Day 17 - Strong mind, strong body

This story is brought to you by Lemons/Spivak Adventures, Inc. and dedicated to all fellow PCPers, past & present, but most especially to Team Pi'ed Pipers as we struggle through this climb together.

I decided to tell this story, mostly because I feel like we're all at a point where it is relevant. And, as I was stumbling through jumps yesterday morning, fighting grogginess ALL DAY and feeling strange insecurities, I thought about this moment in my life and it kept me focused on my goals.

Over Spring Break, I traveled to Hawaii (a feat in itself, LONG way from Florida!), the Big Island specifically, to visit my ex-roomie, soul-brother in life, Michael Van Patrick Lemons. Yes, he sounds very distinguished, doesn't he? Haha! Distinguished in a "special" sort of way. :) Also, his best friend, Alex Spivak, and Alex's beautiful lady friend, Brittney Tigerlily, were flying from Gainesville to be present for Spring Break festivities. Mike wanted to give us the BEST vacation EVAH! Seriously, that was his goal, so he planned for us to hike to Waimanu valley from Waipio lookout. A 18-mile roundtrip hike, but according to Lemons, "it's the most beautiful place on Earth." We're all in decent shape, so we thought, yeah, definitely, we want to see the "most beautiful place on Earth." Enter Mike's girlfriend, always practical, no-nonsense Jessica. She's a Hawaii resident and knows what we're about to get ourselves into...does a little research, finds that the trail is traversable but warns us that it ain't no spring picnic. This is a serious hike for serious hikers! Uh-oh!, but she still comes with us. ;-)

I don't think I've ever seen a more serious group of hikers! :) The beginning wasn't so bad! It was all paved, downhill, but STEEP. We reached the bottom, still smiling, still having fun, still looking excitedly into the future. I think the moment I started to doubt our preparedness for what was ahead was crossing the first river...flowing through Waipio valley into the Pacific. My pack was HEAVY. All of our packs were HEAVY. Mike wanted us to eat good...I mean, he cooked and packed jambalaya for God's sake. And, it was good, trust me, but here's where he went wrong. He pre-cooked all rice and noodles. We were all carrying gallons of water. We were loaded, and Mike most of all, God bless his soul. He was our pack-mule. But, fighting the river current and the incoming tide with a pack that probably weighed more than half of me was nearly a disaster.

At that point, I got nervous, real nervous. And, then we reached this:

What you're looking at is that hill (er, excuse me, mountain, to the left)...there's a z-trail cut into the side. From the Waipio lookout, I thought, "Psshaw! Easy!" From the bottom of the z-trail and after my river crossing, I thought, "What have I gotten myself into?" We started up. The first half was tough, but we took a break at about halfway, got our breath and thought okay, we've got this. But, it got worse, big rocks that required a lot of effort to climb for a shorty like myself and with at least 50 lbs on my back, my legs started to fail. I actually stopped and said I can't go further, I have to lighten my load. I took out a bag of cooked noodles and said if noone else was willing to carry them, I was going to throw the damn things down the mountain. I meant it. Spivak volunteered. So, a bag o' noodles and a jar of peanut butter lighter, I was back up and running, well, okay climbing, slowly. I started chanting this mantra under my breath as I chugged up the trail, "Strong mind, strong body; strong mind, strong body; strong mind, strong body." It uplifted me, focused me and all of the sudden the trail started to level out. I stopped, I looked back, this is what I saw...

Spivak slurping noodles so he wouldn't have to carry them any further. Hahaha! No, I saw my team...through dogged persistence and support of each other, we made it to the top of the first z-trail. After that, there were ups & downs, crazy moments, scary moments, but once we'd made it past that first intense mind-fuck of a challenge, we knew we'd be fine. Well, at least, I knew we'd be fine. :) Not sure about the rest of the group...

I think this parallels nicely to the moment we're at right now in the climb to peak condition. We're just starting, it's tough to fit this crazy new thing into our already insane lives...we're doubting whether this is really right for us. But, if we can make it to the end of this week and really start to see results, we may very well make it to our own Waimanu valley:

The most beautiful place on Earth! When I feel down, really down, I think, "Remember Waimanu!" And, when I'm painfully pushing through the last of those horrendous sit-ups, I chant, "Strong mind, strong body." It helps. Find a mantra that fits you, make it yours and let it motivate you all the way to the end!

Go Team Pi'ed Pipers!!!

Okay, y'all, I know this was a long post, but you may not hear from me until closer to the end of the weekend. It's going to be a busy one and blogging won't be a top priority. But, I promise you, I'm here and I'm sticking to it. Mostly, I don't want to let y'all down. No beer and no tastey birthday cupcakes for me this weekend (big party on Saturday).