ON the start line of the 1993 Reebok Everest Marathon it was unusually warm - about five degrees below zero, which at 17,000 feet at 7am on a Nepalese November morning, can only be described as comfortable.
With 75 shivering runners from 12 countries waiting to start, the favourites took their places at the front. There by right were the seven strong team from the Hong Kong-based Gurkha Brigade, looking coldly determined.
In the words of their senior officer, Lieutenant Charles Moores: ''We have lived, breathed and slept this race for the past two months. We are not here to come second.'' History suggested that was a bold prediction. This was the fourth Everest Marathon and in every race the Gurkha team had placed second; in the first race by an agonising 35 seconds, in the second beaten only by a record time of 3.59.04, and in 1991 placing second, third and fourth.
His team, six of whom are currently based in Hong Kong, had prepared meticulously. Moores, Warrant Officer Kevin Davies and Sergeant Fergus Anderson from the Kathmandu-based Queen's Gurkha Signals made up the British contingent. But the real hope lay with the Nepalese runners.
Sergeant Gyan Bahadur Limbu Guman Thapa, Birbahadur Balal and Dharmabikram Sunwar are all experienced race runners and veterans of the MacLehose Trailwalker Challenge.
They set out for Nepal on October 7, meeting as a team for the first time in the pagoda roofed capital of Kathmandu and headed for the hills of the Annapurna region for pre-race training and acclimatisation.