Starting on Friday morning, trail runners will be competing along the famous Kathmandu Valley ridge line during the third edition of the Manjushree Trail Race, an event that is quickly gaining reputation and developing itself as the main international trail event in Nepal. Riding the wave of Rashila Tamang’s popular victory in last year’s Asia Trail Master Championship, the ‘MTR’ is also the first Nepalese points race in ATM since 2018’s Ultra Trail Nepal. Participants can score points on the 100 Miles, 100km or 50km in their attempt to qualify for this year’s ATM Final in Malaysia on 14 September. Runners aiming for Grandmaster points of course need to focus on the 100km or 100 miles only.

The MTR 100 miler looks very appealing to ultra distance enthusiasts. As the official website says: ‘The race route takes runners along the famous Kathmandu valley rim ridge line and across the seven peaks that surround the valley. As part of this, the racecourse also crosses the two national park (Nagarjun and Shivapuri) that border the valley. Over 85% of the route is single track, where it sometimes takes hours before runners come across a little settlement. Even though you are technically still within the Kathmandu valley, you will feel like you are far away from urbanization many times during the race.’ Looking at the course map, you see one big natural loop that measures 175 kilometres (so it’s actually longer than 100 miles). The names of the seven peaks are Jamacho, Shivapuri, Nagarkot, Pulchowki, Champadevi, Basmandur and Chandragiri. It’s a clean oval loop, but with a total elevation gain of over 12000hm, this is a race runners need to be physically and mentally prepared for. The race starts on Friday early morning and the cut-off time at the finish will be reached after 52 hours.

There’s quite a few runners taking up this challenge, mostly Nepalese themselves. We are bound to get to know some new names this weekend. But also familiar ATM competitors such as 4-star Grandmaster Masafumi Yamamoto, 2022 ATM Final qualifier Thang Huu Hoang from Vietnam and Indonesia’s 2023 ATM Finalist Qheiza Wiranda Edelwise feature on the start list of the ‘miler’.

As always, more people consider the 100km or 50km enough for their liking and we will see larger fields with a number of well-known Asian and Asia-based runners. Hong Kong’s Fuk Cheung Tsang and USA’s Chris Miller have had great results in ATM races before. Singapore’s Vincere Zeng is a double ATM Finalist and Himalaya mountain lover per excellence. On the 50km she will be up against Priya Rai , who until recently was a teammate and training partner of 2022 ATM Champion Hau Ha. Being neighbours to Nepal, we also find a lot of runners from India on the start list, including those who did well in Malnad Ultra in Karnatika, the ATM points race near Bangalore in November.

As of Friday morning, you can follow the action with our multimedia coverage live from Kathmandu, provided to us by Adventure III. As usual, tune in to ATM Facebook for ‘first news’, highlights will also appear on our ATM Instagram and ATM YouTube.

Manjushree Trail Race and Nepal's return to ATM