V is for Victory!

Hike Time: 1 hour, 15-20 min (we didn't time it exactly)
Amount of Hike Completed: THE WHOLE THING! (3.5 miles)
Temperature: mid 80s


July 29, 2007 is a day for the record books, folks. I finished the whole hike today! That's right, all 3.5 miles was decidedly OWNED by me (and my new shoes!)

Amy P., my new (and totally amazing!) roommate Anna, and Kathy all came along today. Amazingly enough, only one of the group (Kathy) had ever completed the hike. With water bottles in tow, we headed up the first hill. My goal today was to do at least as well as I had done on Friday - I wanted to stop at each plateau of the first two hills, and that's it - no other stops. My body, on the other hand, decided it didn't like this idea so much. I don't know if it was because I was sore from the first hike on Friday or because I was hiking in new shoes, but that first hill was just killer! My muscles tensed up in objection to hauling me up the hill, each of them throwing a little tantrum as if they were a two-year-old just denied a trinket at the market. I was not about to give into them. My body and my will seemed to strike a compromise as I took slower, more elongated steps up the hill, finishing both the first and second hills as I had on Friday - without stops in the middle.

As we started up the third hill, I started to feel really odd. My heart was actually in a little bit of pain, which freaked me out quite a bit. I placed my hand over my heart to check on it. Thumping loudly, it protest to all this action, asking "What the hell are you doing to me?" I quickly replied, "It's for your own good, deal with it." After that, I neither felt a twinge of pain or heard peep of complaint from my heart.

The middle of the hike was pretty uneventful and honestly went by really quickly. In fact, after we hit The Dish, my heart rate had slowed down so much that I'm not even sure it was much different from my resting heart rate. Before I realized it, we were down near Junipero Serra. The end seemed so near - if we could watch the cars, drive by, we must be a) done with all the hills, and b) almost back to my car, right? Yeah, no. My false hope of being done with the hike was smashed was I saw a giant hill approaching. Luckily, my friend Kenny called me while I was struggling through the middle of the hill, so I had to take a pause to take his call. After that massive hill, an endless number of little hills seemed to follow; if this was a roller coaster ride, this would be the fun part - where your stomach jumps into your throat and you feel like you are about to be lifted out of your seat. However, this is no roller coaster ride; this takes effort, and burning quads, and huffing and puffing. On the upside, while I'm absolutely exhausted, I'm starting to feel like I've got the beginnings of the cutest butt you've ever seen.

We finally reach a part of the hike that looks familiar - we've reached the beginning again! I push myself towards the top of the last hill, and all four of us raised our hands victoriously as we begin the climb down the hill to end the 3.5 mile loop.