Dr Elizabeth Hawker, 35, better known as Lizzie, achieved the feat despite having to stop for eight hours in Bupsa village just below Lukla for shelter due to rain and freezing cold. [break]
Hawker had completed the run in 2007 in three days, two hours and 39 minutes with partner Stephen Pyke.
“After reaching her hotel, she ate, showered, and crashed in bed,” said Roger Henke, general manager of Hotel Summit, where she is staying.
Lizzie didn´t sleep throughout the run and made the journey even while nursing a chest infection that she developed while participating in a nine-day Everest Sky Race.
“There were difficult moments and easy moments,” Lizzie later told us, requesting to keep the interview short as she was hardly able to speak due to weakness.
“The first night, I had planned to run straight through,” she said. “But it started raining, and was very cold. I had to take shelter for eight hours in Bupsa village to keep from getting soaked and getting sick,” she said.
The long stop left her worried that she would end up taking more time than she did in 2007 to reach Kathmandu. But she eventually managed to surprise herself.
The last part of the run on blacktopped roads leading to the Dasarath stadium were also tough, Lizzie said.
“I´d really love to use this opportunity to promote trail running in Nepal,” said the runner, who said she is exhausted more due to lack of sleep than anything else.
Though she ended up achieving this, she had arrived in Nepal this time for a different purpose. She had arrived to run the 1,600 kilometer Great Himalayan Trail traversing Nepal from Mt Kanchenjunga in the east to Hilsa in western Nepal bordering Tibet.
But she had to abandon the plan after losing a sack that carried a satellite phone, permits for the journey, solar panel, camera, money, compass and maps.
She then participated in the Everest Sky Race, a 200 kilometer nine-day race staged race from Dolakha to Ama Dablam base camp in Nepal. And finally, she decided to better her record of running from Mt Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu.
Lizzie has is a well-known name in ultra-distance and endurance running sport.
Lizzie dreams to encourage people to realize the inspiration of nature, the mountains, of our world, and to realize the richness of our environment and our responsibility to protect it.
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