Unlucky break, but I can’t stop smiling

I left you last week as I was playing football with monks at an altitude of 3,600 metres – halfway through my ultra marathon around Bhutan in the Himalayas.

The race instructions for the next day indicated a massive downhill section but omitted to say that it came after another few hundred metres climb right at the start. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so out of breath as I did racing up it. It’s amazing people manage to live at these heights. The stages were getting longer each day with 38k on day four followed by a massive 54k on day five.

I teamed up with Eilon from Israel as we shared the same ethos of hiking fast and jogging the downward slopes. It was also great to talk to someone from a country I know little about apart from the usually negative news on TV.

That is always an attraction of these races, not just to experience other countries but to meet real people from so many more in the world. Eilon and I stayed together for the rest of the race, supporting each other through low points. But on day six, the final day of only 15k, disaster struck.

I was plodding along the edge of an irrigation ditch when I tripped and landed heavily on my left knee and right hand. I was in slight pain and I was really cross with myself for falling. Then five minutes later I tripped again and landed on my left elbow, which was very painful.

I dusted myself off but realised I could not move my arm very much, so I set off gingerly on the final 1,200m climb to finish the race at the incredible Taktshang Goemba monastery (aka the Tiger’s Nest) – despite not being able to use my trekking poles after my fall. For the last few miles I was in tears – because when this race was cancelled through Covid back in 2020 I never thought I’d even be alive in 2023 let alone finish the only race left that I really wanted to do.

Back in the UK at A&E I discovered I’d broken a bone in my elbow. Now I know why it hurt so much – but it didn’t really matter. The smile on my face at the finish remains today. I am nothing special, but I wanted to finish so much I put up with the broken arm because I will never be there again.

I hope that you too do what it takes whenever you want something that much – because, as they say, pain is temporary but memories last forever.

I put up with the broken arm because I’ll never be there again