Apart from my passion for running and music, books are another key factor in my life.

But, a real story that dominated my thoughts recently, kept in-spiring me and this experience could also lift your motivation levels ahead of the 2014 Malta Marathon in February.

My source of inspiration is Malcolm Attard, a Maltese endu-rance runner who lives in Kenya.

Having competed in several international events including the Comrades 90K ultra marathon and the Kilimanjaro marathon in Tanzania, his thirst for going beyond his limits was not enough.

Climbing Mount Everest is for many, but a childhood dream. However, Malcolm, cleverly com-bined his dream, and with his passion for running, found his perfect race.

November 28 marked another important date for this athlete.

Finishing as the first non-Nepalese runner, and placing 13th overall with a time of five hours 47 minutes, Malcolm conquered the highest marathon in the world, namely, the Mount Everest Marathon.

The race starts from an altitude of 5,184m at Gorak Shep, the place where the original base camp used by the British for their ex-pedition to climb the Everest in 1953 is situated. It finishes at Namche Bazaar at 3,446m.

To complete this marathon is definitely not an easy feat, the record for this particular race stands at three hours 40 minutes, way off the Berlin Marathon world record of two hours three minutes 23 seconds.

The road is rough and rugged.

Participants have to run through undulating mountain trails covered with snow and ice which gives way to boulders and sandy scree, and which leads to forest trails and paths bordering the mountain sides.

They also have to conquer narrow suspension bridges over rivers and yak trains.

Adding to this, the way is unmarked. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each runner to learn the route as they trek up.

As Malcolm stated: “The terrain is so hazardous that your eyes cannot leave the ground for more than a couple of seconds or you will find yourself lying on the ground with a twisted ankle. I lost my balance once when crossing an icy section in the initial stage of the race.”

Due to logistics reasons, only 75 runners are allowed to participate in this event. This year’s 15th edition had 67 runners overall.

In order to acclimatise to the extreme exertion of the altitude, 50 international athletes had to arrive in Nepal two weeks before, later joined by the Nepalese runners, whereby the adventure started with a hairy flight to Lukla airport, also rated as one of the most dangerous airports in the world.

Under the watchful eyes of a team of medics, the runners began their long way up, trekking and climbing in freezing tempe-ratures, with their only comfort zone being the camps they slept in.

Although the event was domi-nated by experienced athletes, some having completed over 100 marathons, altitude ailments still persevered and some members of the group had to be medically evacuated.

“At one point or another we were all struck down by some bug.

“I was lucky to have fallen ill during the first part of the trek and managed to recover in time to start the race,” Malcolm said.

To get their race number, the runners also had to undergo a medical test on the eve of the event, and then proceed to the final 5k uphill trek to Gorak Shep.

A highly competitive race, especially among the inter-national runners, Malcolm, wearing four layers of clothes and in below zero conditions, was at the starting line at 6.30am.

Rules are tough. Checkpoints marked the way and any runner who came as close but did not make the cut-off times was elimi-nated. Apart from this, each runner had to carry a loaded backpack weighing up to five kilogrammes with survival equipment... failing to do this also complied to disquali-fication.

Notably, the race is a non-profit venture with funds going direct to the Everest Marathon foundation, and a UK-registered charity to promote health and education in rural Nepal.

As Malcolm concludes: “This is by far one of the toughest races I have ever done but collecting funds to help one of the poorest countries in the world made this challenge even more rewarding.”

Truly well deserved praise merits Malcolm Attard.

Happy New Year to all!

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