The Hills of North Carolina

All last week the temperatures had been in the 100’s. By the time Friday morning came around we (my hubby, daughter and I) couldn’t wait to get to North Carolina. Not only was it so much cooler there, but my son had been gone for a week and I couldn’t wait to see him! My mom kept saying how it was supposed to be cooler than it turned out to be, they were expecting the upper 80’s and I think it was 92 Sat and 93 Sun. Now you need to understand a couple of things. Where I live in the country we don’t get much of a breeze unless it is a “windy” day. Where we go to visit family in NC they live near the lake and at least while I was there, we had an awesome breeze.

Saturday morning I got up at a decent time (great for me). I think we got out of the house around 8:30. We had not planned exactly were to go, I knew the neighborhood would be a great place to walk though. Little did I know someone slipped hills into the area! YEAH, really, I couldn’t believe it either! The first road took us right to the lake, it was still kind of quite for a Saturday, then we turned a corner and... 

“Hey, whats that?”

My daughter thought I had lost my mind, my nephew ( ) who has more energy than all of us put together, laughed at me the entire walk! 

“A hill, who put that here? I don’t remember hill’s being in this neighborhood!”

Funny, until you try to walk somewhere you just don’t realize the difference in the elevation. I think this is something I have to learn from. 

Since this weekend, I have noticed more course maps noting the elevation changes. Now I am not saying they weren’t there before, just I hadn’t noticed. Maybe I had that road block - Florida is flat, so is south Georgia... Gee, I just haven’t thought about looking for hills unless you get near more Mountainous areas. I know there’s hills in Atlanta, so I can’t be all dumb, just neglectful of following through with the research.

Yeah, dumb. I know.

But I’m still learning... and still walking!

Road Block

Training started out well enough. Within a few weeks I was walking two miles. In May my family had a killer road trip which took us from our house in Georgia to my parents in North Carolina then to Orlando, FL (yeah!). Then we went back home for a couple of days before going back to NC and finally back home!!  A total of approximately 1,600 miles.  The trip was made within a two week period, but at the point that I finally stopped, it was to late. I had already aggravated my sciatic nerve.  This was a real low point for me. My training had to completely stop. My confidence was teetering on the side of a very tall cliff.

This is where Team AllEars has impressed me once again. I had so many messages and emails with uplifting comments and stories. I really needed to stop feeling sorry for myself, my team members were very supportive and helped me build back the confidence I needed to restart my training.

So, to catch up a bit, I took enough time off to recuperate and got back on the road.  It didn’t take long to get up to walking two miles, I tried not to be disappointed that before I had reached three. Now I have more than an injury to  be careful about, the heat has become a factor.  With temperatures reaching the 100’s and the heat index well above 110, I have to start early in the morning.

YIKES!  That is so hard for me, just getting up early is bad enough, but to actually do something productive before 11:00a.m. This is something I am working very hard on.  Wish me luck!

Making a Difference

I remember being thirteen-ish and getting up really early one Saturday morning. I headed out with my shorts and headband (of course I looked cool) and started jogging. My plan was to become a “jogger” I thought it was neat and easy, what more do you need other than your feet, right? Well, if memory serves, I think I might have eaten a banana, being thirteen I was ignorant (not totally stupid). I made it down my street then came back. I never ever jogged again. Why? It was a hot day in Savannah, I didn’t drink any water so had a splitting headache before I made it home.

Now in the past few years I’ve walked in my neighborhood for exercise. Most of the time when my friend calls and tells me to get off my butt but more recently, with my daughter in college and my friend gone to work, hhmm “the butt said putt.”  My husband and son play disc golf (for those of you who don’t know what that is, it is like golf but with baskets and discs instead of holes and balls) and, as I said, my daughter has been off at college in Jacksonville, FL. This leaves me with more time on my hands than I have had in years. All the years since becoming a mom, it is very enlightening to find yourself in that place. I started evaluating my “hobbies” and interests. Whoa! Disney and traveling, well of course family and pets, but Disney is my main weakness, and I am always online researching our next trip or planning something for someone else. My favorite place online to go is AllEars.net; I read articles and blogs and listen to podcasts. It was there that I learned about Team AllEars.

One night in April I was listening to a live podcast about the team, and walking in the Disney Marathon; (Ya know the funny thing is, I wasn’t even walking for exercise then. I mean I had before, but not recently. I was just interested in anything Disney) they were a team, no, they were friends actually, and to hear them talk about what they were doing to help was inspiring. It’s amazing how complete strangers can be brought together. I had to be a part of this. I have a really good friend who went through some issues with cancer this year. It wasn’t breast cancer, but to me that was a minor detail. I just want to beat it. I don’t want that word to put fear in anyone anymore.  

I never thought about doing anything that would make a difference. I realize I am one person, but I am one person of a group that will make a difference. I am helping, and it feels good!

Every step I take is a step closer; step closer to my goal; a step closer to the marathon and maybe a step closer to a cure.