3.17.2010

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.
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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!
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The weather was gorgeous and I was feeling good.

Extremely nervous, but good.
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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!
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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.
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And that's where it gets shaky.
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Gone were the nice stairs with a safe distance from the edge.

In their place was this:
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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.
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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.
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So I made it a mile up a cliff.

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

bri said...

great pictures! Thanks for taking us along for the ride...er, hike! You did a GREAT job girl! Give yourself some credit :)!

I personally would have been nervous the whole time just having taken my NICE camera with me! Haha... I get nervous having it around water even!