Himalayan marathon definitely a once in a lifetime experience

The 49-year-old athlete, who works for Williamson Motors in Chesnut Street, returned to his desk on Monday feeling shattered after completing a 21-day journey from Kathmandu to the old Mount Everest base camp.

After a night under canvas he then donned his running shoes and joined marathon runners from around the world in a downhill race to Nanche Bazaar village - the capital of the Sherpa area.

Although it was a challenge he had wanted to do for some time, he claims it is one he will never make again.

"It was a very arduous, very dusty, very smelly and very cold, horrendous journey," he told the D&S Times. "You are continually going up and down 1,000m mountain passes and when you reach 4,000m you lose your appetite completely.

"Once that happened, I supplemented my bland diet with chocolate bars just to taste something different.

"But the higher you go, the more expensive is the chocolate sold by the Nepalese from their houses.

"The route is the main trekking route to all the major Himalayan mountains and in fact 80pc of all their trade comes from tourism and trekkers.

"They sell everything from toilet rolls to Mars bars."

The marathon descent took the expert fell and mountain runner 7hr 28min to complete. The Nepalese winner did it in half that time.

"The whole journey was the hardest thing I have ever done," Mr Rutherford added.

"I had always wanted to go to Nepal and I would love to climb Mount Everest but it is very expensive to do that now.

"This was the next best thing. I am glad I did it but I would never ever do it again."

His champion efforts have raised £500 for a charity which ploughs money into health, education and clean water in the Mount Everest region.

To help raise more money for the charity, he is hoping that organisations or community groups will book him to give a slide presentation and interesting talk about the trip.

Ring 01325 380560 daytime to book a date or for more details