Today I went with daughter Rachael to Runyon Canyon for a hike with our two dogs, Sammie, the Scottie, and Cordelia, the Corgie. This is the second walk I’ve taken in less than a week. I went with daughters Liz and Rachael last Saturday morning, along with Ray, Ron (Liz’s boyfriend), Ron’s father and a fellow law student of Liz and Ron’s. On Saturday, I almost begged off, but felt slightly embarrassed by my reluctance. Haven’t I always been one of the big hikers in our family? Well, that must have been before I turned into such a sitter – a situation that can sneak up on you and almost weld you to the chair, couch or bed (or combo of the three). Anyway, I overcame my inertia on Saturday long enough to get my tennis shoes on and walk out of the house. That’s all it takes, you see. If I will mobilize to just that extent – well, it helps if I get out of the yard – then I’m as happy as a kid off to the park. The trick is getting me up and out.
So, on Saturday, I was dressed in jeans and slick shoes and it became clear fairly quickly that for Hike #2, should there ever be one, I was going to need to shift to shorts and shoes with decent tread. This became painfully clear when I was the only one not to easily scale a rather pathetic small climb up an incline because my shoes were just too old to have any tread left. I finally had to have help getting to the top of truly a miniscule little rise in the earth, which made me feel as if I were 90 years old. This made coming back for a second hike a near certainty. I do have a little pride left despite my sixty year status and by damn I am not going to be remembered as the old lady who had to be pulled up the hill.
Today, Rachael and I headed out and I was more appropriately attired. I had on shorts and a tee-shirt and some older tennis shoes that I dug out of my closet that I had previously deemed “too old,” but that suddenly looked surprisingly new in comparison to the truly old pair of black tennis shoes I’ve been wearing for at least the past three years. I also took a water bottle – a good idea since it gets slightly hot out there (or at least I get slightly hot). The dogs were all excited as soon as they saw we were going anywhere. Poor things bear the brunt of my lazy streak. And off we went up, up, up.
This time I didn’t completely embarrassed myself. I did wheeze. I did stop several times to catch my breath. I did pretend to stop for the dogs a few times when it was really me who needed a break. But I did not require a pulley to get me up any hills and I didn’t slip and fall down (oh, I forgot to mention that other embarrassment which happened on the Saturday hike.) So, all in all, I felt extremely proud of myself today and got a nod of approval from Rachael when we returned to the car after 1 ½ hours of going up and then finally down again to the bottom of what felt to me like only a slightly shorter version of Mount Everest.
But I did it. And the dogs did it. And Rachael did it, which is not too big a feat since she could have run up and down the hills twice while I was making my trudge. But the point is that I got up off my sedentary derriere and actually got outside and moved my body.
So I am proud of myself. Exceedingly proud. And after seeing how absolutely happy the dogs were to be off leash and zipping up those hills in the company of other dogs and many other dog owners, I can see that I will need to return again for this hike. Maybe next time I will wear a white tee-shirt rather than a black one (I still got hot…) and I might wear a step-counter so I can see how many steps I take.
One step at a time, but I have made some progress.
Rachael has suggested we go again on Thursday and she has specifically invited her dad to join us since he was a little too busy today to go.
We’ll see if I can mobilize yet again. I hope so, but, as I said before, let’s just take this one step at a time…
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