I Am Stronger Than I Think

I didn't know I had it in me!!!  I climbed a mountain all the way to the top on Saturday!!  Yay me!!  I found out that I am stronger than I thought!  How cool is that?!  Had I not continued on, I would have missed out.  I would not have seen the beautiful view from the top!  It was breath taking! 

On Saturday I went to the Delaware Water Gap with the hiking club I belong to.  The reason for our quest was to meet our hike leader, Delaware Dave, a friend, who is hiking the appalachian trail.  Unknowingly, I was about to climb a 1,526 foot mountain to the very tippy top.  whoa. 

At first I thought they were kidding when they said that we were hiking all the way to the top!  Being a victim of fibromyalgia, I was rather frightened.  Besides, they told us before we went there that we were hiking up Mt Minsi, which is a reasonably more moderate hike I am told.  I took one look at the Mt. Tammany hike, and I said there is NO WAY we are hiking up that mountain! 

Even as we began our trek up the mountain, I was still in denial and did not believe that they were serious about doing this hike ALL the way up that steep mountain!

They were serious.

About an eighth of a mile up the long slope my breathing became labored, and my boyfriend didn't want to pull me along so much anymore as he did when we first started out because he was having a somewhat difficult time also, so I thought of turning back.  As we marched ahead, I thought I would have to stop and wait for everyone to come back down because I just couldn't go on.  But I kept going.  My legs were hurting reeeeeaaallly bad!!!  They grew weak.  We were climbing over treacherous rock and almost straight up! 

Just when I thought my legs could not climb another rock, we came to a clearing.  The view was magnificent!  It was so beautiful!  We could see forever!  The crows were flying below us.  The river was so small from where we were.  There were so many mountains one behind the other.

I MADE IT!!!!

I didn't think I could do it!  BUT I DID IT!

The reason I did it was because I had a very strong desire to get to the top with all of my hiking buddies.

And I did it!  Whew!  That was TOUGH!

The reward was AWESOME and well worth the pain!

The moral of the story is:  I AM STRONGER THAN I THINK I AM.  AND SO ARE YOU!

PS  My legs felt like rubber bands as I was coming back down the mountain.  I didn't think I could lift them another step.  But I did.  And then I did again.  And again.  I did it until I was down the mountain.

I AM STRONGER THAN I THINK I AM.  SO ARE YOU!!!  ♥