The Gang

June 5

Well, I'm back in Richmond. After 37 hours of transit, I rolled into RVA about 8:00 pm. Fortunately, Therese picked me up at Dulles Airport. I was fading in and out most of the way home. I did get a good night's sleep, however, and I hope that I can get back to EDT quickly. Monday morning and work will come way too quickly.

The cold that I picked up In Dingboche is still with me. It was kind of rough with the plane descents. Fortunately, there were only two. I went to the doc-in-a-box this morning to make sure that I didn't pick up a weird bug, but she said that it probably wasn't bacterial. Only time will tell. I'll just suffer through it.

Throughout this blog, I've mentioned some of the great people that I've met on the trip. However, I haven't pulled together pictures of everyone in one place. So on my long flight from Doha I went through my photos and pulled out pictures of almost everyone on the trip.

Our group consisted of a very diverse group of individual -- age 22 to 73, eleven different nationalities, a variety of occupations, accomplished athletes to adventure travelers. It was an amazing group of individuals.

Of course, being in close proximity with these people 24x7 for three weeks, you get to know them pretty well. (By sleeping in a tent six inches from the next tent, you get to know someone quickly.) The group bonded quite well. Various groups formed with people of common interests, but there was a lot of mixing by everyone. Even the Indian Army guys, who pretty much kept to themselves early on, really opened up by the end. They were the ones who had the most difficulty saying good bye! It was pretty funny. There were really no interpersonal issues that came up (other than Gerry's bodily functions and someone'e snoring -- who knows who).

Anyway, posted below, in no particular order, is the gang from the 2010 Everest Marathon tour. I'll add the few missing picture as I get them from the others.

Mark (U.S.A.) - the Fearless Blogger

Gerry (Ireland)

Phillip and Hazel (Australia)

David (Great Britain)

Denis (Kuala Lampur)

Christian and Christine (France)

Jess, Rich (Australia) and Damche, our Intrepid Leader

Arpita (India)

Martin (Germany)

Richard (Great Britain)

Indian Army Guys

Kay (U.S.A.)

Sanjay (India)

Tony (New Zealand)

Marie Louise (Switzerland)

Frank (Great Britain)

Teddy (Poland)

Peter (Germany)

Toby (Great Britain)

Jose (Brazil)

Need Pictures:

Marie (Australia)

Wilfred (Germany)

Michael (Germany)