The Champion Within
This is a series with fascinating and inspiring people, and what it takes to be the best you can at whatever your endeavours may be.
We will learn from others as to how they have handled themselves in their own pursuits, and so that we can apply to ourselves.
We’ll talk about the necessary support and how important it is, to have the best and appropriate systems around us, so that we can be the best possible. We’ll discuss aspects of ourselves that we can all develop.
This is a show with inspiring people, including musicians, artists, athletes, medical specialists, business entrepreneurs and more…in the pursuit of excellence.
I’m Jason Agosta, a health professional and former athlete, and I'm fascinated in people’s stories, my own involves developing certain attributes over time, but also things that were not done well or were significantly missing.
Join me on The Champion Within in discovering that everybody has a story, and everybody has a message.
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The Champion Within
Ep.10 Erin Ferguson: Conquering the Everesting Challenge...Endurance and Resilience
Ready to feel your heart race and your spirit soar? We're about to embark on a thrilling journey with our guest, Erin Ferguson, who courageously completed the Everesting Challenge. The challenge, as daring as they come, involves cycling the equivalent of Mount Everest's vertical height - a cool 8,848 meters - in one single ride. Erin opens up about her experience, from wrestling with self-doubt to battling physical and mental exhaustion. She takes us through the ups and downs of this immense undertaking, and the resilience it takes to pedal through such a grueling challenge.
But we don't stop at the finish line! The latter half of the show reveals the aftermath of Erin's feat. We delve into the physical impact of such an endurance test, and the paramount importance of recovery. Erin gives us a glimpse of her support network - a team that proved to be an invaluable part of her triumph. If you've ever been intrigued by endurance sports or sought a shot of inspiration, you won't want to miss out on Erin's compelling story. We promise an episode that tackles the less-discussed aspects of endurance cycling, offering listeners a unique insight into the world of extreme sports. Tune in for an extraordinary tale of determination, endurance, and the power of the human spirit.
You can follow the show and support through the link here on the show notes
Support for Erin's charity Run 4 KB gofundme/698f1d69
Thanks again to Shane O’Mara and The Silversound for the beautiful sounds.
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Hey there, welcome back to the Champion Within. I'm Jason Agosta and we speak to fascinating people with inspiring stories, and today I'm talking with Erin Ferguson, who is a cyclist and has undertaken her Everesting Challenge. Erin is the feature of episode six of this series and described her challenge riding the equivalent vertical height of Mount Everest in being 8,848 metres in one ride. Everesting has become a global phenomenon amongst cyclists and Erin gives her insights to completing her Everesting ride. There she is, erin Ferguson Everesta and you're in one piece, I assume.
Speaker 2:I am, I am, I'm definitely one piece.
Speaker 1:What I really want to know is afterwards a riding. For how many hours was it?
Speaker 2:It was 19 hours moving time, but about 21 hours all out.
Speaker 1:Right, so 21 hours of out in the, in the blackness, the cold, and up and down a hill, but what I really want to know is, to start off is afterwards was it just like collapsing a heap and just like I'm so over this bike?
Speaker 2:No, I wasn't over the top, I think I go to the top and I was like that's enough. And then I said I've just got. I'm sorry guys. I gave everyone a hug and I was like I've just got to get in the car and I just sat in the car and I had my helmet and my glasses on still in the front seat and he was like I didn't have the heart to tell you to take them off because he just looked so sad.
Speaker 1:Oh, were you just a bit delirious?
Speaker 2:I was exhausted. I was.
Speaker 2:I've never ridden that long before so I wasn't sure what was going to happen.
Speaker 2:I've done 30 now was on the bike in the past, so I wasn't really sure what's happened beyond that point.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's pretty safe to say like it gets. It gets pretty hard, like you don't feel your body starting to sort of break down in like sort of a cascading way where like things start to go wrong and then they don't improve but other things start to go wrong as well. So I think you're like you're really running on whatever's left for four days out I got a cold and I was not feeling great and then you know, sort of I was like I was always really touching go, whether I sort of pushed it off a week or whether I just sort of pushed through and I got to Wednesday morning and I just sort of went for a bunch ride and I thought, look, the day was looking really good, the Friday was looking really good and I thought, you know what? I don't feel awful, but I think it would be better bringing, say, 90% of me to the perfect day than bringing the perfect me to an unknown the week after and that's how I just gave it.
Speaker 2:So I was like on Wednesday morning I was like I'm just going to do it and if I get into the start I'm going to know really early on whether I'm like falling off because I'm still quite thick, you know. I thought let's go. You know what's the worst thing that can happen away. We went and went and went until quarter past one in the morning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw that. So how did you feel yourself as soon as you started? I mean, we spoke about you know being a little bit anxious and things like that. But we know that when you start your run or you start your ride, everything sort of just comes together.
Speaker 2:Look, I never. I didn't ever feel as comfortable as I did when I went and did a training run a few weeks ago. Now that could just be, you know the fact that I had a bit of a cold. I guess I must have got into a bit of a groove. You know I you try to cut the maths so many different ways. So you know you're like, all right, I'm going to break into thirds. So you get through the first three. And then you know, then I've just got to get through the second three. And then you know, then you're like you get to the point where you're like, well, in one more lap. I've only got one lap until I'm at this point you know, it's all that sort of something to tell yourself to get through it.
Speaker 2:I mean, it seems to be. You know, I'm not an expert in this. There are people who have done plenty of them, but it seems to be just a matter of just ticking off the numbers and I was very grateful that each lap was more than 10% of the whole thing, because some people do these and then you know 200 plus laps of something and I just don't know how I was so grateful. I was like you know what? I know, this road to the millimetre.
Speaker 2:Now you said that I'm just grateful that I can sort of just keep on top of the knowledge of it Even when it gets really hard. The only thing you don't know is yourself in some way, because the road's the same every time you do it.
Speaker 1:Find you just sort of we're sinking into a rhythm, just tapping it out and that sort of beautiful rhythm that comes with that and a bit meditative. Do you sort of put yourself in that place or did it feel like it was just a constant push?
Speaker 2:So lucky and one of the things I spoke with you about last time was, I remember saying I'm preparing to do this alone and anyone that comes along is a real bum. I rode with one lap on my own in the whole day and that was pretty early on lap, so it was fine. I was like I can just do this, and that was actually probably the hardest lap of the day because I sort of got in my own head a little bit more then.
Speaker 2:I was actually out of time for the self reflection, but every other lap? I just had some.
Speaker 1:In what way? Tell me what that was about?
Speaker 2:That lap was sort of that. I think that lap was the third lap and that was the one where I'd sort of said was the cut off, for if I'm feeling sick, this is where I'll pull the pin. So there was probably that level of me being like, oh, maybe, maybe I don't feel great or whatever, but if I get beyond this, it's me actually just failing because I haven't made the distance, rather than pulling out because I'm not well enough to do it.
Speaker 2:So I think that had become like a rip line in the band as far as the rhythm, other than that one lap. I just had people to chat with, so many good friends who turned up and like rode a lap up. You know, some of them rode three laps, which I was like that's a big commitment for people who haven't been training for this month. My partner and I had done the eight lap together and when we got down to the base we're like, okay, last lap, let's go In between the cars and five of us on the bikes for the last lap. Like that, like I was funny because all I could think about all week afterwards was saying to you like I'm preparing to do this on my arm and the reflection pays for me is that absolutely wouldn't have got it through it without the people around me.
Speaker 1:If we go back to those times, do you think that having all those people there sort of helped with just dealing with the pressure of it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so it was a distraction more than like getting into a rhythm, having someone. There is a distraction, you're ready to do it in silence, and then suddenly you get to do something with conversation.
Speaker 1:On that point, for I forget, sorry, I know what I was going to say to you was have you realized that this, I mean this is a big deal, sort of athletically, it's a huge challenge. It's also massive for the people around you, which you probably realize now that it was like you know, you've ventured off into this huge challenge but you sort of brought so many people along for the ride, literally, and people get swept up in that and from the outside and maybe not from where you sit now, but from the outside it seems like such a huge thing. Maybe you captured a little bit with the people around you there's definitely that that element of you know.
Speaker 2:the further you Go down the rabbit hole in a sport like cycling, you come across people who are so impressive in the their accolades and the things that they've done, an experience that you always feel like, oh yeah, little old me.
Speaker 1:Little old you saying that last time is a little old me, I'm just so ordinary. And then, like here, you are just knocked out like 20 hours of writing or something. You seem to have this hidden determination and depth that you can sort of pull out or draw on. You seem to you give that vibe that you've got this depth within yourself. I'm assuming above all other events or other rise you've done, this one has probably made you draw upon. You know the depths within you more than any other. With that be right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's fair and so what did you tell me on that thought of drawing deep? What did you feel and do you remember, like any time, that there was specific thoughts?
Speaker 2:It's funny because the thinking time for me wasn't so much on the day. I didn't look at any like with a bike and here all I was looking at was just like the black line on the screen I was. Yeah, perfect, and I really think that I cared about yeah but at the end of it, you know, I wanted to be like have this sort of excitement, but I was just like I just gotta get, I just gotta go home yeah, just like completely drained. Yeah, I was like thank you emotionally.
Speaker 2:Coming on the car and the car. My partner and I was like he proud of me. Yeah, I was like cool, I'm proud of me too.
Speaker 1:And that was.
Speaker 2:Kind of it and it's great to be anything else I wanted. I was like I just want to have a shower yeah. I just want to get out of this kit and I want to have a shower. I want to go bed.
Speaker 1:You just came across like you have. You have all the qualities and very focused and super intelligent with yourself and you know you've looked within a fair bit and you do that with hours of exercise like there's no doubt. Yeah you're gonna hit this and all the people that have come out of it.
Speaker 2:Of course you're gonna make it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know. I'm like either I talk the talk or there was something that people I would have picked up. You know, personally it's a challenge I've seen people do and I always wondered is it something that I could do? Do I have that in me? I wouldn't say I was overly motivated to do it prior to earlier this year. Earlier this year I started thinking about it as a thing and I re-ruminated on it for a couple months and then sort of pulled the pin about May and said, yeah, I'm gonna give it a crack. But the other thing that worries me is one thing I don't like to advertise when I'm doing something.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Unless it's something I know.
Speaker 1:You're so well known in the cycling scene I don't know.
Speaker 2:You know, I felt really uncomfortable saying that I was doing it.
Speaker 1:I think I said to you I can see that the descending would be so crucial and it's not rest time, it's complete focus, and you're in the dark as well in some of this. So how was that part of it Because that was the part I was sort of more concerned about from risks and just staying in absolute control? What was that like for you?
Speaker 2:So it wasn't too bad. But the last descent, you're right, it takes a huge toll on your body and I was finding, especially when you're trying to go a bit slower, you're obviously spending more time on the brakes, which means that a lot more weight comes through the shoulders and your hands. Yeah, so for the second last lap I was like I was in so much pain I couldn't. You're supposed to get down in the drops, because it makes the handling of the bike a lot better and you're a bit more aerodynamics so you move a bit faster, but also you've just got better control of the bike, but my shoulders and my back were in so much pain that I couldn't even get down in the drops. I had to descend upright, which was fine, it was fine, it was okay, but it was definitely very uncomfortable. I was grateful I didn't have to do it a second high.
Speaker 1:Someone's going to ask you tell me how hard was it. Can you describe the pressure or the difficulty of this?
Speaker 2:The first six laps I was like it's pretty tedious. And then you hit that point where you're like God, now I'm really now I'm doing it.
Speaker 1:Right, this is within you, or your legs.
Speaker 2:Probably everything really by the end of it. I said everything hurts equally.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a part of me that wasn't in pain, but fortunately it was no like, oh, my knee's gone or something's gone. Everything hurt just about the same, but there wasn't a millimeter spared. And actually the hardest thing for the days after I wasn't even my legs, it was my mouth. I had to drink constantly to try it. I was drinking so much and this is probably the cold more than anything and I couldn't taste anything Like it was just chaos in my mouth.
Speaker 2:But that was probably the thing that affected me most in the sort of two to three days after it.
Speaker 1:And that was the harvesting plus when you go over 8,848 minutes, because I think it was 9,000 or something, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you want the buffer in there.
Speaker 1:Oh, no yeah.
Speaker 2:You don't want to finish it and then check and it's locked your distance off.
Speaker 1:So you touched on afterwards I'll give you the next day or two is from a recovery point of view. Which I think I touched on is that not only are you going to be like just emotionally exhausted, physically exhausted, but just to replenish. I mean, how much of that did you feel like this is crucial, just to get whatever I can in and fill up again? Did it feel like that after 19 hours?
Speaker 2:You know, not as much as it's even felt today after the ride I did yesterday not the right ride to do as my first ride back. Right okay, but I didn't hit the like I'm starving but I ate a lot as much as I could during the day, yeah, and I was almost at the point where I was like I just never want to look at food again, like I'm so overeating and I'm so over drinking that I didn't really have that like frantic starvation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good you can get after some rides, and that's not a great feeling, but it usually means you've done something wrong on the day. The next couple of days I didn't do it too much at all. I just sat and walked into town a couple of times, Like I find walking is really important for my recovery.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no riding.
Speaker 2:Not for two days. I got out on the mountain bike on the Monday for like an hour and just kind of and more, just nice to be back on the bike, but I just wanted real food again. I was like I don't want to look at gels, I don't want to look at all this stuff for a little while. A lot of sleep. I slept so much.
Speaker 1:You've just mentioned, you went for a ride and you're wasting. Is that because you think you've just done too much after the huge effort?
Speaker 2:Like how much I can attribute to still being fatigued from the week before and how much I can attribute to what yesterday was anyway, which was this but it had three and a half thousand meters of climbing in anyway and it was just this. It was just the biggest hack I've had on the bike in so long.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Okay and yeah. So I was like I was. I couldn't believe my legs aren't working, nothing's not working. Nothing's nothing was coming to the party.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then going to what you said before about running a marathon and things like we would normally say, it takes four to six to get over it properly instead of carrying the deep seated fatigue. And here you are. I've done your 19, 20 hours, or whatever it is, and 9,000 on your bike, and nine days later you're going for three and a half thousand.
Speaker 2:Three and a half. Yeah, it wasn't a good idea, I don't think you should ring your coach, I think he did say to me like you'll probably feel pretty bad at that, and I was like, no, I'll be fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely right.
Speaker 1:It does take a bit of time and it's an interesting thing to bring up, because what we've seen athletically is the people who do get back into their activity too soon and they try to keep pushing and try to keep pushing because they're tired and have this deep seated fatigue that it just takes forever to get it back, that sharpness and that hacking and say the ability just to push yourself again. Yeah, and people carry this for months and I've seen people like actually just go off on the slippery slope and never really get it back because they just keep pushing. But this is part of the recovery as well, isn't it? Just you emotionally just becoming a bit more centred again and who you are. It carries on for a little bit, yeah.
Speaker 2:I've got plenty of stuff that I want to do, though Like I've got a whole list of things, because obviously, when you're focusing on one thing, it's very hard to sort of deviate from the plan.
Speaker 1:So this might be too soon, but what's it feel for you having accomplished this?
Speaker 2:I'm just so relieved. That's nice though, yeah, and it's a great feeling like to feel it really genuinely. It's personal, yeah. You're like gee, that was being, and I've never worked so hard for so long for one thing. Yeah, so to do that and then get it.
Speaker 1:I was like you touched on a few things there and one of them was logistics of clothing, because you said that was a big deal. Yeah, you know light and dark and cold, and how'd you go with all that? Because I imagine that was like pretty taxing and like a lot went into that.
Speaker 2:That was a lot actually.
Speaker 2:It was a lot of energy had to go into, like yeah he had not just the right clothing for the bottom but the right clothing for the top, and sometimes the top was colder than the bottom and sometimes it wasn't, so like you get to the top and you was more than you get back down your freezing.
Speaker 2:So it was it's quite a strange kind of Microclimate it. So the low temperature was to, which is great. I didn't want it to go below zero, because then obviously have to start thinking about things like us on the roads, especially if there's a little bit of. There was shower or something, but the top was 32, so you had to be basically dressed for 30 degree difference in temperature, so Constantly trying to err on just being a little bit too warm because I never wanted to get For behind with temperature and then feel cold because it's always really hard to get back warm again yeah like be a little bit on the warm side, because it's fine, you can just drink more, but if you get cold you're gonna be in a really bad place so.
Speaker 1:So, in summary, what have you done at? The number of hours of writing was 19, moving time is 19. Vertical height was 9000.
Speaker 2:200 that 308 K okay, that's huge yeah, the biggest right I've done by. I've done 60 K or something so good.
Speaker 1:As I said, you brought so many people along with you. Everyone will be so happy for you and I know it's a huge personal thing that's quietly just sitting there. Probably hasn't, you know, resonated with you yet, but it's huge and it's amazing.
Speaker 2:And I think probably.
Speaker 1:I'm happy for you thank you.
Speaker 2:I mean, I am happy for me to and I think. But I think, like all sports, people are the same where they constantly like what's next? I can't done that now, so what's next? We don't, we're not great at sitting down and kind of sipping with it. The other thing is like getting on the bike, and training every day has become like brushing teeth, like it's just something you have to do every single day, otherwise you lose your mind. And so not doing that, I'm real. That's actually one of the things I'm really struggling with, right.
Speaker 1:Well, that's routine and discipline, though, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I finished work and I'm like it's time to get on the bike and I'm like, don't, don't yeah, okay. Really really hard recovery back on and like keep going and I would you know, but I'm like don't do it. You need to. You need to take a step back and recover well.
Speaker 1:But the bet is interesting, isn't it? You've got to be so like strong within yourself with doing the easy things.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is important.
Speaker 2:People were terrible to us out.
Speaker 1:Hey, thanks for letting me into your world during this challenge and thanks for your time. It was just amazing to sort of follow you through this and and also meet you and learn about you.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right. Thanks for listening to the champion within and Erin Ferguson, who completed her ever-steam challenge 308 kilometers on the bike with 9200 meters vertical by riding nine laps of that buffalo here in Victoria. An amazing effort and incredible challenge, a great insight to it all. And Erin herself, inspiring for anyone who's considering a personal challenge. You can find the links in the show notes and you can follow and support this show as well. Thanks for listening and I'll be with you.
