So, 10 months after our decision to get fit we both completed the Inca Trail Marathon to Machu Picchu on May 29th!

We were amongst the most inexperienced of the 14 participants, the majority of them having succesfully competed in some of the toughest extreme races in the world including the Everest Marathon, BadWater Ultra Marathon, North Pole Marathon and the Marathon de Sables. All agreed this was the toughest race they had ever done.

The 27.5 mile marathon was definately harder than we expected. The altitude of up to 13,779 feet made the first half of ascents extremely tough. The downhills were very technical and much rockier and steeper than either of us expected. I followed one of the locals on the first descent , literally running in his footsteps. This proved to be the best thing I could have done and it gave us confidence to keep our eyes a few feet ahead and build up our speed. There were parts of the trail where I had to physically hug the rocks for fear of falling to the depths below. However beautiful it was, for someone with vertigo it wasnt really the best place to be! 

Sean and I kept each other going throught, he pushed me on the ascents and I pushed him as I turned a little kamikaze on the descents. Although it was difficult to set a target we had guessed at somewhere between 8 and 10hrs. In the second half we managed to move up from joint last to joint 6th place, finishing in a time of 8hrs and 20 seconds, just under an hour and a half behind the winner.

I cannot describe the feeling when we reached the finish at Machu Picchu. To have set ourselves what appeared to be an unachievable challenge, to push ourselves to our physical and mental limits and to make it in such a respectable time, was unbelievable. However tough it was, neither of us thought of giving up but the enouragement from hikers on their 3rd of 4th day spurred us on. As they let us pass, they clapped in disbelief that we could have started the trail the same morning.

The money raised for ChildLine really helped to give us the push to achieve the best we could do and we are proud that we did.  We greatly appreciate your donations and hope that we can make a final push to achieve our fund raising target over the next few weeks.

Many Thanks,

Tish and Sean

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