Anna Frost was chased and knocked down by a yak but still
managed to smash the women's record in the Everest marathon
at the weekend.
The former Dunedin distance runner, who has spent the past
two years in the United Kingdom, won the race in the women's
record time of 4hr 35min 04sec.
Her time knocked an astonishing 27 minutes off the previous
record set by her English team-mate, Angela Mudge, in the
last race in 2007.
Frost (27) finished sixth overall and the five in front of
her were Nepalese males.
Frost telephoned her mother, Jenny Frost, in Dunedin after
the race and explained some of the obstacles she experienced
in the race.
She fell over twice and then got chased and knocked down by a
yak with only 2km to go, Jenny Frost said yesterday.
But she managed to get out of its way and continued to the
finish.
Frost also turned her ankle near the start but knew she had
to walk down anyway, so took some painkillers and went for
it.
The win in the Everest event continued the remarkable
international record that Frost has achieved in the last
three months in endurance and mountain events.
She won the inaugural 9km Commonwealth mountain running
championships in England in 48min 06sec and was third in the
42km world long course championships in Austria.
Last month she was inducted into the Otago Girls High School
Wall of Frame.
Frost has been based in North Wales for the past two years
with her boyfriend Mathew Gilbert, a Welsh international
runner.
Gilbert was not planning to run the event but gained a place
in the race when another athlete became ill with a virus.
He finished eighth in 4hr 55min.
The race was won by Deepak Raj Rai (29) in 3hr 59min 31sec.
Only six other runners have broken the four-hour mark.
Raj Rai has the sixth best time in the race, which has now
been held 13 times since the inaugural event in 1987.
The race, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as
the marathon with the highest start line in the world,
started at an altitude of 5184m at Gorak Shep, near the
Everest Base Camp.
It finished at Namche Bazaar, the principal town of the
Khumbu region and is held to raise funds for projects in
Nepal.
The total raised in this year's event is expected to be in
excess of $US500,000.
Frost intends to return to Dunedin in April to visit friends
and relatives and race the New Zealand mountain running
championships.
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