{"id":24847,"date":"2018-04-27T03:09:35","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T07:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=24847"},"modified":"2018-04-27T03:09:35","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T07:09:35","slug":"april-25-2018-the-kathmandu-urban-marathon-a-race-recap-after-the-fact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=24847","title":{"rendered":"April 25, 2018 – The Kathmandu Urban Marathon – A Race Recap After The Fact"},"content":{"rendered":"

The details are already vanishing into the shadows of the past.\u00a0 This is why I try and write up things as soon as possible because I think the details are what makes it more interesting.\u00a0 This could be a giant mistake as often I go too far in excruciatingly minute detail and that’s borderline unreadable.\u00a0 See: Antarctica<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But because of a number of issues, I\u2019m late pulling this one together. \u00a0So here’s a fuzzy memory recap of the Kathmandu Urban Marathon.\u00a0 I want to say part of the fuzziness stems from a sinus infection I’ve picked up courtesy of the dust\/pollution\/whatever in the air that I’ve been sucking down lungfuls of over the past few days. But the truth is, the mind like the body is getting up there in years.<\/p>\n

Originally I was just going to post a photo gallery but I thought maybe I’ll add in sections of the race for a bit of commentary and then highlight some pics along the way.\u00a0 Sound ok?<\/p>\n

The Pre-Race Prep:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The bus was scheduled for 6:45 AM to take us out to the start area.\u00a0 I must confess, I never really looked at the course map.\u00a0 I wasn’t sure there even was one available but somebody said it was on the website.\u00a0 I shrugged, figuring it wouldn’t have made a whole lot of sense to me anyway.\u00a0 Was I supposed to turn right or left on Swayambhu Marg?<\/p>\n

Hours later it would really matter that I wasn’t even sure where the start\/finish was.\u00a0 I knew it was at some military army training camp because of the sign I snapped upon arrival but I when lost on the course and trying to googlemap it offline that wasn’t much help.<\/p>\n

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Before the race really, REALLY started, Eddie quickly went over a few details.\u00a0 We’d start with 6 loops around the track and then head out into the streets of Kathmandu.\u00a0 He reminded us that at the various temples we should go around them clockwise out of respect and tradition and he said this included the Monkey Temple that we’d climb up to.\u00a0 “After many, many steps…” and the other staff agreed, “many, many steps…” and they all laughed, somewhat maniacally?… and Eddie continued,”you then go around the stupa clockwise.”<\/p>\n

“Oh, you’re serious?” I said aloud.\u00a0 I thought about those 365 steps they showed us on the tour and figured they must be joking.\u00a0 “No, I’m serious.\u00a0 There’s a lot of steps,” Eddie warned.<\/p>\n

He wasn’t kidding, folks.<\/p>\n

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More on that in a moment.<\/p>\n

The Running of the Kathmandu Urban Marathon: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The race was definitely… unique?\u00a0 Challenging?\u00a0 Surreal?\u00a0 A game show nightmare?\u00a0 Rewarding?\u00a0 All of the above?\u00a0 I’m not sure what adjectives to use or in what order so I’ll try and let the photos job my memory and my articulation.\u00a0 It’s an emotional event, filled with highs and lows, both figuratively and literally.<\/p>\n

Getting out onto the roadway proper from the 6 loop track start, I quickly realized this was shaping up to be like a bunny slope level parkour-lite adventure.<\/p>\n

Ducking and weaving over cracked, crumbling sidewalks amidst pedestrians, it felt easier to be ducking and weaving over slightly less cracked and crumbling roads amidst cars, trucks, motorbikes, and the occasional sacred cow or bull.<\/p>\n

It would get worse.<\/p>\n

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We turned onto a packed dirt trail that devolved quickly into a mud pit.\u00a0 I mentioned this in my quick recap of this race but it felt like something out of Wages of Fear<\/a> or Sorcerer<\/a>.\u00a0 And more than a few times I invoked George W. Bush’s review of Trump’s inaugural address — that’s some weird shit.<\/p>\n

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Throughout the opening miles I’d been trading the lead with two other guys – a local Nepal runner who’s name I didn’t catch and a French ex-pat living in Russia by the name of Arnaud.\u00a0 The local Nepal guy took off from both of us foreigners, picking his way along the muddy shoulders like he was floating over it all.\u00a0 It was really something to see, albeit I missed a lot of it as my head was down scanning the roadway for obstacles and thus trying not to trip and fall and die.<\/p>\n

Eventually we emerged from this muddy crucible strengthened by the challenge.\u00a0 Back on, I guess some would call them roads, I was able to close the distance to the leader and Arnaud was right behind me.\u00a0 Again we were trading the lead depending on who could find the best footing through the potholed terrain while also navigating around traffic, be it four-wheel, two-wheel, four-hooved, or two-footed.<\/p>\n

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We found our way back to the cremation riverside area and had to climb the stairs to continue.\u00a0 This was NOT the 365 stairs at Monkey Temple — that was still to come.\u00a0 But you can see in the above photos the red flag course markers.\u00a0 A lot of time was spent putting those up by the organizers, something like 2800 of them over the course.\u00a0 They kept some in reserve which they needed as locals apparently kept stealing them as souvenirs… I found out later the first five runners or so were better able to get through traffic than the organizers on their bikes\/cars so they couldn’t always be ahead of us to replace the missing route markers.\u00a0 This partly explains why we got lost in a few places.<\/p>\n

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In fact, I very nearly missed a turn right here and were it not for Arnaud coming up behind me and grabbing me by the wrist to lead me onto the bridge out, I would’ve definitely missed it.<\/p>\n

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We soon found ourselves on a (relative) straightaway, with relatively flat roadways, and relatively light traffic. \u00a0That\u2019s kinda my relative jam so I was able to take the lead here and keep ahead for a good while.<\/p>\n

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Eventually it *seemed* safer to run on the sidewalk and while cars and motorbikes and trucks were removed from the equation, other wheeled obstacles were thrown our way.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s an ice cream vendor above \u00a0 I cane very close to buying one while I waited for an opportunity to pass him.<\/p>\n

Actually I\u00a0knew these roads fairly well from my early morning runs this week. \u00a0I am also not above admitting I was tempted to go back to my room and flip down for a few winks… but that felt too much of an Aesop Fable involving a tortoise and a hare.<\/p>\n

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Round the back and I\u2019m tempted once again by an entrance to my hotel… but carry on to snap a photo with the newly opened Run2Day store operated by Gobi and others in the area.<\/p>\n

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At this point I’m pretty much on my own.\u00a0 Because of various starts\/stops and turns and switchbacks to see if I was still on course, I have no idea if I’m in the lead, in third, in the running at all.\u00a0 But I persevere.\u00a0 And this is where things get a little… wonky.<\/p>\n

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Well, wonkier than the new normal of running in Kathmandu.\u00a0 You see that temple way up on the hill in the next photo?\u00a0 You have to squint but it’s there… far, far in the distance, way, way up on the hillside.<\/p>\n

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That’s the nicknamed “Monkey Temple.”\u00a0 That’s the one at the top of 365 steps.\u00a0 That’s where I have to get to.<\/p>\n

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Supposedly you take the 365 steps and will have good fortune for the next year.\u00a0 I don’t know if the blessings apply when one is cursing everyone in sight as I was doing.<\/p>\n

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You ain’t kidding, bub.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I go around the stupa clockwise like I was told and don’t see any route markers.\u00a0 So I go around again.\u00a0 And I veer off looking at the other stairwells that spoke off from the top but don’t want to go too far for fear of having to retrace my steps.\u00a0 I see nothing.\u00a0 I try wandering, again clockwise, around the area searching for the route marker flag.\u00a0 This is truly an Amazing Race moment where I just can’t see what I’m supposed to do next.\u00a0 I ponder if this is that game show’s Detours — a choice between two options, each with its own pros and cons.\u00a0 In this detour, entitled TRY OR CRY, the TRY option has me keeping circling, systematically, growing ever more frustrated in not being able to find the freakin’ flag.\u00a0 in CRY, well, I just break down and let it all out.<\/p>\n

I think I did a combination of both… and then, as I sat down to ponder how in the hell I was going to get back, I saw fluttering in the wind a pink-ish flag buried amidst the trinkets of a souvenir stand.\u00a0 I rushed over and…<\/p>\n

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Back on course. Down the shorter staircase to the other entrance of the Stupa and onto a downhill winding road.\u00a0 After all the time wasted at the top, it felt good to be moving a bit… even if I was pretty wiped out from the 365 climb.<\/p>\n

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The course took me back onto the city streets proper and eventually into Durber Square and a large touristy marketplace…<\/p>\n

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To get across the next intersection, we had to climb the pedestrian flyover.\u00a0 Of course we did… because that’s how we got to the third picture of the sidewalk being out of service and warning seemingly that if we tried to text and walk at the same time hugging the roadway we’d most likely die.\u00a0 Very comforting… but I saw the next route marker ahead so, may fortune favor the idiot!<\/p>\n

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I got super lost at a roundabout intersection around mile 23.\u00a0 The route markers just stopped with this one:<\/p>\n

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I quickly glanced down each spoke of the roundabout to no avail.\u00a0 Ultimately I decided my only option was to try running down each one, one at a time, to see if I could spot a flag.\u00a0 I thought I should go clockwise — that’s the Nepali way, right?\u00a0 Turns out it was the very last spoke I tried, or conversely the very first one if I had gone counter-clockwise.\u00a0 I found out later, as I may have mentioned above, that they had a lot of flags stolen here and were trying to get people to remark it during the race — but a few of us were too far ahead apparently.<\/p>\n

The Big Finish<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Once more on track, I was thrust back into the narrow streets and the storefronts and the hustle and bustle of daily life in Kathmandu… right at lunch time.\u00a0 I stumbled smack dab into the middle of a large festival square where a huge chariot was wheeled in for, um, google search says Rato Machhendranath Rath Jatra festival<\/a>.\u00a0 I was glad to see the large structure and while circling it I was able to spot the next route marker and carry on… at least for a while…<\/p>\n

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I was desperate for water and had missed several proposed water spots.\u00a0 It had been something like 20K or so since I had had a drink.\u00a0 But I spotted some volunteers setting up and was able to grab a bottle there…. I was told I was getting close and I just kept trying to move forward.\u00a0 Slowly, ever so slowly, I carried on…<\/p>\n

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Rounding a corner, I saw the large iron gates of the military school and glanced at my watch — I was a little short of 26.2 miles and thought maybe I’d missed a turn but no time to argue that point.\u00a0 They opened the gates and into the secured area I went… to then be told I needed to complete one final lap on the track to hit the distance.\u00a0 That seemed to match up with my Garmin so once more round I went.\u00a0 That lap felt ever so much longer than it did this morning.<\/p>\n

Into the home stretch and a few steps more…<\/p>\n

And DONE!<\/p>\n

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Turns out I wound up in first place in 4:09:42.\u00a0 As there was only one bus back to the hotel, I just hung out with all the finishers who arrived, one by one, over the next few hours.\u00a0 Arnaud suggested I run in with Reda. as that last lap is mind-numbing…<\/p>\n

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…and a group of us later ran in the last runner who was doing her first marathon ever — tough pick for your first but she did it.<\/p>\n

In the end, the race was a challenge and an adventure.\u00a0 I survived.\u00a0 We all did.\u00a0 And it was something else, indeed.<\/p>\n

I’ve never done this but Arnaud asked me if my Garmin had the elevation profile because his watch died on him.\u00a0 I figured out how to get it via my iPhone app.\u00a0 This is the chart — guess where the Monkey Temple was?<\/p>\n

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I’m headed to the airport here shortly to fly home longly… it’s a reverse of my trip here, so 3 hours to Kunming, a 10 hour layover, a four hour flight to Shanghai with a three hour layover, then a 13 hour flight back to the US of A.\u00a0 I’m feeling pretty sick and light headed so water will be the drink of choice on the flights.<\/p>\n

As a final side note, I thought this morning I’d head back to Monkey Temple and climb one final time the 365 steps to ensure good fortune.<\/p>\n

I went up 354 steps and was stopped at a ticket booth where a guard tapped this sign:<\/p>\n

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Now, I suspect they figure you’d have to be an idiot to climb all that way and then not pay whatever the toll was they wanted to charge to finish the climb.\u00a0 Well, I showed them just what an idiot looks like.\u00a0 I saluted and waved and turned around, slowly walking down those steps one last time.\u00a0 Joke’s on them, huh?<\/p>\n

\u2014KSH<\/p>\n

April 28, 2018<\/p>\n

Nepal<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The details are already vanishing into the shadows of the past.\u00a0 This is why I try and write up things as soon as possible because I think the details are what makes it more interesting.\u00a0 This could be a giant mistake as often I go too far in excruciatingly minute detail and that’s borderline unreadable.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}