Date: 2005-02-13
To: Exactly Four Weeks From today...
Miles today: 0.0

Exactly four weeks from today I¢ll be setting out from the Lodge at Amicalola Falls State Park, pack on my back, boots on my feet, Lekki Hiking poles firmly grasped in my hands, staring up at the approach trail to Springer Mountain as it crosses the road leading from the Lodge parking lot to the information center at the bottom of the falls, with a look of [ fill in the blank ] on my face. Choices are: (a) total serenity (b) grim determination; (b) absolute senilty; and (d) utter exhaustion ¢ as a result of having to walk all the way down the hall from my room to the elevators, out throught the lobby to the front door, all the way through the parking lot and up the road about 200 yards to where I am then standing. At this point, I¢d have to vote for (d). Frankly, I¢m starting to get a bit worried about my physical preparations for this little walk in the woods. My plan was to be getting out hiking every weekend by now. Right¢¦. I was also going to be using my treadmill for at least a couple of miles every weekday morning, with full elevation (all of 10 degrees) and with a faster pace every day. Right¢¦. And I was going to be using my weight machine every other day to build up my upper body strength, with increasing weight levels every few days. Right, again¢¦.   NOT. The closest I¢ve gotten to the kind of physical rigors I¢m likely to experience on this adventure has been shoveling the food in at all-you-can-eat restaurants in my neighborhood. For every pound I¢ve managed to get OUT of my pack, I think I¢ve probably added two to my waist line. I¢m not quite ready to panic ¢ yet ¢ (hope springs eternal!) but things had better start to improve in this area soon or it¢s going to take me several days just to hike the 8.8 mile approach trail. It just always seems to be something. All of the demands on my time are important, and the reality is that certain things have to have priority. This weekend, for example, I spend much of yesterday running errands and then putting together a presentation on an activity pin for my younger son¢s next Cub Scout Den meeting. It¢s all about first aid, and what to do for ¢hurry cases¢ (like when someone stops breathing), and after the ¢lecture¢ part, we¢ll use my splint bag to ¢fix¢ some broken limbs and make a stretcher out of hiking poles and shirts. It¢ll be fun for the boys, and I enjoy doing it. They may never use what they learn, or even remember it the next day, but you never know. Either way, it¢s still a good investment.Today I¢m just back from church, where my daughter served as both Acolyte and Lector. She did wonderfully, as always, and makes me proud. I was sort of hoping that our new, young Associate Pastor might at least vaguely recognize me, despite my shall-we-say somewhat less-than-sterling attendance record, but then I sort of blew it on my way out the door.   As I shook his hand, I commented on how much I had enjoyed his playing of the timpani drums during the annual concert that our church¢s musical director and organist puts on every...ah, New Years Eve. Darn, had it been that long. Yup, and I think it probably registered that there must not have been opportunity for me to pass along my compliments since then ¢ and NOT because the young Associate Pastor dude hadn¢t been there for the past six weeks¢¦. Ooooops.   We stopped and got some breakfast to bring home, and then I dropped my daughter off at a classmate¢s house where four of her school¢s finest are putting together a video-tape about Jane Ayre as a project for their English Class. These young ladies are all so smart and talented and exuberant that it¢s just an awesome experience to even be around them. Once I finish this journal entry, I¢ve got to study for a couple of certification tests I¢m taking Tuesday night for the Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group. They are both required for all Field Team Members. The first is a State-mandated test on the basics of SAR, including search principles and techniques, land navigation, communications, rescue operations ¢ including semi-technical rescue skills, ropes and knots, etc. The second is a SMRG test that goes into some depth on the topic of land navigation ¢ never my strong suit. So that will be the primary focus of my efforts for the rest of today, and the hoped-for shake-down hike with my new back pack will just have to wait another week. Bummer.A year ago this past fall I was in probably the best shape of my life ¢ well, at least since I stopped playing basketball almost every day when I was in graduate school. Ten years before, I had been pretty much of a wreck. I was totally out of shape, smoked several packs of cigarettes a day, and was unequivocally over weight. My back was in terrible shape, due to a herniated disk and the pain was so bad I had to use a ¢stand up¢ desk at the office, as sitting for any length of time was excruciating painful. I finally decided I would see if walking might help my back (it did) and thus began to actually get some exercise. I progressed to an occasional short run, and then to longer runs and more regular runs. I finally managed to quit smoking, which was a good thing, but promptly put on another 40 pounds. Eventually, I got smart enough to put together a sensible exercise regime involving running and weights and to watch what I ate, and it pretty much started to come together. In 2003 I finally got my nerve up to run in a road race ¢ the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler ¢ sponsored by my Credit Union.         That was an incredible experience. There were like 11,500 people signed up, and something like 10,000 actually ran the race, which was won by a group of Kenyans in near record time. Because of my rather slow expected race completion time, I started way back in the pack. I was so far back that it took me ten minutes just to reach the starting line.   Within the first four miles, the course doubled back on itself, so I had a chance to actually observe the Kenyans in action. I was like: ¢Wow! What race is THAT!¢ But, hey, I met all but one of my goals for the race, my first ever, and was really pretty proud of myself just for having participated. I didn¢t set any land speed records, but there is just something about surging forth in a race with 10,000 other people that makes you feel part of something bigger than everyday life.         The next fall, I ran for the first time in the Army Ten Miler, and finished with an even better time. The sense of awe at the start was even greater with some 17,000 participants. Unfortunately, my right knee started troubling me just after that race, so I laid off of it for about a month. It felt better, so my hiking buddy (Spook) and I decided to do a 40 mile section hike of the AT, finishing up with the infamous ¢roller-coaster¢ -- a ten mile section where, due to the problem of not having a wide enough land corridor to be able to do ¢switch-backs,¢ you basically are forced to go straight up and straight down ten mountains in a row. On the down hill side of each of those roller coaster mountains I discovered that my knee had not actually healed itself after all. Meniscus tears don¢t do that. You have to have arthroscopic surgery to take care of that little problem.         So, the past year has seen knee surgery, followed by rehabilitation, and no more running but at least another 40+ mile section hike, including a 19 mile day, in which the knee held up beautifully. With so much on my plate, however, there just hasn¢t been time to do enough hiking, or to hit my treadmill or the weight machine as much as I would like. So, that's where I¢m at. Still enough time, if I can get on with it, but the sands in the old hour glass aren't going to wait for me -- any more that M Company will on the trail.           Part of me says it doesn¢t really matter all that much. NO one can show up at the trail in shape to do what needs to be done. They say that, if you take it slowly, you¢ll be ok. You can basically hike yourself into shape. I may end up having to do that, but I hope not. I¢d don¢t want to push too hard through Georgia, but I don¢t want to be the one who has to turn the lights out as I leave either. At least they don¢t have those busses that come along at the end of road races to pick up the stragglers ¢ the runners who aren¢t going to finish the race before they have to open the streets up again. They don¢t allow busses on the AT. I'm thinkin' that's a good thing.....Stay tuned,