Thursday, September 22, 2011

In the beginning...

This is the beginning of a story about a girl, slightly overweight from bearing 3 children, who doesn't like to run, who has always strictly adhered to the theory....One should only run when chased.

That being a motto I have always carried with me, let me tell you how I got to where I am today....caught in the middle of a decision to train for a marathon.  Several weeks back, my husband and I (on a whim....that's how we roll) decided to travel from the safety of our home in Texas to Ouray, Colorado, the place where we first met.  It was amazing going back after 16 years, almost like a time warp.  But, three days into our trip we were looking for things to do and we came up with hiking.  So, we went to the local outdoor store and BLM office, bought a few maps, a new pair of hiking shoes for me and a backpack.  Clearly, we felt fully educated and prepared and so we head out to hike the Bridge of Heaven trail.  Looking back, at some point I should have actually said out loud that this seemed like a bad idea, but I didn't.  So, we hiked and hiked, and slid and hiked.  Then, it rained and so we hiked and slid more.   After hiking for hours, we got to a point where the trail no longer seemed clear.   We had come to an old mining road and couldn't find where the trail continued.  To our left, we noticed a house with people on the porch watching us.  We started to their house on my recommendation.  These people had to have seen this before and they would certainly be of help.  My husband, however, wasn't so keen on that idea.  Needless to say, the nice folks were entertained by our bi-polar hiking....we started towards their house twice and turned back both times.  After walking back and forth down this mining road, and a quick venture by my husband straight up the mountain side....no trail involved, he decided we should just head back because it was now getting late.  Now let me say this...on most days I consider myself one tough cookie, but on this particular day I cried 3 times on the way down the mountain.  All 3 times were because I was in total fear of my life and never seeing my 3 beautiful kids again.  And, to let you know this behavior was justified, my husband hugged me all 3 times instead of giving me a "Quit your belly-aching".   As we made our way down the trail (or lack thereof) and were approaching the trailhead, we actually began passing folks...you know the ones that look level-headed and intelligent enough to know to stay on beginner's trails.  Each person would politely ask, "How are y'all?" as we passed and each time, I replied "Fine!".  I had to stop and confess my sin to God for lying to all those nice people.  I told my husband I thought I was going to hell for lying to which he responded, "If it makes you feel better, they knew you were lying.  You look like I beat you and drug you up the mountainside."  Pshaw!  It was not until I finally crawled, rather slowly I might add, up the stairs to our hotel and made it to the safety of our room that I realized what my husband was saying.  When I walked past the mirror I realized my husband was right....those sweet people knew I was a liar.  I will say here that my husband detoured before coming to our room to pay for our stay that night.  He was gone what seemed like a really long time, but at this point my sense of time was warped and perhaps left on the mountain.  However, when he finally made it back, he told me the hotel owner had said he wished he had known what we were trying to do....that trail had not been maintained in 5 years.  Apparently, the nice couple that was watching us from their porch had purchased land, which included the mining road, that severed the trail.  The new land-owner had been known to call the police on hikers.   My husband said, "See!  I told you!".  My response to him...."As I see it, you made me miss my taxi...".

After making a meager attempt at cleaning myself up, I crawled into bed, nauseous from my days adventures.  It took me about an hour to get back to reality and want to eat dinner.  So, we walk back down the stairs of the hotel at which point I head to the car.  My sweet husband says, "I think we should walk..." I glared at him, because the last thing I wanted to do was walk...and to be honest, I don't even know how my legs did it because my brain sure wasn't telling them to.  But, I realized quickly that he was right and that most likely, as much as my heart told me not to, we needed to hike tomorrow.  When, we returned to the hotel that evening, I bravely walked up to Dale, the owner of the Ouray Hotel (best place to stay in that town as far as I'm concerned), and told him that I thought we needed to hike the following day or my legs would, in fact, seize up.  So, he directs us to what he describes as a nice easy hike.  He says, "It's mostly shaded which will be nice since it's going to be so hot today."  I was puzzled so I asked him how hot it would be.  His response, "80!"  I looked at him and laughed, "It's 108 at home today!".  He assured me that my safety net to this hike was that when we made it to the top of the trail, we could continue past it just about 50 yards and meet a 4 wheel drive road.   He told us that we could always hitch a ride down with a jeep.  Later, I would realize that those words were crucial in his instructions.

So, the next day, we head out and I must say it was a beautiful hike.  We made it in record time and we head towards the Jeep trail.  Because we Kretzmeier's cannot stand to not get the most bang for our buck....we decide to walk to Jeep trail.  I mean, how bad could it be, it's a road that Jeep's full of people travel....wide and safe.  IT WAS LIKE SOME SORT OF NIGHTMARE....I hiked up the mountain and somehow I hiked UP to get down of the mountain.  Not to mention that the Jeep road was nearly 7 miles long!  Twice some nice Jeepers stopped (or slowed rather) and asked if I would like a ride, but I was tough and would have no part of it.  At one point, I told my husband I thought Dale was cruel and he owed me a beer for this sick practical joke.  Again, the wise words of my husband echo in my ear "He did say to hitch a ride down, not hike!".  @*#%$ !

So, the following day, I was feeling worse off then the day before.  So, I took matters into my own hands and decided to go with the Perimeter Trail of Ouray....it's the one you can take your kids on.  No fear...no danger.  It was long, but easy and exactly what I needed.

My dear husband calculated that we hiked nearly 50 miles in 3 days...and my legs agreed.  So, upon returning to Texas I thought to myself...I'm not going to waste this.  I started running to keep the burn "alive".  Actually, my thoughts were really that I needed to build more stamina so I wasn't so easily winded.  Thus, I started a simple couch to 5K program.  An easy and free app, 5K Training,  on my  iphone and I was off!

And this is the beginning of my story...

PrairieKerri

No comments:

Post a Comment