Manaslu Trail Race, Nepal

Difficult to summarise in a few words what it was like.
Fantastic trails with so much stunning scenery, an unforgettable experience.
Lots of climbing and also very long technical descents.
Very glad to make it back in one piece with lots of near misses 😊

Felt a bit of a novice at the start with many of my fellow runners with lots of multi stage / 100K+ ultra running experience from all around the world.
Very remote once we got up the trail a bit. The only way in or out was by foot.

Tough start and I was quite slow on the first 2 stages (ran out of water before the checkpoint on the first stage ☹) but got stronger and finished further up the field as the event progressed. I seemed to acclimatise to running at altitude better than most.

Finished 17th out of 55 which I am pretty pleased with. (some very speedy folk at the front..) 7 running stages, 2 hiking stages. Total Distance ~185K (no easy miles !!), ~29 ½ hours, Total Ascent ~11,600m , Total Descent ~10,200m

In many ways the running was the easier part :- fairly Spartan living conditions, unfamiliar food (struggled to eat enough, survived mostly on Mars bars, cereal bars and jelly babies…) , struggling to keep warm after finishing the running, no hot water / no showers for 2 weeks, gruesome toilets !!. Helped by great encouragement, comradery and support from my fellow competitors.

I think Nepal is a truly amazing country. I found the people to be very friendly. A country of huge contrasts :- the beautiful and pristine mountains compared with the crowded, dusty, dirty, polluted Kathmandu with maniac traffic and poverty evident and quite disturbing.

Took lots of photographs, some examples below.

Overall I feel very privileged to have completed the race and would definitely recommend it as a once in a lifetime event if you ever get the opportunity but not for the faint-hearted.