THEY were three days from the nearest road and 20 miles from a telephone.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a blood-thirsty dog sank it's fangs into the nearest piece of flesh.

The pain sent the woman's face into instant contortions.

Then fear gripped her.

Rabies?

Without an antedote and stuck on the side of the biggest mountain in the world, the medics among the party were helpless.

There was only one answer, and Garry Wilkinson knew it.

Weeks spent training on the hills surrounding his Whalley-based business were about to come into fruition.

He and a friend had to run the race of their lives.

That they did and, within hours of their phonecall, the woman from Saddleworth was being air-lifted to safety.

Wilkinson always anticipated the Everest Marathon was going to be an adventure - it comes with the territory.

And that's why the Clayton Harrier took up the challenge in the first place.

"I've been doing British and English fell-running championships for the last seven or eight years and it was starting to get a bit stagnant," said the 34-year-old.

"My days of running for England are now behind me so I was looking for different avenues.

"But 'Why Everest?'

"Because it's out there, it's a challenge, it's something out of the ordinary, it's demanding."

The event, held bi-annually, is organised by a firm called Buffo Ventures, based in Windermere.

The idea is to raise money for charity, and after successfully negotiating a 12-month selection programme, Wilkinson set about doing his bit for Leprosy, under the logo 'Feet for life'.

Thanks to the efforts of Mark Wiggan and Graham Davidson, they raised nearly £9,000 and as joint-owner of a Commercial Vehicle business, he was able to take a month off work to make his dream come true.

His 30-day adventure kicked off with a marathon flight from Heathrow to Katmandu via Doha. Then a 120-mile coach journey - average speed 20mph - ferried him and the other 76 competitors to their starting point in Giri.

The race itself - one of the toughest in the world - was set to begin some 17,500 feet above sea-level.

But in order to get there, first they had to embark on a 17-day trek, camping en route.

With no running water or toilet facilities, health and hygiene proved a major problem.

"I knew I could do the running side of it but it was all about whether I could do it or not after being out there for three weeks.

"Everything you touch is riddled with water-borne diseases so I just wanted to get to the start in a healthy condition."

Each gruelling day began at 6am.

Two competitors shared a tent and a Sherpa, whose first task of the morning was to make the tea.

After breakfast - prepared by one of two cooking crews - came a briefing about the day ahead, before competitors set off to meet lunch and tea-time rendezvous points.

Meals were kept simple, mainly consisting of potatoes, rice and indian food.

But night-time temperatures as low as 15 degrees below freezing restricted competitors to only three or four hours sleep.

After nine days, they reached Namache Bazaar - the base of Everest and the finish point of the race. From there, came a further 26 mile climb to the start line at Gorak Shep, ascending at a rate of 1,000 feet a day.

It was then that the effects of altitude and the biting cold began to take a grip.

And for some it got too much.

Understandably, the drop out rate is high.

"Two women had to be brought down in a Gamow Bag, which is basically a pressurised chamber," said Wilkinson.

"They were suffering from pressure on the brain.

"But it bought them a bit of time and they were then able to take them down safely."

That wasn't the only episode in an incident-packed journey either.

On another occasion they came across two porters who had been involved in a knife fight.

One, led on a stretcher carried by policemen, was in danger of bleeding to death until medics in Wilkinson's party intervened.

"Our doctors actually operated on him at the side of the path - drips up, the full lot - and gave him a 50-50 chance of living.

"But I still don't know to this day whether he made it or not."

By the time they finally reached the startline, 17 days after first setting out, 12 of the 77 had dropped out through ill-health.

And another was withdrawn after failing an eve-of-race medical.

But Wilkinson survived the elements and, after a last supper of boiled potatoes, he prepared for the biggest race of his life.

"The night before the race I went to bed with all my running gear on and just led their worried sick I was going to be ill."

But at 7am the next morning, dressed in three separate layers of clothing, he was there on the startline along with 63 shivering others.

Aid stations, three miles apart, containing food and water marked the route, and runners could follow any path they wanted, provided they visited every check point between the start and finish.

Finally, after 23 days of graft, the serious stuff began.

Almost immediately, a pack of Nepalese runners surged ahead.

But about 17 miles in, Wilkinson began to catch them, before embarking on a long battle with one particular native as temperatures fluctuated from minus 15 to 34 degrees above.

"I knew after I'd been running for about two and a half hours that no-one would catch me.

"I'd taken a good route through a forrest called Taboche and still felt strong.

"Mentally, I was probably more prepared than anyone else because I'd got to the start in a decent state.

"I knew I could run for between three and five hours so as long as I kept going I knew I'd be alright.

"I was running with one of these Nepalese guys for quite a while and I was trying to feed him with Kendal mint cake at one point because I knew he knew where the optimum routes were.

"But in the end he threw up his hands and said he couldn't go any further.

"So that left me to run the last three miles on my own."

Four hours and thirty eight minutes after embarking on the toughest race of his life, he crawled across the finish line in third place, the first European home.

To underline the gravity of his achievement, the other nine in the top 10 were all Nepalese.

And the winner, a veteran of these contests after finishing in the top four four times, won in record time.

"He lives at 14,000 feet, he flew in three days before the race itself, and he's been to the Olympics twice before with Nepal so he was a class above.

"But my main objective was to be the first Brit home.

"Instead, I finished the first European.

"The whole thing was truly awesome - that's the only word I can use to describe it."

For three days after he could hardly walk.

That was a small price to pay for fulfilling the ambition of a lifetime.

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