No Pain, No Gain

Sore would be the understatement of the century. By sore I mean, I need a cane/walker to fuction today. Or better yet, a electronic wheelchair with one of those buttons to go forward in order to navigate my way around the workplace. This weekend has left me essentially crippled, crawling up staircases like a dog, and scooting my butt down them so as to relieve my legs of the pain shooting up from my feet, calves, and thighs. Took me 20 minutes from my bed to the kitchen just to grab some fruit from the fridge, and back to the bed.

Rewind.

This weekend I made the mistake of thinking I had leftover athleticism in my blood from the Glory Days of High School. Come to find out…I have negative athleticism. We woke up around 6AM which for me feels like someone is stabbing me in the eyeballs repeatedly with needles. Bethany drug me out of the bed by the pony tail and we were off, the two of us and my funny outdoorsy friend, Becca and my red haired angel of a new friend, Karla. Hiking a 14er is something that I have always wanted to say that I have done, and I am glad to have that checked off my bucket list because my new goal is to never hike a 14er again. I was out of breath before we even hit the rocks…on the grassy mellow slope. We took frequent breaks (but not frequent enough) where I just collapsed to my face and layed there while someone put a Camelback spout in my mouth from which to drink water. The last hour of the ascent was maybe the worst hour of my life to date.

However, we did FINALLY make it to the top, and I will say that it was breathtakingly gorgeous! Phenomenal! Fantastic! Amazing! ..and all of the other beautiful descriptive words that you could think of. I felt closer to God, and a little closer to heaven (also because of my impending death on earth that seemed to be only a step away)…and also felt a little light headed. I jumped out of a plane at 12,000ft in Missouri and hiked 14,000ft….doesn’t something seems severely wrong with that statement!?


After we made it to the top…we decided to hike yet ANOTHER 14,000ft mountain. Excuse me? Did NOT sign up for this. And damn my pride to hell for thinking that I could accomplish that feat. Should have instead taken advice from my leg muscles which were having violent, uncontrollable spasms. But as it stands, I am a moron and I set out to hike the 2nd 14er like an idiot. I think being lightheaded in the presence of all the beauty made me forget the hell of a trip that I took to get there. I would like to say that I did make it to the top of peak #2, but not without some tears and constant motivation from my blonde goddess of a friend Bethany, who skips up 14ers like they are a walk in the park. She was unbelievably patient with me and I absolutely wouldn’t have made it without her.

When we finally made it through an entire day of hiking and back to the car just in time for dinner, we had blisters and cramps and a complete lack of lung capacity. I had been popping pain killers like candy all day, but took 2 more just in case. From there we had buffalo burgers at TommyKnocker and freshly brewed beer which tasted like sweet nectar. I don’t remember much of dinner or the trip home because I was just focused on putting food in my mouth, or not falling asleep at the wheel. I was in a daze, which to my lovely friends probably seemed more like a coma.

8PM and I was asleep because at 8AM the next morning we were taking a trip BACK to the mountains to arrive at Copper Mountain Resort for the Warrior Dash. Over 3 miles of obstacles such as climbing over walls, army crawling through barrels, and swimming under barbed wire in a mud pit. Not to mention all the uphill terrain in between. I went with Karla, who was filling in for Beth, and we actually had to sneak her into the race like con artists, because they wouldn’t let her use an alternate identity. We did the whole thing in chacos which was one of the more painful mistakes that I have made in my life. The day was a blast, and we laughed a lot. Afterwards they gave us warrior hats and t-shirts, and a turkey leg to eat. Such a fun event and I will definitely do it again next year. We braved the horrific traffic on the way home just in time to sit in the hot tub for a bit in order to relax our muscles and then fall asleep early.

Cue excrutiating pain and the inability to mobilize my legs.

All in all it was one of my favorite weekends in Colorado, and I feel so blessed to have such fun athletic outdoorsy friends to live out my adventurous dream life with. God has been so good to me and I am loving my life here more and more every day! Hope you are having a great Monday!