Achievement

A few months ago I made a commitment to start being more active and eat better. It's a commitment I have made to myself so many times I can't remember. And, it's a commitment I have broken more times than I care to share. There's something different this time around though. I have relaxed, for sure. I am allowing myself to make mistakes and have abolished the following phrase... I have cheated on my diet. I even, dare I say, have come to look forward to my almost daily walk after work with a friend and colleague as well as a weekly hike with my dear friend Claudia.

Now, I am not a hiker. I am what you call clumsy and am very prone to fall, and have--many times. Twice while carrying my dear son (one of the times we fell down the stairs in a restaurant and slid right under the table of some unsuspecting but very shocked restaurant patrons). Come to think of it, I have fallen more times just walking around than while actually hiking and that could be the reason for my fear of falling (not of heights, of falling) and the fact that I just don't have a good sense of balance. Then there's the whole exercise part of it. I don't like hiking because I could fall AND it's really hard work.

Despite all of this, I have taken up hiking. I should disclaim here that the trail is paved, but it is also VERY steep. In fact, when visiting my city's Parks and Recs Web site, I found that the trail Claudia and I have been taking is "Recommended for hikers only", is "Moderate to Difficult", and is a mile and a half. It also kicked my butt the first time I tried it with some coworkers one night after work. You know the kind... the kind who are fit and skipping up the mountain while I lift my legs of stone and can taste blood in the back of my throat. Embarrassingly, I had to stop before the halfway point and have them go ahead while I stopped and took in the views. It was that day that I said, "I am going to conquer this mountain."

I enlisted Claudia for companionship and she had a similar first experience. We just took it slow, took a lot of breaks and pushed ourselves a little more each time we hit the trail. I am pleased to report we made it to the top today. It was an incredible feeling, as I haven't ever done anything like that before (yes, there was the walking marathon I did in 2002, but hiking? That's in another category for me). The trail was peppered with folks of all ages. We got passed a couple of times by a guy in his seventies who was running up the hill, sweat streaming down his face while his breathing remained steady and unlabored. There was the family with two boys, one 7 and one 4 with the youngest complaining very early on that his feet hurt, and yet he found his way to the top. And our favorite: The group, upon finishing, and saying to one another...Let's meet for breakfast at the gay Denny's. We always thought the moniker was shared amongst a small group, but as it turns out, the said spot is known universally (or at least within our city's community of hikers) as gay Dennys. We laughed as we continued to catch our breath and make our way up.

When we finally made it, of course I had Claudia help me document it. Not only was it a personal achievement, it was a beautiful day. Sunny and in the low 70s. I am proud of myself. For all the times I have lamented my size, my body or its limitations, today I learned just what it can do, and how grateful I am for it.