Rai wins, as Hawker slips to third
After an amazing adventure in the Himalayas the last month’s exploits have finally taken their toll on Lizzy Hawker, as she slipped to third place on the last two stages of the 2011 Everest Sky Race, which saw just 16 finishers. Roger Henke reports
Latest update, straight from Lizzy by phone: she finished third placed, with Nepali runners Jorbir Rai and Deepak Rai in first and second place. Lizzy developed a chest infection before reaching the Khumbu (Everest region) which slowed her down and feels she might have had a fighting chance to beat the field without it. But this is all in the game of multi stage races, and she was very positive about the race experience.
She still considers attempting to improve on her 2007 record time from Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu (now standing at 3 days, 2 hours and 39 minutes). Given that her chest infection improves and the weather allows for it (which is to be seen) she will start on Monday or on Tuesday morning from Everest base Camp. If she decides to go ahead, a pacer team will waiting for her in Shivalaya – just before Jiri – and accompany her to Kathmandu.
The final results as reported by runner and film maker Fabien Brusson to Bruno Poirier:
CLASSEMENT GENERAL FINAL
JORBIR RAI 38H12 08
DEEPAK RAI 38H26 35
LIZZY HAWKER 38H54 39
EMMANUEL REMY 42H16 50
PETER OSTERWALDER 43H 28 54
DOLMA SHERPA 44HH34 36
RICHARD BULL 44H46 35
MANIKALA RAI 45H48 50
SYLVAIN BAZIN 45H55 00
FRED DOYEN 46H49 00
VIRGINIE DUTERME 47H49 29
BEAT HINTERMANN 50H01 16
MAX HINTERMANN 50H03 32
PHILIPPE PIAS 59H14 04
FABIEN BRUSSON 59H15 00
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Reactions so far
Roger Henke Nov 15, 04:27 AM
Just received a text message from Lizzy (8:30AM local time) that she is in Everest Base Camp and set to go! Hope to get phone updates about her progress during the day. This morning my friend Upendra Sunwar – 2nd position in the 2011 Annapurna100, and thus known to Lizzy – left for Jiri. He will go to Shivalaya tomorrow early morning and wait for her there as her pacer. A van with a small support team will leave for Jiri tomorrow morning and meet with her either in Jiri or a bit closer to Kathmandu, depending upon her choice of route (mainly road from Jiri or bypassing Jiri on the old trekking trail and only hitting the road at Namdu, then Kirantichap, and finally Nigale/Muldi).
Roger Henke Nov 15, 12:47 PM
Update from Lizzy: received a phone call from her at 17:15 local time. She took off this morning at 8:33 (her watch time) from Everest Base Camp and was now below Lukla. She is fine. Before leaving for the Everest Sky Race she gave me a theoretical schedule of possible timings between villages en route that assumes no longer rests. She obviously expected to take longer because she will need/want to take breaks. She gained more than an hour on that theoretical schedule so far, confirming her intuition that she could win time at the higher altitudes of the Khumbu. That’s good news because is gives her more margin and she’ll be happy with that later on during this adventure.
Roger Henke Nov 18, 04:43 AM
Just back from the Kathmandu stadium, showered, and back at my desk. It’s not up to me to tell the story, I leave that to Lizzy. So by way of a concluding update I keep it to the essence: She ran from Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu in 71 hours and 25 minutes, a good 3 hours improvement on 2007! Having been with her from Jiri, I can report that it certainly wasn’t easy! But she finished in good form and is fine.