31 Aug THE GREAT EVEREST CLIMB
By Donna McWilliams, MetaSport Coaching Manager
On the weekend of 21-22 August the MetaSport Training crew set out to climb the height of Mount Everest as a club, which involved doing 111 laps of Singapore’s favourite hill, Mount Faber. Secretly I set a target to climb “Everest” three times.
An excited group of 31 members arrived on Saturday morning, full of energy and radiating positivity for the challenge ahead. Up the hill they rode, up down up down, looping past the car park after each lap where a car was laden with good nutritional fuel and some temptations (cakes, cookies and thirst quenching beer). At the conclusion of Saturday, I had the tally standing at 221 laps (one lap short of completing the challenge twice). I kept thinking to myself “if only we had done one more lap”. Then my phone flashed. Lisa A made my day by informing me that Thanh and herself had gone out later in the day and completed two laps each- we had climbed Everest twice! That night the members slept soundly in their beds, dreaming of chain revolutions, elevation and more laps ahead.
Not to be outdone, the crew came back again on Sunday. 33 of them. Some new faces, but many who rode on Saturday – all wanting to complete one extra lap than the day before. And they did. As a collective we rode, we ran, we carried our babies up, we dressed up! Our MetaMates did not disappoint. Itsuko ran 30km in full dress-up, one member and one member’s wife walked up carrying their babies and a special mention to Guru, who after cycling 15 laps on Saturday returned Sunday and ran 14 laps – this meant he completed his ever first marathon (and it was uphill!).
We surpassed Saturday’s total, with 350 laps completed, giving a grand total of 579 laps, more than five times up Everest! Well done team.
It was so encouraging seeing everyone out there, all with the goal of pushing themselves to do just one more lap. Everyone did so well, a true team effort, and made me so proud!
