On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa became the first humans to set foot on the top of Mount Everest, the highest mountain on the planet. And for the past twenty years, since 2003, the anniversary of this occasion has been celebrated with a very special competition in the Himalayas: the Everest Marathon.

It is the highest athletics event in the world. A 42-kilometer run between Everest Base Camp and the village of Namche Bazaar, in the Solokhumbu Valley. An extreme challenge for the body with negative temperatures and altitudes where oxygen is scarce. Acclimatizing the body to adverse circumstances is crucial for any athlete who intends to compete in this event.

Backpacking to Everest Base Camp is already an amazing achievement. But running at altitudes of around five thousand meters, represents a challenge of huge proportions. The logistics, preparation and equipment required to participate in this marathon, are highly demanding from every perspective.

In 2023, one year after climbing Everest, I returned to the Himalayas, determined to join the hundreds of athletes that usually take part in this competition. The dream was to embark on another adventure and bring together two great passions: mountaineering and athletics. At the same time, I wanted to raise funds to continue helping children in Nepal through the project Dreams of Kathmandu.

With this new epic journey, I intended to raise 5.000€ and offer thousand meals for Nepalese children with serious nutritional deficiencies. Children like our sons and daughters, who beg on the streets of Kathmandu, and go to bed at night with empty stomachs. I heard that many eat rats to survive. It's revolting. The goal of this campaign was to make a difference in the lives of four hundred children, and feed them every day for one month.

Truth be told, I had never been so well prepared for an athletics event. I felt better than ever. In recent months, I had evolved significantly in the physical component. The running training, gym sessions, careful diet, practice of new breathing methods, and all the knowledge I had gathered about the characteristics of the race, guaranteed me a good result from the start. In February 2023, three months before the competition, I traveled again to Kenya with the intention of training at altitude.

The strategy was to start slowly and gradually speed up. However, that day, fortune was not on my side. While passing a group of yaks on a rocky trail, I positioned my foot badly and sprained it. I was only at kilometer seven of the race. Desperate and in pain, I couldn't run, I could only limp with difficulty.

At the first checkpoint, I was offered the possibility to be transported by helicopter to Namche Bazaar or on the back of a horse. I declined both options. We are the decisions we make in difficult times. There were thirty-five kilometers left to reach the finish line, but I decided that I would do it even if it took me a week.

I completed the race in seven and a half hours, with great difficult, holding the Portuguese flag in my hands. It was a great achievement, considering my physical limitations. However, the celebrations were short, and the next morning I was evacuated in an emergency helicopter for Kathmandu. My foot was swollen like a potato, and I spent the night in the hospital.

I was diagnosed with a torn ligament in my left ankle, and the doctor was surprised that someone had actually run thirty-five kilometers with a foot in that condition. I only returned to training after three months. It took many physiotherapy sessions to fully recover.

The most important thing is that in the end I didn't just raise €5,000, but a total of 6.374€. From that perspective, the adventure was a tremendous success. Of this amount, 5.000€ was used to distribute 13.167 meals on the streets of Kathmandu over a period of forty days. The remaining 1.374€ was used to purchase one hundred and twenty backpacks, filled with school supplies for the children of Rainbow Volunteer Club.

It is true that I hurt myself badly, but because of this sacrifice I was able to fill the hearts of the children of Nepal with comfort and hope.