Here’s your summer challenge: log 11,000 feet of elevation in 30 days. Work your way up—walking, running, or hiking—and track your cumulative vertical gain in Strava’s HOKA Be the GOAT Challenge to complete those 11,000 feet. Sound absurd? That depends on your perspective.
From the streets of Manhattan, you’d need to scale the Empire State Building steps nine times to log 11,000 feet. From the edge of the Grand Canyon, you’d still need to climb 1,000 feet after doing a round-trip from rim to rim to rim. From Mount Everest Base Camp, 11,000 feet of elevation gets you right below the highest summit in the world.
From your nearest favorite trailhead, 11,000 feet is the right goal if you want to extend your trail running abilities to new heights. That total is just shy of what competitors climb during the Wasatch Mountains UTMB Speedgoat 50K race. (There, runners climb 11,318 feet over 31 gnarly miles.) It’s also attainable when you factor 30 days with the work and family needs of daily life that conspire to keep you from biting off big distances and vertical gains in such epic-sized…
