The marathon will begin from the Everest base camp situated at 5364 m to Namche Bazar at 3440 m covering a distance of 42.19 km.
Himalaya Expeditions has been organizing this event since 2003.
The marathon aims at promoting Nepal as adventure sports destination.
“We initiated this event with the aim of promoting Nepal as a hot destination for adventure sports,” said Bikram Pandey, president of Himalaya Expeditions.
One of the participants Kieran Moloney from Australia says he is quite excited to run along the beautiful scenery of the Everest region.
The amateur athlete says he has done some research on the marathon and has been training for about a year with his friend Dan Rule for this grand event.
Rule said he is basically here to enjoy and have fun but is also expecting a tough race.
“It is my first marathon,” he added.
The organizers are expecting participation of about 65 runners, most of them foreigners. Fifty eight of them have already registered their names and will be leaving for Lukla on Wednesday while a six-member team from the Indian Army is expected to join them in the Everest region on May 22.
“The number of participants is growing every year. But we want to keep it below 100 because the race is being held in an ecologically sensitive area,” said Pandey.
The runners, if willing to, will also be bringing down the garbage to Namche form the base camp.
“We plan to bring down the garbage but it is voluntary. We cannot force the runners to do it but we will request it if they don´t mind it,” said Abhishek Pandey, a member of the organizing committee.
The race is being held in three categories - open, foreign and home. The winner of the open category will bag a purse of $1000 while the runner-up and second runner-up will receive $500 and $300 respectively.
Meanwhile, the top three participants of the other categories will get $500, $300 and $100 respectively.
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