EVEREST ATTEMPT:
Been wanting to do this for a while now, even if it was extremely uncommon for someone who has been into biking for only 6 months to try. A few days prior to the big day, Bri and Dan found out I was gonna try to Everest and were bombarding me with questions about my preparation. Which they rightfully should have been doing because I could have gotten myself into some serious trouble trying something of such great magnitude. That proved evident when the night before I was originally going to do it, Jeff and I discovered that my rear brake was completely toast. And again when the night before I didn't have the best food options prepared and I hadn't thought enough about making sure my lights and watches would last. So it's a really good thing that other people got involved and helped me out. Jeff and Janeen were a huge help for giving me tons of high-quality clothes for the cold. That made a world of difference in the early morning.
I started just after 5am. It really wasn't very cold at all at the start. Weather was perfect actually. The air was so crisp and clean. The lights were working great and it was just a lot of fun. The first few hours flew by! Before I knew it, I was three hours in, the sky was getting brighter and the sun was about to come up. Right at that time, it got SO COLD. It was FREEZING. I forgot about wearing warm socks and my feet kinda froze haha. But we survived. I don't think there's much to say about the next few hours. I was just doing the same thing over and over again haha. I slowly changed into warmer clothes as the temperature climbed. Legs were still feeling good. It started to get noticeably harder at around 50 miles. It was taking me a couple minutes longer to climb. One thing that I need to be better at next time is not stopping as often. If I need to stop to change clothes, that's ok cuz you don't want to keep doing a bunch of laps either freezing cold or sweating a ton. But I need to be better about stopping less for food. I understand how important eating and drinking is don't get me wrong, but I was pretty scared of crashing and I think I just got a little mentally weak and got used to having that break so often. So I can do better with eating and drinking more during stops so I can stop less, or eating and drinking during the laps as well, something I didn't do at all.
I got to 84 miles I think, and I had a 7-up and some high chews and they made me feel great, like I had a second wind. So I kept on having more of that. At some point after that I realized that I wasn't going to have time to go all the way to 162 miles and 29k due to the stuff I had to do for my group project in Digital Media. (Not sure if my legs and body would have been able to go that long, but I knew I wasn't going to have the choice) and once I knew that it was harder to keep my morale up because I knew I was only climbing to make the number look better cuz I wasn't gonna make it all the way.
Bri came and joined me when I was at like 95 miles and we did 2 climbs together. Then we stopped for food and Dan got there. On the way back up with Dan, I accidentally got in the rocks and popped my tire :( it had a big slash in it so he had to do the dollar bill thing. It worked and we made it back up. He left for home and I did one more down and up. I forgot to start my watch tho so I didn't get that last part on the watch. My dad got there part way thru that rep. I finished at 6:30pm with 113.35 miles and 20,800 ft of gain. Moving my PR's for distance and gain up from 104.8 and 11k. An incredible day on the bike. Dan gave me a shout out on his strava and said "112 miles and 20k vert. For a guy who's been riding for less than 6 months that is actually amazing." It was a super dope experience. Sadly I didn't get all the way to 29k but I still showed mental toughness and the biking skills that I've acquired this summer. No doubt I get it next summer. If I didn't have to leave early, it would have taken me a way long time, but I was physically capable of accomplishing it. I had climbed it 26 times, that's only 10 more. Tons of fun and if I don't end up riding anymore this year due to the weather, then it was one hell of a last ride!!
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