and many laughed, chattered, and asked questions in English and Nepali, the most common being "what's your name?" The kids in the following picture were more than happy to pose for the camera:
Despite the immense difficulty of those initial kilometers, I was mentally in an amazing state of mind. I knew that I was going to finish somehow, and I just focused on enjoying the experience. I stopped occasionally to take pictures (as you can tell) and enjoy the spectacular views granted by the high elevation. Although I did hike the uphills (AKA probably about 75% of the race), I tried to run most the flats and downhills. I also managed to pretty much keep my space in the second half of the pack, which meant that I was on my own for most of the race. This also meant that I had a lot of mental downtime, and I think I finally understand my mom when she says that trail running is meditative, because in many ways I did nothing but put one foot in front of the other for six consecutive hours.
If any of us thought that the race would get easier after those initial 11km, however, we were wrong. The next chunk of distance (until the second and last checkpoint at about 17km), was almost all downhill, which went much faster considering it was pretty run-able, but was nevertheless difficult on the knees and other joints. After maneuvering down a rockslide, I stopped at the river, took off my shoes, and waded into the cold water. After a little while, I saw a blur of color out of the corner of my eye, and before I knew it, the first of the 51km (AKA 58km) runners was beside me at the river, splashing his face with water before quickly going on his way again. They had started two hours before us, but still, his performance was admirable to say the least.
I followed behind him, at a much, much slower pace. This next uphill would prove to be as brutal, if not more brutal, than the initial uphill, because by now my legs were starting to feel very tired.
And then, somehow, I made it! Exhausted, I gladly accepted a slice of watermelon and not long after sat down for a proper meal.
I could go on, but I'll leave it as this as I have work to get to: I'm so grateful for this experience, for meeting new people, doing something new and difficult, and for getting outside of the city. I think that the endorphins of this race have successfully convinced me that this is something I want to do again, so I don't think this will be my last time hiking/running in the mountains!
Namaste, and as always, thanks for following me on my journey.
Yeah!!! So so glad you like this. I hope that sometime soon I get to go on a multi day excursion running trip with you, just like I did with Eveline last April doing the Mustang Trail Race in Upper Mustang. Actually my wish is that I can do a life changing trip like that with each of your siblings also, a one on one adventure vacation. It’s the number one reason I try to stay in the best shape possible as healthy as possible as long as possible. Keep inspiring each other! And Happy Birthday Helena, an adventure and experience like this is the best present you could give yourself.
ReplyDelete