Climbing and summiting Kilimanjaro is no easy feat. Spending five to eight days hiking for 10 miles a day can be exhausting. You push your body harder than it’s ever been pushed before. No amount of physical or mental preparation can really prepare you for the most difficult challenge as you ascend Kilimanjaro; altitude sickness. As you slowly ascend this great mountain, the air becomes thinner and you become sicker. It’s bad enough that you are physically exhausted after 8 hours of hiking, now you have to deal with shortness of breath and pounding headaches. Sounds like a deal breaker? Well, it’s not. With the right preparation and medication it can be less painful and easier to deal with. The key however, to dealing successfully with altitude sickness, is psychological. Yes, the mind is more powerful than the body. “If the mind wills it, the body will follow”. This being said, altitude sickness can kill you. Altitude sickness, AKA acute mountain sickness (AMS), can cause high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) or high altitude cerebral edema (HACE), which are both fatal. Being able to not panic when you suffer from high altitude sickness can be key to you summiting successfully. Luckily, the guides are well trained to recognize if you really are in trouble, and will happily take you on a ride on the “Kilimanjaro express”, a bed with four wheels which they’ll use to get you descending as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately, you being marathon runner makes no difference in how AMS effects you. It’s effects vary from person to person. A person who is not physically fit at all may not suffer too severely from AMS, while that marathon runner may suffer severely. Luckily, there are medications available that help with the symptoms. I took Diamox with definitely helped, I don’t think I could have summited without it. Another very important fact about AMS, the slower you ascent, the better your body adjusts to the altitude. That’s why you’ll hear the constant chant of the guides; “pole pole!!” (slow and steady). The faster you ascend, the more likely you are to suffer from AMS or even die. Many people suffer this fate. doing the right research and preparing yourself for AMS can increase your chances for success and decrease your altitude sickness.