Fitness
Indoor inspo: Meet the Aussie who conquered Everest in his fire escape
After successfully running a marathon in his own home, this Brisbane man set his sights on a much steeper task: climbing Everest without even leaving his apartment building.
While some of us have been using our newfound abundance of time at home to partake in regular Zoom trivia nights, bake the perfect focaccia, and channel our inner yogi, (all great things, by the way) others have been using it to achieve slightly more strenuous feats.
After running a marathon in his apartment at the end of March (by running around his kitchen bench for nearly seven hours), Brisbane’s Tim Franklin set his sights on a much taller task: Mount Everest.
Now Tim couldn’t visit Everest in person (because pandemic), so he was forced to get creative within the confines of his eight-storey apartment block. “I wondered if I could climb Everest’s elevation gain by just going up and down the stairs,” he tells RedBull.com. “I calculated how high each step was, then divided that by 3500 metres, which is the distance from Base Camp to the summit.”
Tim began telling people his plan and, before long, he’d been connected to a Brit by the name of Rory Southworth – the UK’s self-styled ‘leading home athlete’. On the 11th April 2020, the two endurance devotees teamed up and, along with a few others, set about tackling Everest, remotely, from the (relative) comfort of their own homes. “I started at about 2pm and the guys in England began simultaneously at 5am,” explains Tim.
I think this virus is the wake up call to get us [healthier], and hopefully people might see this ordinary bloke from Brisbane doing this, and it might encourage them to get out and do something too.
Now Tim is no stranger to pushing himself to his physical limits. He spent most of his 20s partying, drinking, smoking and eating his way to an “early grave”, but has since turned his focus to more physical endeavours, and has (to date) competed in more than 30 endurance events. A lawyer by day, Tim, now in his mid-30s, runs a sports coaching and motivational goal-setting business, Own Your Own Show, that sees him coach and mentor individuals and groups to help them reach their full potential.
All of this is to say that, while Tim had no experience actually climbing mountains, this at-home Everest challenge was not his first endurance rodeo. Still, and despite not having to battle with the lack of oxygen and challenging environment of an actual Everest ascent, the physical and mental strain of spending six hours running up (and down) a largely grey fire escape was a battle in its own right.
“It was brutal on everything, just climbing stairs for that long,” says Tim. “There was no natural light, so I had no idea what time of day it was... It was really strange – luckily I could call in on Rory throughout the day to see how everyone was travelling. If anyone was struggling, we’d all get behind one another and cheer each other up.”
Some six hours and two minutes after setting off, Tim, Rory and co. had completed their mission – all 3,448 metres and 35,000 stairs (including up and down) of it. But what could possess a man to run a full marathon in his home – let alone replicate an ascent of Everest?
For Tim, it comes down to a few things.
Underpinning the whole project, aside from his simple desire to keep himself moving, is Tim’s desire to show other people what can be possible at a time when we are ‘allowed’ to do so little. “I think the world needs to get moving again to be in a healthier place,” he says. “I think this virus is the wake up call to get us there, and hopefully people might see this ordinary bloke from Brisbane doing this, and it might encourage them to get out and do something too.”
I like goals to be big, hairy and audacious. They’ve got to scare me. They’ve got to make me get out of bed in the morning.
Tim’s quick to add that he’s not expecting everyone to spend a day climbing up and down their fire escape. Rather, he hopes people will find what types of movement they do enjoy, and focus on those instead. “We’ve become so sedentary with television, Netflix, video games and our office jobs – but being physically active is so important,” he explains. “Especially now, from a mental health perspective – literally just a few push ups a day, or a walk around the block can make such a difference. Just start small, and develop them into whatever long-term goal you like. We’re going through a lot right now, but we shouldn’t let that stop us from achieving whatever it is we want to achieve.”
And as far as long-term goals, Tim has some of those, too: in June 2021, he’s planning on setting off to run around the world. The journey, he says, will take him around 450 days to complete and see him send some 26,500 kilometres into his proverbial rear-view mirror. “I like talking about goals being big, hairy and audacious,” he says. “They’ve got to scare me. They’ve got to make me get out of bed in the morning.”
For now, he’ll keep working towards that goal within the confines of his own home. And with a marathon and Everest ascent already in the bag, who knows what he’ll think up next…
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Keep up with Tim’s at-home endeavours by following him on Instagram, or book Tim for a coaching session or public speaking event via Ownyourownshow.com.
