Ok ok, so my blogging skills suck!!! What can I say, lazy in one aspect of my life I guess.
SO...its 22 days until I leave for Kilimanjaro and still over R 20 000 to raise !GULP! Thanks so much to all of you that have donated - to the rest, that's it - friendship is over :-)
I "celebrated" the psychological hurdle of the one year mark since those words "I want a divorce" totally changed my life's direction earlier this month, which also coincided with one month to go until I start actually climbing the mountain - interesting how life works.
I have been doing a bit of training, most recently at the gravity adventure festival in Kleinmond. Shucks, not sure how we survived that!! My good friend Margie and I started off with a puddle invested trail run, up to just above my knees in water at some points. Not been satisfied with just one pair of soaked shoes, we then did an adventure race. I honestly have no idea how far we went, but we ran through those same trails/rivers, then got on our mountain bikes and headed out - seriously we went UP the mountain. It was wet, windy and cold and we spent more time pushing the bicycles than riding them. Coming back down was a blast (literally and figuratively) with the rain feeling like little needles stinging our faces. The fun didn't stop yet, we then hiked back up the other side of the mountain as we looked for a silly wooden bridge to mark off our checkpoint. Down the mountain... and wait for it...we then jumped into the fast running lagoon for some tubing. By this point my lips were blue, I was shivering uncontrollably and I am surprised that I didn't crack a tooth with all the chattering! Then was back on our bicycles for the last 3 km back to base. Almost 6 hours after we left we were back were I think the coffee bought by Lols was more shaken than sipped but it helped!! SO COLD. Kilimanjaro is going to feel like a walk in the park - I HOPE!!
The fun for the weekend wasn't over yet. My friends did a tag team manoeuvre, with Margie tapping out as Teresa tapped in. T and I met some new friends and partied in the tent...then tried hard to keep warm and comfortable on our slowly deflating mattress. We awoke to more rain, and then bravely set out on a 36 km very tough mountain bike ride which took us over 3 hours. Luckily the rain stopped, but the depth of the puddles ensured that I was walking around barefoot for the rest of the day as had run out of dry shoes.
Oh, and all that was after both T and I had been sick the week before. We might not have done the Ironman, but we felt like Ironwoman I tell you!! I have a few more hikes,swims, runs and mountain bike sessions planned so lets hope I will be ready for Kilimanjaro.
Its amazing how far we can come by just taking one day at a time, putting one foot in the other, trusting in ourselves and hoping that our friends and family will support us. We just have to keep that goal in sight and do whatever it takes - be it beating TB, surviving a break up or climbing a mountain - to get there. We may fail to reach our destination, but as long as we try we are not failures!!
