John Pomfret, 50, of Cleethorpes is taking part in his first marathon – a gruelling 26-mile trek across the foothills of the Himalayas.
He is being accompanied on his three-week trip by Grimsby Rugby Club teammates Neil Corry, 35, of Grimsby, and John Hamill, 49, of Cleethorpes.
Below you can read the latest instalment of his blog detailing their journey:
It's now one week since we left the UK and we are now well into our training routing for the Tenzing Hillary Marathon. Despite repeated attempts we still have no internet or phone signal which I'm not surprised at if I am honest, despite having brought a 'dongle' that I was assured would work pretty much anywhere.
Having left Dole at 08:00hrs prompt we arrived rather wearily at our destination Gokyo. It's been a long slog with a total altitude gain of around 850 meters.
Tomorrow it will be up at 04:30hrs for a quick cup of tea and light snack. We will then head off for the first of our three summit bids. Gokyo Ri stands at 5350 meters and if we are lucky we will be able to catch some incredible views of the famous lakes here at Gokyo.
I expect us to take around two and half hours up and about an hour down. Once down we will have our breakfast before spending the rest of the day resting. One more night at Gokyo will provide us with invaluable acclimatisation.
All three of us are fine considering the speed we have ascended although headaches are beginning to take hold in one or two quarters. Nothing out of the ordinary here though as headaches are an accepted part of life in the high mountain ranges of the Himalayas. If all goes well my carefully planned itinerary will see all three of us arrive at Everest Base Camp on the 27th in as good a condition as we are going to be in.
When you consider the tall order set out in the planned itinerary it's easy to doubt its attainability. We are to try summit no less than three trekking peaks as well as crossing a notoriously difficult pass called the Cho La. This and each of the three trekking peaks are stand-alone expeditions and are seldom attempted in one hit.
