500,000'

With today's run I've chalked up a new personal record milestone, surpassing 500,000 vertical feet of ascent for the calendar year.  That's a half million vertical feet of climb and a half million feet of descent for a total change of one million feet accumulated through trail running, hiking, snowshoeing and any other means of two-legged ascent.  In other words, chair lifts, bikes, and cars don't count here.  My previous PR was 400,000 feet two years ago.  I never purposefully set out to best this previous record, but in the course of training for big events this year,  I could see the numbers were trending off the scale.

When I declared six years ago that reaching 200,000 feet in one year was a feat I would probably not repeat again, little did I realize that I had climbed my way above a threshold that I haven't dipped below since.  Back then I was mostly hiking on the weekends and I hadn't adopted a regular running routine.  It all changed for me in 2010 when I began using a GPS watch which provided elevation data for every weekday run, no matter how short.  All of a sudden the elevation gain due to running was a significant part of my overall elevation logged.  Today, of the half million vertical feet accumulated roughly 235,000 feet is logged in the mountains while 265,000 feet is logged in the hills and elsewhere.  Prior to 2012 I never had a month with more than 50,000 vertical feet.  This year I had four months above 50K including one month of nearly 70K.

But what is 500,000 vertical feet?  It's hard to wrap your head around it because it's difficult to quantify.  It's entertaining to compare it to known commodities, like 120 climbs of Mt. Washington, 50 Great Range Traverses or 15 Hardrock races, but you must ignore the disingenuous implication that one could simply rack up elevation in this manner on a challenging hike or route.  No, the feat is made possible by day-in, day-out, brain dead consistency.  It's the sort of mindset that pushes you out the door and into the bitter cold; the commitment that makes you laugh with the rain rather than cower inside thinking of excuses.  All of it has been accumulated in the outdoors.

I have no research to back it up but I'd say that reaching a half million feet in one calendar year is not a common occurrence.  Other than long-distance hikers, mountain guides, and hardcore trail runners, I'd guess that only a handful of people working full-time reach this milestone.  And while I don't want to gloat, this is what makes the achievement more unique and perhaps more impressive than some of the more outwardly visible successes I've enjoyed this year, including finishes at Hardrock and UTMB.  But with no crowning event to herald the milestone, it feels somewhat arbitrary all the same.

So what's next?  Who knows.  For now I plan to keep on hiking and running, although in confidence I can say that it's unlikely I'll reach this threshold again.  And that's okay with me.

With all the focus here on elevation, my annual distance milestone is not far behind.  In a few days 2012 will be my third straight year of 3000+ miles.  Some might think I'm crazy.  Fair enough.  I chalk it up to perseverance and determination.

Please all you Metric adopters out there keep your comments to yourself and don't try to ruin my buzz.