As local participants say they are acclimatized and used to walking in such altitude, foreign participants are running up and down hills, trekking and camping step by step, as part of acclimatizing.[break]
Suresh Yonzon (Damche), a senior trek leader who has been in the field for 27 years and been looking after the foreign campers at the Everest Marathon since 2005, said foreigners take time to acclimatize and so they trek slowly with a flexible itinerary.
And to make sure the runners stay fit and healthy, a team of four doctors are accompanying their trek to the Everest Base Camp (EBC).
“The main challenges in this kind of marathon are especially altitude effects and group-related problems, the latter manifesting as infections and communicable diseases,” said Dr Shiva Shrotriya, one of the doctors in the team.
Marie-Louise Pharaony, one of the foreign participants, and from Switzerland, said, “This marathon isn’t just a marathon but a draining process. There’s fatigue, attitude and sickness also.”
But it’s not only attitude-related sickness.
“I came very fit but I twisted my knee getting out of my sleeping bag,” Pharaony, who is also a ski mountaineer, said of other health problems that one comes across.
And all the participants are taking necessary precautions.
Pharaony said she is aware and rests when she can so she can “conserve energy for the trek and race.”
Richard Bowles, an Australian native, said, “It’s insane and crazy to run a marathon at that altitude.”
Meanwhile, Bowles and Pharaony, along with 28 other participants from countries like Germany, France, Brazil, India, USA, and the UK, said they are taking different multivitamins and iron tablets and medicines such as Dimox as a precaution from altitude sickness. Acute mountain sickness (AMS) and oedema are two of the challenges in the Nepali high Himalaya.
The participants are also having regular checkups. They had their complete health screening at Namche Bazaar before they started their trek to the EBC, and will again be screened at Gorakshep before they begin the marathon.
Dr Shrotriya informed the medical team has had the participants’ medical records prior to their arrival, so the doctors could better assess their health conditions; the medicines during the entire trip are thus carried along the trek.
The foreign participants and the doctors said that they haven’t had any major health problems so far.
“The doctors are vigilant,” Pharaony said, adding that they are having a good time trekking up the mountains to run the marathon.
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