The 29km course leads the runners to the scenic Thimphu Valley before a steep climb to the second checkpoint. Here the runners enjoyed a fantastic view down to the Royal Palace and the Government building. After a final ascend of 9km runners arrived at the Phajoding Monastery at 3600m altitude where they were welcomed by 85 monks. The runners is staying at the monks‘ quarter. Today is also an auspicious day in Bhutan when many local worshippers also make their way up to the monastery for Buddhist ceremony.

Tommy Chen and Alan Zagury jointly won the stage in 3:36hrs followed by Guillaume Degoulet in 3:41 hrs.

Elisabet Margeirsdottir won the female category in a course record time of 3:48hrs followed by Angela Zäh in 4:03 and Sarah Sawyer once again in third in 4:10hrs.

Eric Wheeler, from the USA did very well today finishing at 16th. Gudmurdur Olafsson from Iceland also had great performance today finishing at 10th place overall.

At the Phajoding Monastery, GlobalLimits runners played the annual football match with the monks. Almost every runner played at least a few minutes. The match was won by the monks with 2:1. Special thank you to Phillipe Hardy, a runner from the 5th Edition last year, who donated 30 pairs of football shoes to the monks.

Tomorrow the runners will head down to Paro valley.