Elevation Gain:1,113 ft Elevation Loss:1,067 ft MinElevation:549 ft MaxElevation:1,621 ft
This was my first hike/run out by myself. I decided to take on K2/Training hill.
I stood at the base of No Hands Bridge and try to decide...'do I do Robie or do I take on K2?'. I decided that since I hadn't been out doing any kind of running in a while, it was time to kick my own ass.
It took awhile for me to get my watch working the way I needed it to. The Virtual Partner was of no use to me as I wasn't running against it. The setting was still on "biking" from the day before and for the life of me, I couldn't get the damn thing to get a way point set.
As I neared the base of Training Hill, I looked up at it. Then I started talking to it. "Yeah, I know you look scary right now...and that little hill right there is just a facade of what you REALLY look like. You are steep and you are mean and you will have me in tears a half mile in. You are over a thousand feet in elevation gain and the last part is like rock climbing. STOP STARING AT ME!"
I looked down the path that was uphill, but not as intimidating as K2. I could just do the 5 mile and head back....OR...I looked back up at K2. "Fuck it, i'm doing this." and I started my climb up.
When I first started hiking I use to love to turn around and see how far I had gone. Not much has changed, I crested the top hill knowing there was nothing more but hill in front of me and turned around. "I just did that." I said to myself and then started to round the corner that I knew brought nothing but brutal humility.
I was a little past a mile and half in when I came across a wonderful hiking man in his 60's who didn't even look like he had broke a sweat. "Hi there!" I call out and he greeted me with a smile. "Is this your first time?" I ask, and he informed me he has done it 8 times before. Okay, well...okay, i'm a fucking pussy and need to man up and keep up with this fast walking hiker. I tell him about the time I had done this exact hike and it turned into a 25 mile hike. He graciously showed me that if I go left instead of right, I can make it a nice 4 mile hike. Yes, that sounded so much better than the 25.
It took about a mile before I could finally feel my calves and could begin to run. I knew where I was and I was going to be okay all the way back to the car.
At 3.8 miles my feet started to hurt. I had hit a lot of shale on the way up and my step was slowing.
Seeing No Hands Bridge was a blessing. I waited for him to come back down as I didn't want to forget this nice man's name and be able to read the website he has been keeping through his adventures.
It was 1 hour and 40 minutes. An hour of that was just getting up that damn 1 mile climb!
No comments:
Post a Comment