Prouder Moment in Life: To Climb Mt Everest or Run Boston in under 2 hrs 30 mins?

Anyone ever run sub 2:30 at 50-55 years old who wasn't a lifetime runner with pedigree?

There are people who have summits Everest at that age with limited climbing expertise.

To run sub 2:30 you were either a decent college runner or under 30 years old. There are exceptions but I bet the list of 40 years olds is very short of sub2:30 guys who didn't run in college and just hired a coach for $100k.

I bet there isn't more than 2-3 guys on the planet that started running at 45...broke 2:30?!

Millions of people run marathons and only thousands get to climb Everest. So the statics about summits is skewd!

In decent weather any 3:30 marathoner who has the capacity to suffer and deal with altitude can summit Everest on a sunny day with oxygen.

I bet few people who summit Everest have ever run 2:30? Any?

The "marathon equivalent" physically of Everest is more like 3:30. Naomi Uemara is the "Ed Whitlock of Everest" with an ascent at age 80. A big feature of his ascent however was the cost: $1.5 million.

Agree $1,000,000 can't get an 80 year old to 2:30.

Or 70, probably not 60 unless elite even 50 sounds impossible.

Reminder that the question is what would you be more proud of. Maybe money paid is an indicator of how badly people want it and how proud they are of the accomplishment. Like a rich guy who has a beautiful trophy wife. Or a mega yacht.

What would you rather have? A 2:30 marathon, or the most beautiful wife ever? Or a huge house (and the ability to pay for it).

K2 or bust wrote:

Everest is for pussies. Real climbers go to K2.

For those who think K2 is for pussies, there is always Annapurna. Death-to-summit rate of 32%.

plaid pants wrote:

everest hands down wrote:

Everest only has about a 50% success rate, but more significantly a 3% death rate. Everest will always hold cultural mystique.

A better running comparison, which has been done several times on lrc, would be a sub-4 mile since they both were epoch-making events of the 1950s.

A 2:29:59 marathon is equivalent to what, a 4:30 mile? How could a 2:30 marathon be more impressive than Everest?

Because you aren't allowed to pay someone to drag you through the marathon course for a sub-2:30 time.

Dude, a 2:30 doesn't even get you into the Olympic trials.

Pffft, all child's play compared to the Hummingbird Ridge on Mt Logan. Hasn't been repeated since 6 of the hardest MFers of all time put it up 50 years ago.

If you ever want a chilling climbing tale, "Breaking Point" by Glenn Randall. Along with "Touching the Void" and a number of close calls (plus several fatalities of friends), it put the lid on my snow/ice alpine aspirations for good. Went on to climb many fine alpine rock climbs, however.

Turd Ferguson wrote:

Pffft, all child's play compared to the Hummingbird Ridge on Mt Logan. Hasn't been repeated since 6 of the hardest MFers of all time put it up 50 years ago.

Top 50 year old runner at Chicago last year 2:43

You have to look at Everest as 1 mountain or 1 event that very few people get a chance to try. Few people try it and even fewer uber talented people get a shot at it. Everest is trail racing of the sub...sub...sub hobby jogger.

I bet if all 40,000 people at Boston got a chance on Everest the success rate would be silly high. You can't put 40,000 people on Everest, but if you could the Data will suggest running sub 3 hours at Boston is way harder. Tons of people that run 3:30 can climb Everest physically. And few people who climb Everest can run 2:30. I bet you can't find many if any:( I know a few certainly could, but I bet you can find a few Hobby joggers that climbed Everest and didn't qualify for Boston. Maybe Rossi?

My guess is some 50 year old guys did Everest and there were 30,000+ runners at Chicago that is probably more people than have ever tried Everest... So the success rate of running 2:30 at Chicago in 2016 for a 50 year old was 0% out of Thousands of attempts. If you look back over 20 years at Chicago I bet it still 0%-1%. I know in the past 20 years there have been some 50 year old Guys climb Everest.

Chicago 2016 first 50 year old.

233 Galaviz, José (MEX) Monterrey, NUEVO LEON 2170 50-54 02:43:28

There are more people at my Local FUN run than try Everest each year.... and none of them can run 2:30 :) Modern times about 50% success rate on Everest. By the way very few woman can Run 2:30 in a Marathon and 50% success on Everest.

Just under 1000 people attempt to climb Everest each year and about 500 climbers reach the summit every year, this being a combination of Sherpas, other guides, clients, and professional climbers.

Since 2000, there is a non-sherpa summit success rate of 50% with men at 49% and women at 52% and about 60% of expeditions put at least one person on the summit.

Deaths:

1996 - 15 This is the Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer year.

1997 - 9

1998 - 4

1999 - 4

2000 - 2

2001 - 5

2002 - 3

2003 - 4

2004 - 7

2005 - 6

2006 - 11

2007 - 4

2008 - 1

2009 - 4

2010 - 3

2011 - 5

2012 - 11

2013 - 8

2014 - 17 Khumbu Icefall Avalanche

2015 - 22 Earthquake Avalanche

Success Rate vs a good story but a Failure to reach the summit:

Just over 50% in modern times.

Everest Maxed Out

Actually you can buy yourself a 2:30.

if you take the money you would use to invest in an Everest trip and hire the best physio team with the best "legal" PEDs, it would be easier than you think.

Everest is really f*cking hard

Sub 2:30 is really f*cking hard

Each requires unique sacrifices, talents and expenses. Which one you would be prouder of is a function of your background.

EOT

I have done neither... but if I had the option to choose, I would go with climbing Mt Everest every time.

Lobofresh wrote:

Everest no question. If you tell practically anyone that you Climbed the highest mountain in the world they will be impressed. If you told a person picked at random that you ran 2:29 at Boston they'd probably say "that's cool I think my friend ran 1:30, he's really fast".

This^

A 2:30 marathon is a Sunday jog. Climbing Everest is the real deal.

Killian is going to jog up Everest later this summer.

He could also run sub 2:30 at Boston if he wanted though running on a man made surface through a large city isn't what he enjoys.