When I go cycling, people call me ‘mad’. I wake up at 4 a.m., and return home at 6 or 7 p.m. Sometimes, I get home at midnight. In 2021, I completed the ‘Everesting’ challenge, explored the hinterlands of Goa (India), completed multiple long-distance solo-cycling challenges, and progressed my running capabilities beyond what I thought I was possible for myself.
That year, I clocked 15000+ kms cycling and 700+ kms running.
My name is Kiran, BE in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering in India at the Goa College of Engineering. I am an energetic RISER (recent graduate), who joined Visteon in September 2022. Currently, I work with the AUTOSAR team and in my spare time I evolved from a newbie to a professional cyclist, intermediate runner, hiker and traveler.
The Beginning
I didn’t realize until adulthood that I had a passion for sports until a friend introduced me to a fit-swaggers cycling and running club based in Goa, who organized exciting cycling challenges like completing 300, and 1000 km in a month.
It started in December 2019, when a unique challenge came way to cycle 1000 km in a month. After completing the challenge, I was humbled when Xaxti Riders (India-based cycling club) began sponsoring me as a professional racing cycle which sparked my interest in Everesting.
Everesting: What is it? How did I get this opportunity? How did I prepare for it?
Everesting is a simple concept. Anyone can participate by selecting a hill and completing “hill repeats” which is cycling or running up and down the hill until you clock 8,848 meters, nearly the equivalence to the top of Mount Everest.
On Feb. 12, 2021, at 11 p.m., I began cycling up Siddhanath Parvat, a grassy mountain in Goa, India. After 12 hours, I had completed a half-Everest. By around 8 p.m. the next evening I was genuinely surprised that more than 100 supporters learned of my quest and showed up to cheer me on. I had swollen knees, swollen hands. But not a single time did I think that I couldn’t do it. On my cycle’s handlebar, I had written “I can do it.”
My first Everesting challenge took 30 hours to complete. I was originally thinking I could complete it in 24 hours but with my injuries (listed above) it took longer than expected.
Future Sports Plans
I am not done yet! The toughest race in my opinion is the Race Across America at 5,000 km and that is next on my radar.
My hope is that everyone begins exercising on their own personal fitness journey and learns to enjoy life in multiple ways you may never have known before.
I am very proud to share my personal achievements:
CYCLING
- Everesting challenge – first cyclist in Goa and 14th in India to achieve
- 24 hours solo-cycling challenge 456.98 km
- 600+ km solo cycling
- 623.97 km solo cycling in 37 hours
- Completed 100 days of cycling challenge, covering a distance of 5633.40 km
- XAXTI 200 km Endurance ride
- PEZZAAD 67 event at Ponda
- 1000 km challenge on a single-speed cycle in 15 days
RUNNING
- 100 days of running (2020)
- 10 x 10 (100 km running) challenge
- 100 km running challenges
- I-run marathon (2020, 2023)