Long Haul Training....one day at a time!

This morning was no different to all of the other training walks on a Sunday except for the fact that it was dark for the first two hours of my journey.   Certainly wasn’t as cold and therefore I didn’t need my hat or gloves to start this morning.   Still at 5:30 am there isn’t much happening, in fact it’s extremely quiet and peaceful and for most “normal” people they’re still tucked up in bed fitfully unaware that I’m getting ready to head out on my long hike day, all 25km of it around the city of Toronto.  

The past couple of days I’ve been reading a number of other blogs from people who have gone before me on the Kokoda Track hike, some wonderful narratives that make you feel part of the journey, and others that put the fear of god into me…..  

So I’m not sure if it was the last blog I read last yesterday morning in which everyone in the group had a bad case of vomiting and diarrhea for the majority of the trip or if because I had fasted all day yesterday for Yom Kippur and had overeaten at dinner, but by the time I got to bed last night my stomach was definitely “churning” – and not in a good way!    Hence I spent a very restless night back and forth to the toilet.    I can hear you now going ------ eeww, that’s gross!  

The kicker is that at 5:30 am when my alarm went off and I had to get up for my hike around the city it was the last thing I wanted to do…..trust me, the absolute last thing.   My stomach was still not feeling great; I had a pounding headache and felt exhausted from the broken sleep…..

Why did I tell you that rather un-appetizing story?   I guess because it is a lesson that I’m going to need when on the track in Papua.  I can guarantee you there will be days when my body will be stiff, sore, blistered and perhaps even afflicted with a stomach bug that I will have to be mentally tough enough to shoulder my pack and join the team as we break camp early in the morning.   I can almost see it in mind’s eye as we stare up at the mist covered razor back mountains before us and set out for the days hike along the track.   I’m going to have to be ready for the hard slog and keeping my resolve to take that first step each day, when I know that I’ll be climbing upwards for perhaps hours at a time, before summiting and then making my way down the other side on often slippery and treacherously steep terrain.   I’m going to have to be emotionally ready to do that for at least 10 days on end.

I know I’m going to be able to do it, and you know why?   Earlier this year when I was with my dad and he was undergoing intensive radiation and chemotherapy treatment for his brain cancer, he didn’t complain once…….not once, he didn’t feel sorry for himself.    Nope, each day he got up and looked up at that mountain before him and gritted his teeth, shouldered his pack took that first step towards the peak.    And that is precisely the way I’m going to approach it – with a steely resolve to make it and learn to thrive in that hostile climate and environment.    One day at a time…..  

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!