Everest Challenge week 1: 18 laps of 5.4 miles and 2160m of ascent

I found this challenge last Tuesday night and immediately started planning out how I could manage this without breaking the social distancing and non essential travel ban in place due to Covid-19. The usual 5.4 mile loop near my house contains 120m of ascent. This meant I would have to cover 74 laps over the course of the month to surpass the elevation of Everest.

My running since completing the Autumn 100 in October hasn’t had the same motivation and despite managing some reasonable individual efforts in training for Lakes Sky Ultra where I managed 1000-1500m of ascent on a few occasions, collectively it was nowhere near the level of commitment I had last year.

Day 1 on Wednesday involved 2 laps, this was reasonably comfortable and I was content with my pace. My legs chafed quite badly on my 4 lap outing on Thursday. It was far hotter than I’m normally happy to run in. I was pleased to be able to buy nappy cream at a local garage and after a copious amount of preparation on Friday morning, another 4 laps were far easier.

Because I was working last weekend, I stuck to 2 laps each day for the next 4 days. I have enjoyed listening to Stories Of Our Times podcast for company on these outings and the chafing from last Thursday has largely cleared. I think I’ve needed a challenge like this more than I initially expected and am looking forward to a temporary win with a bit of commitment and structure for the month.