03 Jul Is it time you caught the ‘862 to Kathmandu’ and embraced the adventure of a lifetime?
From the moment Owen Jones signed up for the five-day, 200km ultra in Nepal, he knew he was in over his head.
That’s the first line of the synopsis to Owen’s book, 862 to Kathmandu, which tells the story of his attempt to take on the Go Beyond Challenge Capital to County Multi-Day Ultra.
But, as he says, being ‘in over his head’ was precisely the point.
Owen’s book chronicles how “curiosity, defiance, and the faint hope I might come back changed” set him off on a journey to the foothills of the Himalayas.
It reveals how from the chaos of battling through airports and time zones to confronting achingly beautiful landscape and a blur of fatigue and determination, the race dismantled Owen’s excuses and proved that adventure is not the exclusive territory of elite athletes.
As he says, “862 to Kathmandu isn’t just a personal memoir. It’s an invitation. An encouragement to anyone who has ever looked at a map and thought, ‘Maybe one day.’
“This event is proof that ‘one day’ can be today. It shows what happens when you dare to step into discomfort, to trade predictability for possibility.”
I’d encourage you all to read Owen’s brilliant book, and if you like the sound of his trip to Nepal then maybe you could be part of this year’s adventure.
We set off for Kathmandu at the end of November and there are still places available.
This is an event another former participant called a ‘cross between The Marathon des Sables and the Ultra-Trial du Mont-Blanc’. For Owen Jones, it was a race that proved “ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things”.