The Everest Marathon 2014

Wow!  What a trip.  What an epic adventure.  What an absolutely unimaginable experience...  "Wow" doesn't actually come close to explaining the three weeks we spent away from home, trekking to the base of the highest mountain in the world to run the highest marathon on the planet.  The brain and body have just about recovered and I'm already tired of listening to myself trying to explain three of the hardest, most inspiring and wonderful weeks of all my years.

The Everest Marathon.  The world’s highest and one of the world’s toughest races.  A daft and somewhat out there idea that was loosely bounced around 18 months ago, which I'm sure many (including myself at times) thought would never happen.  The idea quickly turned into a project, the project soon turned into The Neverest Girls.

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There are many inspirational posts plastered all over the likes of Facebook and Twitter these days that promote positive mental thinking and to remind you to believe in yourself.  A personal favorite that kept popping up was “Magic happens outside of your comfort zone”.  One of the many things I have learned from this whole experience is that this quote is very true!  I can also confirm that burning your face so badly that you look like you have had five chemical peels in a row, also happens outside of that comfort zone, but that’s another story altogether.  Perhaps I had liked a page on Facebook or unknowingly signed up to positivitygetsyoueverywhere.com, but it seemed that these posters kept rolling my way.  I’m not entirely sure where the energy came from at times to keep moving forward, to stay focused, to believe that we would make it to the start line of the marathon at Everest Base Camp and achieve our goal of raising 15,000 euros for our chosen cause, but such reminders to believe in our efforts and that a great adventure awaited us, were always very welcome.

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The project of forming “The Neverest Girls” was an adventure in itself and has reaffirmed several virtues and taught me some new things:

• Hard work and determination really does pay off and the rewards are worth the effort a thousand times over
  
• If you believe in something, give it absolutely everything that you’ve got
  
• A great recipe for special friendships is – 7 level heads, 7 big hearts, 7 pairs of good ears, lashings of spare toilet paper & a big spoonful of selective memory - to forget some of the more unsavoury things you experience together when camping in the mountains  ;-)
• And possibly the most important, never, ever, ever give up.  And smile!

So the question that I’m sure is on all of your lips is, "what’s next?"  A three week spa-athon would be nice?  Ha! Not for the 'Hard-as-Flipping-Nails Girls'.  What’s next who knows, but we are certain about one thing and that is there will most definitely be a 'next'!

Nikki x

PS. Detailed posts to follow about our trip and the race!

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