Journey to the top

Yesterday I climbed a mountain. No, not figuratively or metaphorically. I mean I literally climbed a mountain.

This mountain:

I don't know what the hell I was thinking. (I find myself questioning what the hell I was thinking a lot these days.)

Everyone who knows anything about me knows I am not an outdoor person. I'm more of a stay home with a book and a chocolate bar kind of person. I must have had one chocolate bar too many, hence my current predicament and my goal to lose 50lbs and look like Beyonce by 2017.

Anyway, so I ended up climbing Mount Tabor in the Northern Range as part of my journey to get fit with a fitness group I joined a month ago. 

It wasn't a BIG mountain. It was small as far as mountains go. Just under 1900 ft. But it felt like 19,000!

Going up, I kept asking myself why, just why, did I leave the comfort of my bed at 5 am on a lovely Sunday to drag my unfit arse up a mountain?

Why did my coach tell me I could do this? Why does my heart feel about to explode? Why can't I breathe? Why is no one else sweating like an ice cube in an oven?

Five minutes or so into the climb, I was yelling "I hate you all!"to my team. Seriously. I'm a bit melodramatic at times. 

It was a very difficult climb for me and moreso because I was under-prepared. I thought climbing a mountain was just another hike. And it sorta was, except it's a constant incline and next to no trail to follow.

Well, apparently there was a trail, but we didn't find it. So we trekked through the forest grabbing hold of trees, rocks, bushes, anything to pull ourselves upwards. 

My legs burned like hell with every single step.

I had to stop to take regular breaks. It was just too much. I kept telling my team to leave me behind.

I looked exactly like this.

Naturally, they wouldn't.

When we got to the fore-summit, I thought the climb was over. But no, we were only halfway there.

View from the fore-summit

Eventually I got to the top (after much poking and prodding).

View from the actual summit

Anyway, the purpose of this blog post is to basically share what this terrible, painful, exhausting, but ultimately rewarding experience taught me. So here goes:

I am way too hard on myself

Every time I do something, I find ways to make it seem like no big deal. Everyone tells me I don't give myself enough credit for things I achieve and I have to admit it's true. I remember immediately after doing my first 15K, the thought that I completed it didn't cross my mind. All I could think was "Oh my God! I actually came last!" I needed to give myself credit for doing it and not giving up along the way although I wanted to several times. It was the same with this mountain. Even after I got to the top, all I could think was I had to rest so many times. Nobody else struggled like I did. I kept them back... It kept me from really enjoying what I had just accomplished. It wasn't until we were back down the bloody mountain and I looked up at it did I truly realize I did something to be personally proud about.

People make all the difference

Had I ventured to go up that mountain by myself, I would have turned around almost immediately. Or had the people I had gone with shown the slightest bit of annoyance that I was going too slow or complaining too much (I complained a hell of a lot), I would have given up and turned around. But those lovely people encouraged me every step of the way, stopped with me when I needed to rest, pushed me to continue when I flat out refused to move and most importantly, didn't abandon my arse in the forest.

Trinidad is beautiful

When you live in Port of Spain, you tend to forget that you're actually on a tropical island. You feel like you're in some post-apocalyptic world where the streets smell like piss, rats and humans are almost the same size and the air smells like smoke and gasoline. It's hard to think that nature exists untouched and untainted somewhere. It was amazing to be among the pine trees, breathing fresh air, looking out at everything below.

Among the pines!

Yes, I can!

I am starting to believe I really can do anything. Since joining this awesome fitness group I have done a few things I never thought I would or could do. I completed a 15 K, I hiked through a forest in the rain and I trekked all the way up a bloody mountain. I can't stop saying that and it sounds equally ridiculous every time I say it. I, Camille Hunte, who gets winded and out of breath climbing two flights of stairs, climbed a freaking mountain! Doing some reading on the topic afterwards, I came across this quote. "Reaching the top of a mountain (any mountain) is an impressive physical, mental, and emotional accomplishment." And indeed it was. Next time anyone tells me I can't do something, imma be like "bitch please, I climbed a mountain!" (And I have the scratches, insect bites and thorn pricks to prove it.)