Let me first set the scene: it’s a lovely day here in Kathmandu, Nepal. The sun is shining, and it’s a comfortable 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Both of the all-female teams + a few of our leaders are on our way back to Thamel after a day of trekking. It felt so great to spend the day in the fresh, Himalayan air! This place is absolutely beautiful!
It’s around 4:30pm, and the traffic is starting to pick-up a little bit. Suddenly our bus comes to a stop on the highway… 30 minutes later, and we’re still stuck. The driver turns off the engine because there is literally no movement happening on this side of the road. We ask him what’s going on, and his reply is something about the president. Our next question is, “how long do you think we’ll be sitting here?” He says another 10 minutes, but we know that’s more along the lines of wishful thinking rather than a trustworthy estimation. Taylor and I look at each other, after exchanging eye rolls she asks me “how far away are we?” I check Google Maps. 4.5 miles. We’re both in agreement that we might actually get there faster by foot. We sit for a few more minutes, then I finally say, “Dude, let’s just go.” So we grab our bags, throw up some deuces to the rest of the group, and hop off the bus.
As we’re weaving in and out of the traffic jam, we are astounded at how long this line of vehicles is. It’s a complete standstill for as far as our eyes can see. After walking about a half of a kilometer, Taylor stops and says, “All right Meg, I’m lacin’ up. Let’s run this out.” She adjusts her shoes, I tighten up the straps on my backpack, and off we go! We both can’t help but laugh at the situation. We are literally running through the streets of Kathmandu. “Excuse me” and “I’m sorry” fall out of both our mouths every few seconds as we try to navigate through some pretty tight spaces. Taylor turns to me and says, “I feel like we’re on the Amazing Race right now.” Since I’m a major dork, I start yelling “I’m sorry! We’re trying to get to our check point!” A few k into our jog, we reach the presidential motorcade. There are all kinds of cops and SWAT teams keeping the streets and sidewalks secure. In between my labored breaths, I say to Tay, “you know, if we were in America running next to Trump’s motorcade with backpacks on, we’d for sure have been tased by now.”
Our run continues. Just under 2k left until we are home. We are both astonished at how well this run is going because there are so many factors going against us. To name a few: the elevation (Kathmandu sits at ~4500ft), the hills are no joke, the air is super dusty, we’ve got backpacks on, we’re dehydrated, we’ve both been significantly ill recently, we haven’t eaten a substantial meal all day, we’re both sleep deprived, it’s hot outside, not to mention the fact that neither of us have ran or had a decent workout in MONTHS. And yet here we are—jogging it out like a couple of contestants on the Amazing Race.
After running a grand total of 7 Himalayan kilometers, we finally make it home. The bus beat us by about 15 minutes. Still counts as a victory in my book! High fives all around.
