The Race Report 2000

"Some are weak and limited and run with their legs;others are strong and enduring and run with their hearts."One sure needs determination to run and finish any 100km race. It is not only a pair of good running legs that are required but a resolute endurance to stay in the race until the end. This race is the toughest test of such resolve.You do well to finish this race regardless of how long it takes.

Ultra-Running Events of various types have been organized in Nepal in the past decades; events like the Annapurna Triathlon, Great Himalayan 100K and Everest Marathon. Not only does organizing this type of race promote sporting events in Nepal but also helps tourism which assists Nepal in gaining some much needed foreign currency. This race is organised purely to develop young runners in Nepal.

The Annapurna 100K started at 0600 hrs on the 8th of April with 60 participants taking part in the event. Fifty of the participants were local runners, the rest of the participants were from Canada, France, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, Taiwan, USA and UK and included the oldest participant, Henri Girault of age 64; who was running his 421st 100K Run. There were two ladies, Sheila Power from USA and Doinna Nugent from Republic of Ireland. The event started from Yamdi Bridge, about 5 kilometers away from the main city of Pokhara. The weather was ideal to start such a race as the temperature in the morning was somewhere between 12 to 15 degree centigrade.The early morning sun showed that the day was going to be perfect though the heat later on would take it's toll.

Considered as an incredibly difficult race, the event started along the Baglung Highway to Naudanda, where it left the road and joined the trekking path to Kande and Lumle and then to Chandrakot, descending downhill to Birethanti. The first 25 kilometers of the race was basically road run. Then the route was on trekking paths mainly consisting of gravel and stone trails. The nightmare and the most challenging part of the race was 1000m steep climb of the Ulleri hill and the passing through of the dense forest of BanThanti, Nange Thati and Ghore Pani for which skills of a climber were almost more appropriate than that of a runner. The final 1 km uphill was to the Poon Hill where the half way point was. Then the race went back to Pokhara along the same route though the last section from Birethanti switched from trekking path to road for safety reasons as to most this part was undertaken in darkness.

The first 25 kilometers of the total distance was lead by Surendra Maharjan, Sansar Lal Baidya and Man Bahadur Koirala followed by Pemba Sherpa and Jay Singh Bhat.

Till the midway point Man Bahadur Koirala was leading the race with Rudra Bahadur Burathoki, Bhola Buche, Arjun Basnet and Jay Bahadur Adhikari behind him. The steep 1000m uphill of Ulleri and the midday sun made most of the runners slow down.

Until the distance of 75 km Man Bahadur Koirala was leading the race with Arjun Basnet, Ram Bahadur Simkhada, Rudra Bahadur Burathoki, Mahendra Dangol and Bhimsen Awale behind him. The final results came out to be very different than what was expected as there was a dramatic change with the positions of the two leading runners. Arjun Basnet made a very notable change with his pace and was able to surpass Man Bahadur Koirala, who had been leading the race from the very beginning.

The final results came out with Arjun Basnet winning the race with a timing of 11 hours 27 minutes and 39 seconds, Man Bahadur Koiralaas runners-up with a timing of 11 hours 29 minutes and 35 seconds and Ram Bahadur Simkhada as first runners-up with the timing of 12 hours 03 minutes 48 seconds. Bhimsen Awale stood fourth with a timing of 12 hours 33 seconds 29 seconds and Mahendra Dangol fifth with a timing of 12 hours 48 minutes 31 seconds.

The contender for first lady was between Doinna Nugent from Rep.of Ireland and Sheila Power from the USA. Doinna had made things difficult for herself by flying in so late to the event that she was hardly able to recover, sleeping perhaps 5 hours in the preceeding 48 hours. Sheila on the other hand started the two day event the day before and then changed her mind half way and decided to tackle the one day event instead. Sheila and Doinna stayed together until Birethanti where the familiar territory of tarmac enabled Sheila to complete the last section of the race in under 4.5hrs overtaking Alex Blodgett (who should have known that trekking the course the days before the race would take it's toll) on the way. Sheila finished in 16 hours 59 minutes Doinna took almost an hour longer in 17 hours 51 minutes, beating Alex by 16 minutes. To some the event was taken more as an adventure run. The tall mountainous range right in front of their eyes, the sound of the rivers flowing, the chirping of the birds in between the dense forest and the sight of the big rhododendron trees eased up their tiring bodies. Among the international participants Taiwanese runner, Sheng Ming Wu was competing the race with a true spirit of a runner. He never seemed to back off even when the terrain of the course was completely new and unfamiliar to his feet. Sheng Ming became the first runner to complete the race among the foreign participants with a timing of 14 hours 55 minutes and 4 seconds.

Results

Of the 61 competitors that started the race only 16 completed it.

COUNTRY LUMLE CHANDRAKOT BIRETHANTI BASGARA TIKHE-DHUNGA ULLERI-MID ULLERI-TOP BANTHANTI NANGOTHANTI GHOREPANI POON HILL NANGOTHANTI BANTHANTI ULLERI-TOP ULLERI-MID TIKHE-DHUNGA BASGARA BIRETHANTI LUMLE KANDE NAUDANDA YAMDI
ARJUN BASNET: NEPAL 2:00 2:25 2:36 2:55 3:23 3:40 3:53 4:10 4:52 5:25 5:50 6:28 6:43 7:10 7:17 7:31 7:46 8:15 9:41 9:58 10:27 11:27:39
MAN BAHADUR KOIRALA: NEPAL 1:58 2:15 2:32 2:50 3:18 3:35 3:50 4:07 4:42 5:17 5:28 6:04 6:16 6:51 6:50 7:06 7:30 8:05 9:22 9:51 10:17 11:29:35
RAM BAHADUR SIMKHADA: NEPAL 2:00 2:25 2:36 2:55 3:23 3:41 3:55 4:13 4:56 5:38 6:13 6:45 6:55 7:19 7:25 7:39 8:00 8:25 9:54 10:28 10:57 12:03:48
BHIMSEN AWALE: NEPAL 2:04 2:26 2:40 3:05 3:33 3:55 4:14 4:37 5:13 5:43 6:10 6:45 7:07 7:19 7:26 7:42 8:06 8:32 10:26 10:54 11:19 12:33:29
MAHENDRA DANGOL: NEPAL 2:03 2:25 2:45 3:08 3:38 4:00 4:16 4:37 5:15 5:48 6:14 6:54 7:07 7:31 7:42 7:57 8:24 8:55 10:24 10:49 11:19 12:48:31
KANCHHA BAHADUR SHERPA: NEPAL 1:57 2:14 2:30 2:55 3:35 4:01 4:16 4:41 5:21 5:56 6:21 6:49 7:04 7:36 7:50 8:23 9:05 9:53 11:17 11:39 12:05 13:15:35
RUDRA BAHADUR BURATHOKI: NEPAL 2:00 2:30 2:36 2:56 3:22 3:39 3:51 4:05 4:40 5:08 5:33 6:16 6:40 7:07 7:15 7:31 7:55 8:30 10:24 11:49 11:30 13:26:59
PEMBA SHERPA: NEPAL 1:58 2:20 2:33 2:55 3:29 3:52 4:09 4:30 5:14 5:47 6:13 6:46 7:04 7:30 7:40 7:57 8:35 9:10 10:51 11:18 12:00 13:29:56
KUMAR LIMBU: NEPAL 2:00 2:25 2:38 3:05 3:42 4:05 4:20 4:44 5:28 5:58 6:31 7:13 7:30 8:00 8:10 8:30 9:06 9:58 11:17 11:40 12:15 13:44:43
RAM CHANDRA SHRESTHA: NEPAL 2:06 2:24 2:41 3:07 3:37 4:00 4:17 4:43 5:30 6:07 6:36 7:24 7:45 8:25 8:40 8:59 9:35 10:22 * * * 14:43:37
SHENG MING WU: TAIWAN 2:04 2:22 2:42 3:10 3:44 4:05 4:20 4:45 5:31 6:06 6:39 7:24 7:51 8:30 8:44 9:07 9:50 10:32 * * * 14:55:04
SHEILA POWER: USA 2:50 3:20 3:46 4:30 5:09 5:36 6:00 6:22 7:12 7:50 8:31 9:29 9:53 10:32 10:51 11:19 11:55 12:30 * * * 16:59:46
DOINNA NUGENT: REP of IRE 2:50 3:20 3:46 4:30 5:09 5:36 6:00 6:22 7:12 7:50 8:31 9:29 9:53 10:32 10:51 11:19 11:55 12:30 * * * 17:51:12
ALEX BLODGETT: CANADA 2:48 3:08 3:38 4:05 4:45 5:15 5:39 6:01 6:48 7:30 8:14 9:03 9:23 9:59 10:11 10:32 11:05 11:40 * * * 18:07:33
DAVID J. MILLS: S. AFRICA 3:04 3:20 4:17 5:00 5:45 6:20 6:46 7:17 8:10 8:55 9:35 10:52 11:21 12:06 12:18 12:50 13:50 14:40 * * * 22:30:14
NICK LOUW: S. AFRICA 3:04 3:24 4:17 5:00 5:47 6:25 6:46 7:21 8:14 8:57 9:39 10:52 11:21 12:06 12:18 12:50 13:50 14:40 * * * 22:30:14