Danish runner Simon Grimstrup set a new "Everesting" world record. He took just 10 hours, 45 minutes and 14 seconds to cover the height of the Mt Everest by running repeatedly on a hill near his home.
Simon ran one hill near Ry 202 times to reach the equivalent summit height of 8848m. He ran a total distance of 50km to set the new official Everesting run record.
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What is Everesting?
Everesting was invented by Australian cyclist Andy van Bergen, who completed his initial challenge on Mount Buller in Victoria in February 2014.
The aim of Everesting is to ride – or run – up one hill over and over again until the athlete reaches 8,848m of elevation gain, which is the height of Everest.
According to the Evereting website, 447 runners have completed an Everesting run.
For a run to count, athletes must run on one hill, rather than a hilly route with multiple summits. It doesn’t matter how steep or how long the hill is, and the official rules state that “essentially anything that has a vertical gain can be used”.
Everesting attempts do not allow runners to sleep and even a nap will mean the attempt is discounted.
When it comes to ascending and descending the chosen hill, a runner can choose whether to run down after each lap or get a ride down (whether that’s in a car, on a bike or any other form of transport). Because of this option, there are two Everesting run records: "shuttled" and "non-shuttled".
Simon's world record Everesting run
Simon’s run was non-shuttled, which means he ran or walked down the hill after every ascent. His chosen hill was 130 metres long with 44 metres of elevation gain
In an interview with the Vietnam Trail Series (VTS),he is reported as saying: "I was not sure I would get the world record until the last two laps. I was worried that I would fall on the downhill.”
In fact, due to rain, he had originally planned to run only a half-Everesting attempt as a test run on the hill.
But on reaching 100 laps his friends convinced him to keep going for the full run. He beat the previous Everesting world record by 16 minutes.
He added in the interview: “It was the hardest, stupidest, most epic thing I have ever done.”
Simon also raised funds for Doctors Without Borders as part of the challenge.
