Duality of May

Last November Josh hauled my ass up Mt. Sentinel 16 times (1901 ft of vertical per summit) in an “Everesting” adventure. Truth be told I only made it 15.5 times, but still got the 29,029+ feet needed to qualify. 20 hours and roughly 47 miles into the event, laying on the tailgate of my truck half alive, Kallie Smith threatened to tell the world I’m a quitter (I’m still working through our friendship). Nice? No. Motivating? Definitely. In the slow trudge to the penultimate summit, an idea for a challenge was born. In May 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited the 29,029 ft peak of Mt. Everest. If you climbed directly from sea level straight up, you’d amass nearly 5.5 miles of vert. In honor of that amazing feat, we are bringing you a dual challenge this month (one of the astrological signs for May is the Gemini after all.)

Challenge one: We like to call this one “Almost halfway May”. Run 13.1 miles or ride 39.3 miles in one activity.

Challenge two: “Monthly Everesting”. Run or ride 29,029 ft of vertical in the Month of May. That’s roughly 1000 ft of vertical a day. If you’re really adventurous, you can give the “Everesting Challenge” a shot. See https://everesting.cc/ for details.

This month you have the option to do either challenge OR both. Once you have COMPLETED the challenge, sign up for the event and don’t forget to tag @Josh Pierce and @Ryan Mellem in the comment section of your run. The winners will be drawn at random for the $50 prize and, if local, a bottle of wine compliments of Dan Haney and Summit Beverage here in Missoula. Reach out if you have any questions. As always, have fun, be safe, and anything worth doing is worth overdoing.