Friday, March 6, 2009

Victory!

I achieved one of my major goals last night. I did the hills route without walking up any of it. There's about 725' of climbing (probably a little more by the time getting home is included) and the total loop is about 16.4 miles. The hard part is seven or eight miles long. So it's about 100' of climbing for every mile traveling east from my apartment to the Burke. From the bottom of 24th, which starts the hills, to reaching the Burke, which is the end of the hills, it took me 54 minutes.

I can't describe how happy that made me and how amazing that felt. About five weeks was the first time I did it and it seemed at that time insurmountable, beyond my capabilities - I walked up 3 or 4 hills and struggled with the rest. The route is really awesome in that it starts with a looong slow climb and then has these small rolling hills that turn into steeper hills, then a nice downhill break, then the two "oh shit" hills. The first time we did the route, I walked up the crest of the first oh shit hill that killed me and looked up to see this straight road curve up...up...up...up to meet the sky so high above me. It crushed a small part of my soul - and that's not an exaggeration. I looked at Andrew and said, "You've got to be shitting me." After the crest of that last gnarly hill, though, it's over. You get this amazing downhill windy rush before you hit the Burke and the flats.

But I climbed both "Oh shit" hills. On the bike. No walking.

In some ways, these personal victories aren't translatable or describable to others in the same way they move me and have such a momentous nature. Sometimes it's really nice, because everything that I'm doing is for me and no one else will really know exactly what each achievement means and feels. They're my own personal gems of joy. I've found my source of everlasting sublime felicity - bliss incarnate. Sometimes I get sad others can't share my elation. :) I want to spread my happy feelings everywhere!!!!

"Strength is Happiness. Strength is itself victory. In weakness and cowardice there is no happiness. When you wage a struggle, you might win or you might lose. But regardless of the short-term outcome, the very fact of your continuing to struggle is proof of your victory as a human being."
Daisaku Ikeda

Strength is happiness. I haven't felt this filled with joy for this long - well, ever in my life before. I'm the happiest I've ever been. And like with the "oh shit" hills - there's nowhere to go but up.

:)

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