It was time to start training for my made up ultra of running up and down the elevation of Mt. Everest! Over 29,000 feet of climbing was ahead of me to try and conquer come winter time and I had yet to do any elevation training since March. I blame flat Texas and my unwillingness to drive 6 miles to a local hill. That is what we call peak laziness!

This weekend, I decided to do the first elevation training! The route would be where I would hold my event so it was time to get familiar with the course. It was a pretty simple loop that was about 0.8 miles (1.2 kilometers) around and it included about 85 feet of elevation each loop. It doesn’t take more than a minute to drive around to be familiar with it and about 15 minutes to walk around the whole course. I parked my car at the bottom as the aid station and decided to see how many hills my body could handle. If I were to place a bet, I would say it would hurt either way.

Race on!

I got started at the bottom of the hill with my normal knee creaks and aches and it took over two minutes to make it up the top of the hill. Quarter mile down and many more to go! That put me around 9:40ish for a mile pace that I was sure I couldn’t continue. If I could keep it around a 10:30 minute mile I would be bummed at all. Luckily the weather gods were smiling down upon me and I was able to start the run with some clouds. Can’t complain about that!

As I made it to the top, I turned to my favorite part of this run which would be the gradual downhill back down. That part never got old as the miles continued. Oh how I love a good downhill.

By the time I started loop number two, the sweat began pouring down and I am sure I disgusted all the people enjoying a morning pastry with a cup of coffee at the coffee shop right next to the bottom of the hill. They would proceed to watch this sweaty mess go past them for most the morning. Not something I would like to look at during breakfast. On the bright side, at least the coffee shop wasn’t at the top of the hill where I looked a whole lot worse!

The next couple miles ended up feeling pretty good and I started chugging water as I continued my ups and downs. I was thinking in my head that maybe I would go for 3 hours and cover a half marathon. “That would be great!” thought 4 mile mark Paul. Once I hit five miles, my goal changed quick. In the wise words of Jay Sean, I was going

Down down down down downnnnn…..

At that point, I was coming upon an hour of running and the hills started to catch up to me. My lack of training was apparent and I began slowing down by about 1 minute per mile with more frequent water breaks where honestly, I was just happy to stop for 30 seconds to catch my breath. I decided that it was time to walk up the hill and at least keep my body moving. I knew when my fake Everest attempt would occur, there would definitely be some walking.

After taking a five minute walk break, I felt pretty refreshed! I packed some chocolate espresso coffee beans as a pick me up and after eating a few of those, I got a little pep in my step. It was an unexpected surprise that I would count as a victory. It was time to take on the next hour!

The pep lasted a couple more hill attempts and I was coming into the 8 mile mark feeling remarkably okay. By okay, I hadn’t collapsed or gone to the hospital so it was better than my legs would have expected. I’ll take it! I think I had hit around 1,000 feet of elevation at that point which would have been a small mountain in the area my wife grew up in.

As I came upon an hour and a half, I was beginning to hit another wall and my pace per mile once again decreased. I tried the espresso bean trick another time and did not repeat the same result. I put my new goal at completing two hours and threw in another walk break. Coming out of that walk break close to mile 10, my legs felt like toast. It was time to zone in and accept that pain would be my only companion for the last twenty minutes.

As the two hour mark crept closer, I stopped one last time at my car with 6 minutes left. I don’t know why it was so hard but suddenly I thought that I could save two hours for another time. I sat down for five minutes debating whether I should continue it or not. Looking back, I laugh that for some reason that last six minutes crushed me so bad even though I was almost done. Figuring it would cooler to see 2 hours of running versus 1 hour 54 minutes of running, I got moving forward. I went up the hill one last time and that put me at 18 total climbs for an elevation gain of 1,426 feet. I was wrecked and done!

So, how far was I off Everest? I still would have needed to run over 27,000 feet and my current pace would say it would almost take 2 days to get that. Oof-da. I was a lot further off than I expected. It was still a great run for me if I didn’t compare it to climbing Everest! It was the most elevation I had gained during a run in years. On a side note, I guess I became the local legend on Strava which meant no was was willing to be as bored as I was going up and down that hill.

Take away

Hydration and fuel will be key but there is no way around the missing piece. I needed to start training on hills and accept that this may be a pretty long day when I made the time for the attempt. Maybe I would start with a hill focused workout once a week, let’s see if I can commit to that! It was time to find a good list of audiobooks too and start the grind.

Thanks for reading my baseline attempt and we will see how it progresses each month for distance and elevation gain! If you have any audiobook recommendations, I would love to hear them since there will be a lot of time to distract myself from going up and down. The highlight of this run was the Autobiography of an American Swimmer named Katie LeDecky, a good one to check out!