If you’ve followed my adventures outside of the restaurant, you know I’m a bit of a wanna-be athlete. I loved sports in my younger years, but was terrible at all of them. I mean all of them, including my short stint in ice hockey at 16. I was pretty uncoordinated in my youth which made me last pick on every soccer, tennis and swim team, but my love of watching athletes pursue greatness has never waned.
Enter the 29029 Everesting events. This is a group of events put on in the mountains in Utah, Vermont and Idaho. The gist is if you can climb the mountain a certain number of times (depending on the mountain), you will have reached the vertical height of climbing Mount Everest. And if you reach this proverbial Everest, you receive the coveted “red hat.”
Yep. That’s all. A red hat. I really want one.
This year I headed to Sun Valley, Idaho for my third attempt at completing the Everest challenge. 36 hours to complete 15 summits. I was ready. I also had the extra pleasure of convincing my CFO, Eric, our General Manager, Keith and one of my besties, Meg to join me on the adventure. They were game and didn’t seem to concerned since we had all done our share of training to get ready. I secretly took a little bit of pleasure when we arrived at the mountain and I watched theirs mouths drop a bit as they looked up to see what waited for us.
The event started at 6:00 AM on June 17th and Idaho just happened to be having a heat wave. Temperatures would be close to 90 during daylight and no one mentioned that daylight was now lasting until after 10:00 PM! That was ok. We had trained, we knew what to eat and drink and when and we started strong.
Then it happened. The same issue, I’ve had at the prior two events that kept me from my red hat. At about hour six, I started to feel bad. Really bad. Nauseous, cramping and dizziness. I seem to have an issue with altitude even though I had arrived days early to avoid this irritating issue. My plan was to push pass this as I watch elite athletes do, but I found that I couldn’t. Once I start vomiting and have other issues you may not want to hear about, I shut down mentally and physically and have to rest.
I was devastated. I hadn’t even made it through the first 10 hours and I had quit. Once I felt I could walk without wobbling, I retreated to my tent for a pity party with a good old-fashioned cry.
Meg, Eric and Keith were killing it. They had the usual issues of hiking for hours on end, but they pressed into the darkness of the night which was inspiring.
I kept setting my alarm for every two hours hoping that I would wake up and feel better. Midnight, 2:00 AM, 4:00 AM. Finally at 6:00 AM the nausea was gone and I spent the better part of 30 minutes convincing myself to get up and get dressed. What if it happened again half way up? What if they have to take me off the mountain? I was pretty terrified.
My pep talk finally kicked in and I made my way back to the base of the mountain. I’ll never forget the hug the race announcer gave me when she saw I was back.
It was that moment when I realized what I had learned from this experience.
I am resilient.
I don’t give up on what I know I want or what I know I can achieve. Even if I’m knocked down again and again. I also learned that I love events like this for the community it creates.
The rest of the day was a mix of hard work, encouragement and a lot of love on that mountain. I hiked from 7:00 AM until I was one of the last two on the mountain at 6:00 PM. By the way, each summit takes about two hours and there is 45 minute to an hour section that was at a 40% incline with not a lick of shade. Brutal!
In the end, I did not get the red hat, but the welcome I received as I rounded the last corner up the mountain was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. People I had met only days before cheering and hugging me. Community and kindness in its purest form.
By the way, Eric finished in record time. Meg got her red hat with one hour to spare, and Keith got 13 out of 15 summits after he was planning to stop at ten.
I think we might have to go back.
Again.