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| Day Three Road Book (Credit: Global Limits) |
After a reasonable nights sleep thanks to beer and a bed it was time to prepare for the third day of the race. Today promised to be particularly challenging as not only would it take us to our highest campsite, we also had a game of football to play when we got there!
The stage again had two checkpoints, the first was at 10.5km after a reasonably flat, predominantly road section. The second was 9.5km later after a short sharp climb. The couple of kilometres after the checkpoint was fairly flat and had the potential to give great views over Thimphu. Then it was a long hard climb all the way up to the Phajoding Monastery at 3600m. The total stage distance was 27.8km.
The stage started with a big loop around Changtagang, the small town we had spent the night in. The route then went along the valley across the river and back along the other side until it reached the first checkpoint, almost opposite our start point.
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| Sharon passes the Buddha (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
Today there would be a lot of prayer flags en-route. When I was in Thimphu I looked up at the surrounding hills and saw the prayer flags and thought it would be quite cool to be up there with them. Well today I was going to be there!
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| Looking back across the valley |
As it happened prayer flags weren't the only thing I had seen before that I would be seeing a lot of today, remember the dog I photographed at the last camp?...
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| Me and my shadow... (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
As we left the last camp a few of the dogs started running with us. After a few kilometres it became obvious that this particular dog had decided to follow me for a while. I didn't mind too much but the problem I've always had with dogs is that they have no perception of just how much less stable two legs are than four. If I stopped dead in front of the dog it would have no problem. I had to hurdle the dog. If I nudged it's back legs it would have no problem. I nearly ended up in a ditch. Eventually after about 17km a few local dogs took exception to my escort and a small fight ensued. I took the opportunity to move swiftly on...
After a couple of kilometres I started to feel slightly guilty at abandoning dog to his fate. I shouldn't have worried, at the bottom of the sharp climb to checkpoint 2, there he was...
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| Look familiar? |
The second checkpoint provided me with yet another ultra running 'first' - I've never been to a checkpoint with its own giant prayer wheel before!
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| Checkpoint Two (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
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| Tashichhoe Dzong from a prayer flag covered hill |
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| More Prayer Flags |
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| Yours Truly well among the prayer flags (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
As well as all the brightly coloured prayer flags there are sections of plain white flags to commemorate the dead.
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| Prayer Flags for the Dead |
After the views across Thimphu the path took a decidedly upward turn...
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| Onwards and Upwards |
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| Into the clouds |
I met a few Bhutanese on the climb up all of whom gave words of encouragement and assured me I was nearly there. I don't know if all of them really knew where 'there' was but the encouragement was very welcome.
Eventually I came to the monastery gate. As with the previous monastery the finish line wasn't immediately obvious...
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| Where is the finish line?... |
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| ...Ah there it is! (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
The finish line was as always a welcome sight. Unfortunately it was raining and so the views down the valley weren't as spectacular (or visible) as they might have been.
We had two classrooms and the dining hall to sleep in. The first runners were rewarded for their speed by being put in the classroom furthest from the toilets and with the squeakiest door ever put on a building. Once again Kurt was first in a time of 3:43:51. I managed my best placing of the race in fifth with a time of 4:28:11. Sharon came in 17th in a time of 4:55:25. As a result I was in the hut furthest from the toilets. I secured a spot in it for Sharon too, something which, as things transpired, she wouldn't entirely thank me for...
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| The resting place of the day's 'Elite' runners |
Having finished the stage there was now just the small matter of the football match. The novice monks at the monastery love football and practice all year for the annual Phajoding Monastery vs Global Limits football match - at least that was what Stefan told us. He also told us that anyone who didn't play for at least two minutes would get a one hour time penalty. Personally I had been looking forward to it, not because I have even the slightest footballing talent but because, well, come on, playing football at 3600m against a bunch of Buddhist monks - what's not to love?
George was appointed manager - George is Greek-Australian living in Ireland and took to the role like a monk to prayer and soon we were 1-0 up. Then the Phajoding Under-10s left the pitch and things got serious.
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| Phajoding Transcendental (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
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| Global Limits Athletic (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
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| Goalmouth action! (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
We played with much enthusiasm but it's probably fair to say that there are only two performances that really stood out. Marilena had an excellent spell in goal and Kat was our stand-out outfield player and the Lama's Player of The Match.
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| Player of the Match! (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
Apparently we lost 4-3 but the result was irrelevant (only because we lost), the main thing was everyone including the monks had a lot of fun and I suspect it is an experience I will never get to repeat.
After the evening meal and the briefing for the next day it was time to retire to the squeaky door'ed classroom to bed. We had been warned at the briefing that the rain would make some of the following stage very slippery - by now it was raining a lot...
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