Death March

Saturday morning it was sunshiney, the skies were blue, the temperatures were well above freezing, and so, I met some friends for a nice little hike through the woods and over the hills at a local nature preserve. Typically, we take the blue trail which is a 2.5 mile trail and designated as 'moderate'. Perhaps it was the sunshine, perhaps it was simply the light feeling of being happy and out-of-doors on a lovely Saturday morning...whatever the cause, Jen suggested a new trail endeavor.

Studying the map at the Nature Center, we noticed the Mossy Ridge Trail at the adjoining nature preserve. The Mossy Ridge Trail was marked in red and the map indicated that it was 4.5 miles and was also considered to be 'moderate'. It sounded like a fine idea!

A fine idea until we began hiking up mountains at an 80 degree incline! And then hiking back down, and then back up, and down again, and back up. You get the idea. Moderate, my ass! Moderate for a triathlete maybe. And I'm not completely out of shape...true enough I need to lose weight and am making efforts to that effect...but even so, I am fairly active regardless.

After about an hour of this torture, and seriously feeling like I needed to throw-up, I breathlessly yelled, "okay, I am simply NOT in good enough shape yet to be doing this, you guys!" Terah (far up ahead of me) merrily calls back, "you're doing great!" I mumble, "no...I can't BREATHE...that is NOT 'doing great'!" After weighing my options of curling up in a pile of leaves or continuing to painfully plod along, we finally came to the end of the trail. I didn't even throw-up.

And as a consolation, we went out for breakfasts of eggs and toast afterwards (with LOTS of water). Jen said I would be thanking her later for the Mossy Ridge Trail decision...and I must admit, I'm feeling pretty good today...my butt muscles are sore, but otherwise I feel great. I might actually get talked into doing it again next weekend!