One of the constant joys of blogging, and the connects one makes through social media, is that you learn all manner of things, and get to meet all manner of super-achieving people.
Like my cyber-friend Sachin Sharma who has just become the first Indian to complete the Everesting 10k challenge.
“Ahem”, do I hear you say, “what exactly is Everesting 10k?”
I admit I hadn’t heard of this challenge either, until I saw Sachin’s Insta feed, but boy oh boy, is this one impressive feat!
In a nutshell, Everesting 10k is an extreme endurance running challenge, where participants run up and down a mountain (or hill) repeatedly, accumulating 10,000 meters of elevation in the process. Without any sleep, let me add.
Manali-based Sachin Sharma, all of 24 years old, is the first Indian to complete this challenge, doing it in just 37 hours and 46 minutes. He ran 13 laps along the Lamadugh Trail in Manali wildlife sanctuary, accumulating an elevation of 10,000 mt. as he went.
Now how hard-core is that?
To prepare for the feat, Sachin trained for three months by running and climbing hills in his home state of Himachal Pradesh. He focused on building endurance and strength, in order to be able to complete the challenge with minimal rest. Along the way, he adopted a healthy diet plan, incorporating more natural foods such as fruits and vegetables, cutting out processed foods and maintaining adequate hydration during his runs.
Take a look at his photos, which bring to life both the beauty of the trail he was running, as well as the physical exhaustion :
The day-time images are gorgeous, but I particularly love the photo (below) showing Sachin night running:
The next 2 photos illustrate the effort – and exhaustion – involved in such challenge.
Sachin enlisted the help of friends to support him throughout his challenge – from providing motivational support to keeping him well-provisioned with food and water.
He told us that this support helped him immensely during the challenge, where he was without sleep for close to 38 hours.
And here we are – task completed!
And, as the photo below shows, clearly there was still enough energy to celebrate such a momentous occasion!
Sachin, my cyber-friend, shabash! Hats off to you for such an epic achievement, and I trust that you will now rest and recover and bask in your achievement…before (I’m QUITE sure) embarking on another adventure 🙂
And, before you go, here’s a link to guest post Sachin wrote for us, about the first Lahaul Snow Marathon he ran earlier this year.
I can’t wait to see what adventures this young man gets up to in 2023 🙂
Sonam Dubal
Amazing !!!