Everest CALM: Day 4

I’m really happy with how today went. It makes a massive difference this being your sole focus for the day. I had watched an episode of the Netflix documentary The Last Dance prior to meeting Paddy and was suitably inspired!

We reverted back to having breaks every 4 laps. This had been our strategy when Paddy was building up from 12 laps to 32 the day before this challenge. We had increased in increments of 4 so today was the next logical progression.

We had some salt tablets at 8 laps and 24 laps which I believe helped. I went through 2.5L of Vimto in my water bladder and Paddy managed to get by on just under 1L. There were a few comical moments where me and Paddy would offer words of encouragement to each other that were met with no discernable increase in pace from either of us!

A few months ago I had ran 36 laps on my own without breaks that took a similar time to our efforts today including breaks! Nature wasn’t as kind at that time of year and I remember it being considerably more difficult underfoot but I am still pleased with the improvement nevertheless. We had celebratory beers from the local Sainsburys and planned out a haphazard mostly alcohol free hydration strategy for tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be difficult knowing there are still 2 days remaining after it in the challenge but I am confident we can get through the required elevation with a bit of perseverance. This quote from today’s episode of The Last Dance certainly helped with us getting through the required 36 laps.