Week 15: Climb for Clean Air – Reflections

Wow.  Is it been 15 weeks?  Where did the time go?  It seems just yesterday that I was huffing and puffing when I carry a small backpack, with a couple bottle of water in it and try to hike to Rattlesnake Ledge.   Or when I almost faint after an hour work out.   Or when I wasn’t able to even run a mile.

This journey have been so rewarding, and awesome.   I pushed myself more than I thought I could.   I overcome a lot of challenges (mentally AND physically).   I learned about myself a lot, about my limitation.   The best part of all, I get to do this with my best friend, my partner, my mentor, my trainer and my love of my life.    To my husband John (blog | twitter), thank you for going through this journey with me.    Thank you for putting up with me on those 5am mornings when I really, really want to just stay in bed and do nothing.  Countless hours of hiking and hundred of miles of driving to the mountain.   You let me sleep in the car while you drive two hours home, after 10 hours of hiking.

The other person that help me tremendously during is my trainer, Weston Williams.   Oh, I have love-hate relationship with him.   I don’t even remember how many times I said ‘remind me again why I am paying you to torture me‘ during a hard workout session that made me almost puke and pass out.   He didn’t just train me, he educated me.   He made me believe I can do a lot of things.   He pushed me, and pushed me, and pushed me more.   He helped me understand how the muscular system work and made sense of a lot of workout routine.   In a nutshell, he’s awesome.   Weston, thank YOU.   Very much.

Also, I want to thank my mother and step-father.   For the countless of weekend of watching my daughters so I can be out in the mountain.   They allowed me to have the time so I can continue to train.  They entertained my girls so i can focus on my training.  Thank you both very much.

Being a working mama, weekend is the only time I have to spend with my girls.   In my case, that’s every other weekend since my girls go to their dad every other weekend.   A couple hours a day after I get back from work never seems to be enough and I had to trade the weekend with them with a day in the mountain.   I miss them.  Tremendously.  I know they miss me.   This is the hardest part of the training for me.   I know they won’t understand it now but hopefully someday, when they are old enough, they can read this post and be proud of me.   I hope I can show them what a commitment is all about and how they can accomplish anything if they put their heart to it.  In that note – to my baby girls, I love you both very, very much.   So much that it hurt me whenever I have to drop you at Grandma so I can go to the mountain.   I will make you both proud.

Lastly, to all of you that believe in me and my cause.   My friends, my co-worker, even someone that I don’t even know and take the time and money to donate to my climb for the cause that I believe in.   Your support has been overwhelming.   Your encouraging words helped me to go through a lot of challenges in the last 15 weeks.   I won’t let you down.

I am ready.

How this week went down:

Monday – Friday:

Light work out.  I did a couple short run and walk.  I felt under the weather, so want to make sure I rested enough

Saturday:

Last training hike to Muir.   We found out in the morning that Climb 1 team were turning around at 12,000ft due to bad weather and low visibility.   It was a bummer, but everybody came back safely which is what’s the most important thing.   I was proud of them!!   We decided to head out anyway and the weather WAS yucky.   It was raining, super windy and visibility was very, very limited.   We started to walk at 9:30am and I walked on steady pace.   About 45 minutes – we were approaching the avalanche chute and found out the park ranger had closed the chute (winter route) and open the summer route (not a direct ascent but through switchback).   Personally, I like the chute better.  As brutal as it was, since it literally about 60 degrees angle, I was so used to it and walking on the snow was soooo much easier than a rock.   In anycase, we took our first break under the first switchback (6500ft).   We ran into RMI team who also took their rest break at the same place.   After 15 minutes break, we continued to walk.   The wind was getting stronger and it started to rain hard.   We kept going until above Pebble Creek (7,500ft) and took our second break.   I was feeling great, but sitting down for 15 minutes during the break, made me feel really, really cold.   My finger were numb!   I was starting to feel miserable, not because of my lungs or sore muscles but because of the strong wind.    We continued to walk and I had my head down the entire time to avoid the wind in my face.   We took our third break at 9,000ft.   I barely can eat my lunch there since the wind was so strong and felt miserable.    The sun was in and out, break the cloud and give us a slightly better visibility but the wind was getting stronger.   I had it.  I told John that I want to come back down.

For the first time, I actually felt good about it.  I guess because I know that I can walk another 1,000ft just fine and be at Muir about an hour from where we sat.   I just didn’t think it worth our effort since the weather was so bad.   As we walked down, about a couple hours later the wind started to subsided and the sun was out.   By the time we get to Paradise, the weather completely turned around.   It was nice and sunny!    There’s another proof that the mountain make their own weather.   Always be prepared and never underestimate how quick the weather can change.

Fundraising

Keep on coming people!  There are still time.  The fundraising deadline is actually August 9, 2011 so there’s plenty of time!

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