Climbing Everest

May 29th, 1953, Sherpa Tensing Norgay and Ed Hillary (good ol' NZ boy) were the first to make it to the top of the highest mountain in the world, Mt Everest (well the first to get up and down, but let's not get into that debate).

55 years after that monumental occasion people are still celebrating it. I know I am, and I was delighted when I got a message on facebook from my good friend Sam asking if I was celebrating it. And another message from Benedict alerted me to Google, who were also celebrating the anniversary.

55 years on and people still talk about having their own "Everest to climb". This made me think what was mine? Race Across America sprung to mind as the first obvious one. So racing, and trying to win RAAM is my Everest, right? Well, no. Although even the thought of torturing my body through 5 1/2 days of suffering on a bike seem epic enough, I did see one major flaw with RAAM being my Everest. After climbing Everest, there is no where higher to go, you've reached the top, you've "knocked the bastard off", so to speak. But I don't won't RAAM to be the pinnacle of my cycling career. Sure it will be my biggest achievement thus far, but I don't want it to end there.

So then what is my Everest? Well, I guess I don't know. Perhaps Everest isn't the ultimate, and after climbing the worlds highest mountain, or racing the worlds longest bike race (i think), there is still more to do. After Everest was climbed, the challenge was still there for men like Reinhold Messner to come back and climb the mountain solo, without oxygen. So after racing the width of the states, I'll have to step up to more races. Well this was always the plan, except by then I'll have more experience and can set the bar higher.

So rather than worry about my "Everest", all I really should be thinking about is the next step in my journey. Which would probably be recover from my last trip away. Being crammed into a small compartment with lots of others, with recycled air, and still not cleaned up after a race, with immune system battered to exhaustion can mean only one thing: getting sick. So I need to recover my health before I get on a plane tomorrow morning for Nebraska.

Nebraska should be fun. The state is already getting excited about my arrival. Well, ok, not the whole state, just those involved with the Tour de Cure, cyclists, diabetes professionals and all the single women (I wish). I have already had some excitement, and below are some links to articles celebrating my rapidly approaching arrival.

http://omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=10345490

http://www.nebraskacyclingnews.com/content/view/976/1/

http://sydspinnin.blogspot.com/2008/05/soft-spot-for-team-type-1.html

Everyone in Nebraska, look forward to seeing you all soon. I hope you show me a good time.