Well, I almost made it.

Yesterday was the day of my big hike.

I know a climb like this one isn't that big of a deal. But as all my friends know, I am not a fan of exercise. I want to be and I even have grand plans to start actually intentionally exercising when I get home, but up to this point, I only run if I'm being chased.

And honestly, if I was being chased I'd probably just lay down and let the person catch me rather then run away for too long.

But a year ago I claimed that I would never ever do this climb with Andrew and he made it his personal goal to make sure that I did.

I'm not sure when I changed my mind, but I do know that it included the promise of some new shoes and a workout outfit and I guess that was enough to win me over.

We headed out early to try to beat the heat. Andrew made me eat a nasty banana and drink this sugar water. That alone almost did me in. I hate breakfast and really don't like bananas!

The park was busy. I seriously don't think anyone actually works in this city! The parks and bike paths are always being used!

The weather was gorgeous and I was feeling good.

Extremely nervous, but good.

The first half mile is just a ton (and I do mean a ton) of rugged stairs. It's made for pretty much anyone to be able to go up.

I won't lie, I was huffing and puffing it up the stairs and had to take a few breaks to text my girls!

We made it up the first half mile and I was really proud of myself! My heart rate slowed down and we decided to go for the rest of the climb.

And that's where it gets shaky.

Gone were the nice stairs with a safe distance from the edge.

In their place was this:

I wish this picture did justice to what I was feeling inside when Andrew told me this was next.

It wasn't going up that scared me. Well, it did scare me, but I knew I could manage. It was coming down that freaked me out.

Andrew went behind me and pep talked me up the whole way.

.

When we managed to get to the top of 2 more of those type of climbs we stopped for a rest. And that's when I made my mistake.

I asked Andrew how much further to the top and he pointed out some little specks of people another mile up and I decided I was done.

So I made it a mile up a cliff.

Not as far as I wanted, but there's always next year.