It was my 3rd Everesting 5 weeks after my 1st, a “Significant” 10K and 3 weeks after the 2nd that was for the “Suburban” badge, this time I went for the “Short” variant on the 26th of july. To get a Short bage you got to go steep and do less than 200kms while getting over tthose 8.848 meters of climb of mount Everest.
I selected a segment with 13% of average slope in 1.6kms (around 210m ascent each climb) on a mountain nearby where I live that had to be done over 42 times. The Veloviwer Graph below is very elucidative of the hardness of this climb and it doesn’t shows the 20% gradient that my wahoo Bolt marked on the steepest part. In total I climbed 8,906m in 141km during 10h21 cycling and 11h11 of total activity time. It was the shortest Everesting distance held in Portugal according to the Everesting hall of fame: Hall of fame | Everesting
The main curiosity about it is that it wasn’t planned to happen on that day. I went there only to do about 1/3 of the total distance as a training previous to the D day (I was considering to do it only this weekend) but after about 12 climbs maintaining good sensations despite the rise in temperature and strong wind, there was a “click” on my head and I started to talk to myself “and if you do it today?.. almost 1/3 is done so why not use this effort and just keep on going… if you do it today it’s done and you don’t think about it anymore… in the next weekend it may be even hotter and windier… etc. etc. etc.” and so I convinced myself and continued after calling my wife to warn her that I was not going to have lunch at home and ask her to bring me lots of water and nutrition soon because I had almost run out of supplies. She arrived at the climb when I had almost no water and had no more food. Right on time! And with an extra… motivational support from my 6 year old son and my 15 year old daughter. It was for a short time but it was felt like if I had the whole world supporting me “go dad! You can do it dad”… those words echoed on my head for the rest of the day.
I also called one of my friends letting him know that I was going for it so he could go there later in the afternoon and give me some motivational support.
Just some words about the descent. It’s very physically demanding and gives you no rest because it is necessary maximum concentration and hands always well present on the brakes so that things do not go the wrong way.
The climb itself has the first 100m of ascent on the first 1.000m and the remaining 110m of ascent are concentrated on only 700m so getting to the top turning point each time looked to me like I had won the world cup. Its a Devil!
On those 42 climbs I collected pain, sweat and small stories that made me company and gave me some courage and that’s the reason why I´ll share them. When I was on the 8th climb a group of cyclists I had crossed with before asked me if it was the 2nd or 3rd climb for me. To the answer “It’s the 8th” I only had time to hear a resounding FUCK! I remembered this situation several times later in the ride and imagined with a smile as I passed in the same place on one of the last climbs what would be the word used if the answer was given at that time. Somewhere around the 35th climb another group commented “that’s the way man doing 4 or 5 climbs” I only had time and strength to sketch a brief smile because they had no idea I was doing that since morning, they just saw me a couple of times during their own ride in the afternoon.
The funniest of the memories of this day came on the 40th climb when an old motorcycles near the most inclined part had to turn around due to the lack of power while I kept on going zigzagging my way to the top once more. I have to confess I felt like I had a remarkable engine on my legs on that moment.
I also remember the several times that the van carrying the downhillers passed by me. There’s a downhill track on the other side of the mountain and after the first times they realized that there was a “crazy guy” climbing up all day and started cheering. I cannot forget the stupid “kamikaze guys” running tricycles on the descended doing over 80kms per hour and cutting corners and getting to close coming on to my lane, and that they almost got themselves under a car, because the car driver talked to me about it while I was climbing. If I wasn’t on a special mission, I’d certainly would have called the authorities. If you want a kamikaze track, take a sports event license and pay for traffic regulation, don’t risk your life and the life of others!
I also collected some nice pictures from friends:
And with these little stories in the middle the day went by and when I realized it was already done!
And just one week later what else could I be doing if not already planning the next Everesting.
I have just one very short and crazy loop on my mind so I don’t know if its doable for me at all 
