Bishnu Maya, is excited, and a little bit bemused by what lies ahead. Running has given her a few good opportunities lately to travel to Kathmandu and beyond to run in some beautiful parts of her country.
And while her country is going a little bit down the tubes, with supplies of gas, petrol, medicine all but dried up, it’s a good time for Bishnu Maya to travel overseas for the first time for an international class race. First stop dal bhat Deer Horn in Mui Wo maybe? But first a few big obstacles to jump.
First! A passport – her first ever passport is still drying in the printers. It comes on Sunday.
Then, visa – first time, let’s hope she pulls that out of the bag too. Fingers crossed please.
Then, flight – Dragon Air are running a reduced service right now, and it’s packed, but she has a seat on Wednesday 02 Dec so this looks ok. First time on a jet – wow!
Then…money – we’ll here we’ll put the money up for sure, but want to invite all of you to contribute to the big adventure ahead!
(It’s down to the wire (=late), but this is a bootstrap operation here and we’re last minute every time – and usually, sometimes it works out.)
And then her first taste of international competition in Action Asia’s MSIG Vertical Kilometre and MSIG Lantau 50km. Mira Rai ran both of these last year – a super tough competiton.
So what about Bishnu?
She’s lovely. A quiet 19-year-old girl from remote Jumla, two or three days drive from Kathmandu on a road well known for loosing vehicles. It’s well known for tasty apples, red-rice, and natural honey. She’s from a simple farming family. She loves running. She’s coached by Hari Rokaya, who won the Everest Marathon three times and became quite well known in Nepal. He has a running club up in Jumla and has trained a score of young runners for many years now.
Bishnu Maya and her friend Rojina first came to Kathmandu to run in December 2014. They ran the Kathmandu Ultra and came 2nd and 3rd behind Mira Rai. Since they’ve returned again to Kathmandu. They ran the Kathmandu Buddhist Stupa to Stupa race, were in Kathmandu for the earthquake, and ran a stage race in Mustang, carrying 7kg packs, and demonstrated their endurance power at altitude, finishing on the podium ahead of all the international runners. Rojina has now joined the army, and Bishnu still loves to run.
So Bishnu is a $65 “urgent” visa fee and a flight away from that. Michael Maddess and Keith Noyes in Hong Kong have supplied free race entry; Matt Moroz has agreed to house and manage; HK-Nepali runner Santosh Tamang is not in race shape and is super excited to help her (and Bed) out on the course.
Should also mention at this point that Bed Sunuwar is going to go too and the same applies, we’ve put up his fees, but would love to share the happy burden with you. Bed is in winning form but the competition is tough in Hong Kong. He has to be in it to win it though and prove his potential. So let’s help him too. Any overspill of fundraising for Bishnu will go towards his ticket. It would be great if all the major races in Hong Kong would have an elite representative from Nepal. We keep trying.
Purna Tamang was also going to go to defend his 2013 title (one year late) but can’t get leave from the army. TNF race director Keith Noyes said, “What a shame about Purna. His 2013 TNF was the most dominant trail run i’ve seen on HK soil in ages.” Next time…
Here’s what we need:
- Express visa for Bishnu Maya – $US 65
- Flight for Bishnu Maya – $650 = $715
- Express visa Bed – $US 65
- Flight for Bed – $650 = $715
So $1430 would allow them to scrape by, a bit more would help. If we can get good shoes for racing, then all the better.
Donate if you like, here’s the info…. In the interests of transparency here’s the account.
A few images of Bishnu running and Bed’s past couple of podium finishes!
