Debi Hazelden Cycling Everest

At the beginning of August, Debi Hazelden climbed the equivalent of Mt Everest - 8848m, on a bike, in Sydney.

She climbed over 18 hours up Watsons Bay Hill (8% gradient) in Sydney 162 times. Why? Because she was #everesting - the ultimate test of climbing which is run by a group in Melbourne called @hells500.

You choose a hill and climb up and down, up and down, up and down... no sleeping! A decent hilly ride is about 2500m of climbing, so to climb 8848m (to reach the summit of Mt Everest) in one ride is a superhuman effort! Debi did this in Sydney, starting at 5:30am and finishing at 11:30pm.

We wanted to know what motivated her, so we found out more about this Kiwi girl living in Australia.

“The challenge of #everesting started in 2012, each ride recorded and verified on Strava.  To help you get the idea, a decent long hilly Sunday ride would usually cover 1000m - 2000m of climbing. So climbing 8900m of elevation is a decent chunk.

When I first saw this done, I thought it was completely mad, the ultimate test of a cyclist’s endurance. A few months later I saw another guy had done it. The fact that I knew him sparked something in me. I became obsessed because so few women had done it. Only two in the world and I wanted to be the first New Zealand woman. Right - I was going to do it! This Thursday!

Then came the questions, which hill? When? Where? All the things to think about - like gradient, safety, lights, batteries, garmins, busy streets, turn around at the top and bottom? Is it close to toilets? Would friends come support? Would I need support or could I do it on my own? The gradient was important as it can mean the difference of riding 200km or 400km. Not too steep that you can’t complete the challenge, but steep enough that you don’t end up riding for 30 hours and need to sleep!

I went riding with a friend to go “hill hunting”. We found what we thought was the perfect one. A 1.2km hill close to home of 6% avg gradient – the next day we gave it a go, a 4:15am start, 14 hours of riding up and down, but at 5pm after 6300m of climbing and 232km the Garmin died. It had the blue screen of death.  I was unable to recover the file and I had nothing to show, not even a Strava file.

The next morning I woke up with a different perspective. Success in life is mostly always hard work. You have to earn it. Special achievements are that because they are hard work. Most of the time you need to fail and have another go. That’s what I did. I planned it for the next thursday. Not much recovery in between but mentally I just needed to do it again - soon.

I picked a different hill - Watsons Bay hill - a steeper one with an average 8% gradient. I thought I’d have a better chance at success on this hill. In the mornings people go and do approx 10 hill reps. I calculated I’d need to do 162 hill reps to climb 8900m of elevation, about 17 hours with each hill rep 55m in elevation. It would be a long day.

I started in the dark at 5:30am, with a friend rachelle. The Bondi Fit triathlon group came out at 6am - 7am for hill reps, with a beautiful sunrise over the sydney harbour. Bondi Fit coach, Spot, stayed till 12noon and, most importantly, he brought me coffee! From 12pm I had my solo time. By 2:30pm I’d been cycling for 9 hours and climbed only 4300m. I felt like it was going to take forever. Having a few doubts I stopped to grab a few more Cliff bars and message my friends to tell them to come down. I’d done really well keeping up with eating and drinking lots of water. My foot hurt and my socks were wet, but when I got to the top it wasn’t sore anymore so I kept going.

A friend Viv rode with me from 2:30 till 6pm - what dedication! He soon shut me up when I talked about not knowing if I could do it. Others turned up and rode for a while. Just keep going I was thinking.  Friends rode with me, laughed, cheered, told me I was crazy, said it was awesome, rode at my pace, did their laps and were off.

When I was riding in silence I thought about things. I had wondered if the mental or the physical side of this challenge would be more difficult. It started to kick in - the questions to myself. why? now knowing my legs would make it but could I mentally?

I had been wearing two Garmins and Suunto for the ride, just in case anything didn’t work, and a portable charger.

Soon day turned into night and the activity died away.  This was the hardest part. Knowing you’ve been cycling up and down from dark to light and back to darkness. Everyone was heading home to bed... at 7pm the Bondi Fit runners turned up, renewing my failing motivation. I couldn’t have done this without all the people that came and encouraged me and rode with me.

Just past 9pm, fuelled by magic sausage rolls, we re-calculated how much I had to go; 20 hill reps x 6mins = 2 hours. It was. It seemed like so much and I didn’t know if I could do it. 15 hills to go and Christy went home to bed... 15 - so close. So exhausted. More coke, new lights.

At 10 hills to go I was surprised my legs weren’t hurting more. The challenge wasn’t physical. The mental challenge was tough. 9 to go, 8 to go. with 5 to go, another break and re-calculation. Yes confirm 5 to go.

One hundred and sixty two hill reps done and I had #everested watsons Bay hill. It’s mine. It was after 11:30pm and over 18 hours had passed, 8000 calories burnt, 8848m of ascending. My pace had been pretty consistent throughout the day www.strava.com/activities/173772337

Although I had completed four ironman events, this was by far the hardest thing I had ever done mentally. Physically my legs felt fine. Two days later I took my Can too marathon group for a beautiful 27km run around Sydney’s coastal track. My legs were surprisingly fine, although I felt sick and got a lot worse after this. Yes, I had dreams of cycling up hills after.









Funny thing is, as I plan and map out a rides now I see the elevation and think what a great hill it would be to everest! I wouldn’t do one on my own again, but I’d say yes if someone else wanted to do an everesting attempt together. I love inspiring other women in sport.

This challenge helped me realise there are two sorts of people in life. The ones I want around are the ones who were forever supportive of me doing this and all the other crazy things I want to do in my life.

Then there are those who try and bring you down. My supporters were honestly worried about my safety, but they had faith in me, they didn’t care if I was going to fail. They supported me anyway. I love and appreciate that so much.”

Debi was welcomed into the hells 500 hall of fame - the select few who have climbed as high as mt everest on a bike. Debi is the third woman ever, and the first Kiwi woman.

Check out the group: @hells500 www.hells500.com and www.everesting.cc

What’s next?
She is heading to compete in Kona World Champs in october after getting the 4th fastest female bike split at Cairns Ironman and coming 2nd in her age group 30-34. She will also compete in the very first australian Ultraman next year in noosa (10km swim, 420km bike, 84km run). She would then like to focus on events like the Norseman Xtreme, Alp d’huez triathlon, then move into events like the Coast to Coast and Able Tasman Coastal Classic; events which have a major sense of accomplishment at the finish.

Debi is a web developer and also a triathlon trainer for Bondi Fit - the largest triathlon squad in Sydney. She also coaches running and triathlon for Can too - a fundraiser foundation for Cure Cancer in Australia.

Originally published in New Zealand Triathlon & Multisport Issue 100, January 2015