Day 7 - July 12, 2013 - Best sleep ever!!!

I have finally typed up my notes from on Kilimanjaro ... I will post them as a post per day ... only because otherwise it would be a 10 page post ... which I think would be quite overwhelming!!!  Pictures will come shortly ... I promise :)  My little inserts in italics are thoughts I've put in after the fact.

Day 7 - July 12, 2013

I had the absolute best sleep ever of my life last night.  Absolute, hands-down best.   The rock under my back didn’t bother me, the angle of the tent didn’t bother me, the cold didn’t bother me and the frequent trips to the toilet tent throughout the night (oh yes, I haven’t mentioned this yet – when you are made to drink 3L of water a day plus they give you on average 2L of water through soups and teas, there is a lot of trips to the toilet tent required at night) of my neighbours didn’t bother me; I slept like a baby.  I wasn’t even awake when they came to do our wakeup I was peacefully and happily fast asleep.  Amazing.

We had another long trek today – 19.7km.  And, where it should have been absolutely beautiful due to the scenery and views it was quite sad.   Apparently while we had been on the mountain, the south side experienced a very bad fire and acres and acres of forest and moorland was just smoldering (some parts were still burning).   It was very sad.   The guides were extra saddened as the area is a place of worship for the native Chagga people, of whom a few of the guides belonged.  It put a somewhat sad end to our trek.

The fire hadn’t reached as far down as our first pause at Mandara Huts (2743m) where they had … *drum roll please* … a working tap and showers!!!  We didn’t use the showers, but some of us definitely used the taps.  I actually walked into the shower stall by mistake thinking it was a toilet and just stood in it for confusion wondering why there was an empty stall …so foreign was the idea of running water or a shower.  Oh, and when I did find the toilet (squat toilet that is) I just about got stuck.   Apparently 40 some kms of hiking in 48 hours and that whole summit business leads to getting stuck in a squat position.   Thankfully the walls had some texture and I was able to pull myself back up without just collapsing into the hole … phew!  Ahhh, yes, more toilet talk!

The last 8km were absolutely breathtakingly beautiful with rainforest, waterfalls, amazing vegetation and air so so thick.  It almost felt too heavy to breathe.  Amazing.

That ends the summary of our days on Kilimanjaro.  It was a successful trip and provided me the best and worst experience of my life.   I didn’t have any great career revelations but did find a new zen inner self that I did not know existed.  I also, again, realized that I love travelling and so need to have a career that can support a future full of adventure!

I will post the lessons that everyone should know next week.

And then I can start thinking of our next adventure!!!

Day 6 - July 11, 2013 - A wedding anniversary to be remembered ... it's summit day!

I have finally typed up my notes from on Kilimanjaro ... I will post them as a post per day ... only because otherwise it would be a 10 page post ... which I think would be quite overwhelming!!!  Pictures will come shortly ... I promise :)  My little inserts in italics are thoughts I've put in after the fact.

Day 6 - July 11, 2013

Cold and dark and steep and dusty and slow and steep and tiring and steep (did I mention steep?)  for 6.5 hours.   That was a description of the first 6.5 hours of mine and Luke’s 3^rd wedding anniversary.  A strange activity, really, to celebrate a wedding anniversary!!  It was definitely one that we won’t ever forget though.  Or, for that matter, probably beat.  Although, it has given us a great benchmark for future anniversary activities!!

The professional description of today, that we read yesterday at lunch (possibly not the best idea ever) reads as follows:

Tonight is very difficult - particularly the final 550m - and you’ll need to commit to fight for the summit. You will inevitably feel like giving up and going to sleep. This is normal and can be overcome with perseverance. When resting please ensure you only stand or sit and do not lie own or close your eyes. Please trust your guide; he is very adept at judging whether your condition will allow safe progress or whether you have succumbed to a potentially dangerous condition and to proceed will not be safe. Nausea and headaches are normal and around a quarter of climbers will vomit at or near Gilman’s Point.

I did not vomit … woohoo!  A couple of unfortunate souls in our group did though making us the perfect average group.  A lovely stranger also did and splashed on my boot.   I didn’t like my boots very much by this point though, so it really didn’t bother me.

Going to the loo on the way up was the scariest loo experience EVER.  Picture pitch black, 2 foot wide (maybe) trail, 1 foot of light radius max from headlamp and being told to just step over the ridge to the next one down to have a wee.  Adventure loo to the extreme!  Plus, in the dark, you can’t really see what previous loo deposits you may be stepping down into.  I had a narrow miss!   And, yes, I am aware of the loo theme throughout this 6 day summary.  In times like this it really comes down to the basics!!

Arriving at Gilman’s Point (5708m) was AWESOME.  I’d love to say primarily for the view but it was just sheer JOY at finishing the ‘demoralizing switchbacks’.  I’d love to reference that properly, but it was read to me from a book and I’m not sure which one.  They are quite demoralizing though just due to the sheer number of them, the dark and the slow slow slow speed with which you move through them.

I was quite surprised by the remaining distances though to get to Stella Point and then Uhuru Peak (5895m) but I was very very lucky and had a load of energy and was super hungry (phew for all of my sharkies and cliff bars that I brought with me)!

The walk over to the peak (with a steady climb of some 180 more meters) was incredible with views of the crater and glaciers and just the sheer joy of having made it to the top.  I luckily had no feelings of altitude sickness and actually thought I could have jogged over to the peak … with that being said, I probably would have died if I tried … but I’m going to keep thinking I’m Wonder Woman with nothing to prove otherwise.

The descent was incredibly fun – think alpine skiing in deep soft rocks.  Now that I write that it doesn’t sound as fun as it was … but, perhaps the exhaustion and the sheer joy at not having to walk slowly down were great contributors to the experience.   I have since read that it is very bad to ‘ski’ down the face though as it is causing rapid erosion … oops (Lesson 7).

Arriving back at Kibo Huts for lunch we were all shocked and, I think it would be accurate to say, absolutely HORRIFIED to find out that we still had another 12km to hike to get to our camp for the night.  We had a big group HMPH.  The total distance that we covered was 20.4 km and we were on the move from midnight until about 5pm non-stop.  It was an incredibly slow and LONG day!  I have never, and I can’t imagine ever in the future, been so excited to see an outhouse and our tent at the end of that 12k (Horombo Hut at 3760m).

I had expected that tonight would be a great night of celebration but it was, instead, a night of falling asleep wherever we stopped and counting down the time until they had finished serving our dinner and let us go to bed.   

LONGEST.DAY.OF.MY.LIFE.

Day 5 - July 10, 2013 - extreme grumpiness achieved

I have finally typed up my notes from on Kilimanjaro ... I will post them as a post per day ... only because otherwise it would be a 10 page post ... which I think would be quite overwhelming!!!  Pictures will come shortly ... I promise :)  My little inserts in italics are thoughts I've put in after the fact.

Day 5 - July 10, 2013

Day 5 I woke up, after my first good night of sleep (yay for exhaustion finally kicking in), in a great mood and full of energy and super hungry.  Woohoo :)  

We hiked 4.9km to School Hut at 4722m and then got ready for what we thought was our afternoon of sleep before our midnight ascent start.   This was incorrect.   It turns out that you don’t get to have an afternoon of sleep after all.  Boo that.  In fact, EPIC BOO THAT.

Instead, we arrived at camp just before lunch.  Got set up (ps – I hate hate hate hate the set up/pack up process.  Sleeping bags suck when you are freezing cold and dirty and they have to get stuffed into their stuff bags and then fit into your bag.  Suck suck suck) for the afternoon sleep and were then informed about our 3pm acclimatization hike.  Umm, we are already at 4722m and we have to start hiking to the top at midnight … why oh why oh why must we go for an acclimatization hike at 3pm?!!?   Even better, after lunch we were informed that we had 1.5 hours to nap.  Hmph.  I hate naps.  But I did it.  I had the coldest nap of my life.  Well, actually, I just lay in my sleeping bag thinking about napping.  I suck at napping. 

Our 3pm acclimatization hike mostly just gave us a glimpse at how tricky the steep scree descent is going to be.   And we mostly all grumped about how we’d rather be asleep and how cold it was.   But we all did it.  That’s what counts on missions like this!  Do as you are told, drink water, walk slowly, get to the top.  Period.

Went to ‘bed’ at about 5pm, when all was said and done.  Very very very grumpy.  I think I slept for maybe 2-3 hours MAX before being woken up by a delightfully cheerful ‘Time to get ready, be in the mess tent in 5 minutes’ at 11:00pm.   I won’t write in here what I responded with (very very very grumpy x10) but it had something to do with 5 minutes being ridiculous ESPECIALLY since we had to stuff those stupid sleeping bags back into their stupid bags!

I’ll continue from 11pm onwards as Day 6.

Day 4 - July 9, 2013

I have finally typed up my notes from on Kilimanjaro ... I will post them as a post per day ... only because otherwise it would be a 10 page post ... which I think would be quite overwhelming!!!  Pictures will come shortly ... I promise :)  My little inserts in italics are thoughts I've put in after the fact.

Day 4 - July 9, 2013

On Day 4 I had a new thing to complain about in my head (I think I did a pretty good job of being silent, for the most part, about my complaints) in that my face felt like it was on FIRE from the wind burn.  My lips and nose and cheeks were all chapped and we didn’t bring Vaseline (Lesson 4).   At this point I actually cursed Arbonne’s lessons in skincare and wished that, above anything else, I had a tub of Vaseline to dip my head into!!

I did, HOWEVER, have a GENIUS revelation in the middle of the night and used my Body Glide on my face and had immediate relief.  Yup, I had reached the point where it was okay to just wipe off the item that I had been using on my feet and use it as lip protection.   I even shared it with the group.  

(Lesson 5) It is an amazing thing how quickly you become very close and comfortable with strangers when you are all experiencing something like climbing a mountain!  On Day 1 we were sort of shy about personal issues, by Day 2 we discussing toilet patterns at dinner and now, on Day 4, pretty much anything goes!!  

Day 4 was awesome, but very very tiring.  I am not supposed to give camp names as we were doing Team Kilimanjaro’s custom Rongai route.  They add in an extra ‘secret’ camp for their climbers to give extra acclimatization chance and a more secluded camping option than the super populated Kibo hut.  To get to our secret camp though we covered a total of 11.6km!!  

We hiked via Mawenzi’s north west ridge (maximum height 4614m) to The Saddle between Mawenzi and Kibo.  This was a walk that never seemed to end as you just don’t seem to get any closer to Kibo for, what feels like hours and hours.  Hours and hours of scree and nothing but scree.  Oh and the remains of a crashed plane … very eery.  We also got thoroughly freaked out by seeing the summit ascent route.   Not a word of a lie, it looked straight up for a kilometer.  I will put pictures on our website and link to here in the next little while … you will hopefully be able to see what I mean from these pics!  The view of both peaks though was absolutely incredible!

We veered off the beaten path and actually descended to our camp for the night.  After being so high (4614m) it was really amazing to get to go down to camp.   I’m pretty sure I wasn’t imagining actually feeling the air getting thicker.  Oh, camp was at 3936m.

(Lesson 6) Oh yeah and, at this point, at night I was sleeping in my winter running tights, fleece pants, 800 down jacket and a toque in my sleeping bag.  So, if you are coming for this mission – bring warm sleeping apparel … it’s crazy cold at night!!!

Day 3 - July 8, 2013

I have finally typed up my notes from on Kilimanjaro ... I will post them as a post per day ... only because otherwise it would be a 10 page post ... which I think would be quite overwhelming!!!  Pictures will come shortly ... I promise :)  My little inserts in italics are thoughts I've put in after the fact.

Day 3 - July 8, 2013

 I stopped writing notes on Day 3 due to being too cold in the tent to want to write once in bed, except to jot down distances and altitude … so I shall write the rest of this from the jaded memories I have of the experience … lol, I am not actually that jaded and hopefully can remember the most interesting moments.

There will be a repeating theme from here until the end of Day 7 – I am cold, hungry and DIRTY.

For Day 3’s main hike we only covered 3.7km, but gained 624m in altitude ending at our camp at 4303m at the Mawenzi Tarn.

Arriving in camp I actually had a moment of energy burst as I had a potty emergency and, at this point, the rocks were getting such that a privacy break didn’t seem to be up to my level of standards (these standards disappeared within about the next 24 hours).  I managed to pull an almost run out of somewhere and rocketed (all things considered) into camp for the last 200m or so.  This 200m felt the equivalent of a 5k run in terms of exertion and I had a few moments of breath catching on my luxurious toilet bucket.   Yup, I have now changed my opinion of the toilet bucket and love it.  Mostly because I don’t have to squat and secondly because the tent around the bucket stops the dirt (sort of) from blowing into places that shouldn’t experience blowing dirt!!!

After lunch we had to do an acclimatization hike to one of the ridges of Mawenzi (the lower peak of Kilimanjaro) and it was quite steep and a little bit dizzying at the top.  I say ‘had’ … it was optional … but really, when they say they suggest doing an optional acclimatization climb who would say no?!?!  That would only be for sane people and at this point I think my sanity was sincerely up for debate!   But, oh my goodness, the views were FANTASTIC.  We just sat up there (I think it was a couple of hundred meters above camp) and looked down on the world for 15minutes.  This was, at that point, by far my most favorite moment of the climb! 

Day 2 - July 7, 2013

I have finally typed up my notes from on Kilimanjaro ... I will post them as a post per day ... only because otherwise it would be a 10 page post ... which I think would be quite overwhelming!!!  Pictures will come shortly ... I promise :)  My little inserts in italics are thoughts I've put in after the fact.

Day 2 - July 7, 2013

I didn’t sleep at all (well barely at all) last night and woke up this morning in a bit of a grump … a cold uncomfortable grump.  While we have great sleeping pads the angle of the campsite is not flat (SURPRISE lol.  I’m not sure why, or how for that matter, I was thinking there would be a flat campsite on the side of a mountain) and there are mighty big rocks in random places.   We also have very tight mummy sleeping bags on account of the cold and I am definitely not used to sleeping with things over my head.  Turns out though that it does drop below zero on night one and you do indeed need to have something over your head.   I also learnt that I should have brought a wonderful pillow with me (Lesson 2). 

All things considered, I found it quite difficult to get moving this morning.  It was just cold and everything was very dirty from yesterday and … well, I already did not like the toilet bucket.   Sigh, what a princess!

Oh, and, day 1 was all it took for my boots to start rubbing on my heels.  I changed my socks and put in a liner in hopes that this will solve the problem.

Today’s hike has morning and afternoon portions covering a total of 11.8km.  In the morning we hiked to Second Caves at 3482m and had an AMAZING lunch of chips (French fries for my North American friends) and veggies and a really delicious salad.  The carnivores of the group (hehehe) also had fried chicken – I think it was fried anyway; I didn’t pay a lot of attention as I wolfed down my amazing chips!!

My boots have officially eaten a solid chunk of both of my heels.  Bugger.  I do have a blister kit though and applied freezy gel things to both heels.  I wasn’t convinced (and correctly so) that they would stay put …but I didn’t think of any alternative.

After lunch was HARD.   The scenery was heathers and then moorland and it was steep for almost the full 6.0 km.  I also smoked my head super hard exiting a lava tube … which is one of the few things I haven’t actually banged my head on ever in the past!!  As cool of a first as that was, it didn’t really help my headache and dizziness that stuck with me from lunch onwards.

It was very cool that we were above the clouds all day.  It is a strange feeling as it’s like a great big white fluffy pillow and makes you forget how high you are!  A couple of times a bit of a gap cleared and we had a great view of Kenya very very far below us!

Our camp for tonight was Kikelewa camp at 3679m and we had an amazing view of Kibo.  It was a little daunting knowing how much higher we had to go … but only for a few minutes before my feet and the dirt distracted me!!

Luckily, in our group of 8, we had some seasoned trekkers who know the genius of duct tape and travel with it on their water bottles for easy access.   I learnt that duct tape is, among many other things, really useful with blisters when your freezy gel pads come unstuck about an hour after putting them on  (Lesson 3)!

So … I am now the dirtiest I have ever been and have duct taped feet.  I even put the duct tape on over dirt … I am not sure if this is a safe thing to do but you know what they say about desperate measures.  There is no way I’m going home without summitting (I'm making up words) because of my boots (Turns out it is perfectly safe to duct tape dirty blisters)!!!

Day 1 on Kilimanjaro

I have finally typed up my notes from on Kilimanjaro ... I will post them as a post per day ... only because otherwise it would be a 10 page post ... which I think would be quite overwhelming!!!  Pictures will come shortly ... I promise :)  My little inserts in italics are thoughts I've put in after the fact.

Day 1 – July 6, 2013

We started this morning with a 5 hour van ride to the base of the Rongai Route from Arusha (as Rongai is the only Northern approach there is a significantly longer drive to arrive at the start point than the other routes).  Upon arrival at base, we had a somewhat embarrassing lunch … let me explain that a bit … in booking with Team Kilimanjaro, one of the ‘perks’ offered is chairs and tables for all meals.   This, when I read it from the comfort of my desk, did not sound like a huge and wonderful perk (oh how I have now discovered otherwise).  However, at the base of the route there is a tourist picnic area with benches on which all of the other climbers were sitting eating their provided boxed lunches.   We arrived and our guides promptly set up a full table, with table cloth, and proceeded to serve us a fully cooked meal.  We got quite a few jealous glances but also a good hint as to the level of care that we had signed up for!! Once we had all eaten our 3 course lunch and filled up our 3L camelbaks we got started.   OH WAIT … hint for the ladies if you are ever starting at Rongai’s base … nearest to the tourist area there are toilets that are only squat … walk down the hill to the further toilet building and there is an amazingly luxurious (after a few days in Arusha, my definition of luxurious here is nice and generous) toilet building with actual toilets.   Trust me; this walk will be worth it as that is the last toilet you are seeing for a week!

The trek for today was a nice and mild one, traversing first through plantations, then through a pine forest (yes, that was as weird as it sounds … apparently the pine trees were imported) and then into bush country and, amazingly – I expected this to take a few days, above the clouds!   The total distance covered was 6.7km and our camp was at 2626m.

I felt really great finishing day 1.   We had great company in our group of 8, the guides were really fun and Luke and I had already learnt the Kilimanjaro song in Swahili before leaving so got to sing along with one of the most popular songs (this later became more of an irritant …but for Day 1 it was cool).

I did, however start to notice the dirt and was FILTHY by the end of the day (Lesson 1 – I will do a next blog post on the Lessons of Kilimanjaro that they don’t tell you about in the pamphlet).  But, as the temperature was still above zero when we arrived in camp I was able to have a warmish wash in my bowl and felt good by bedtime.

What more do we need? 26 days!

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17 work days to go ... 26 regular life days!!  It is now getting both very exciting and quite overwhelming!  

Physically, I think I'm just about there except for that march downhill.  For that though I have started crossfit and MY GOODNESS I think the month will have a great impact!

Shopping ... hmmm, our shopping list is what is getting somewhat concerning ... there is so much left to get.   And/or we can just rent everything we are missing from Team Kilimanjaro - this is probably what will end up happening.

Our shopping list looks like this: 

Baggage and Sleeping

Large Rucksack or Holdall, 70-90 litres capacity (for kit carried by porter)

Daysack, 25-35 litres (for personal use on mountain; ready-access items) 
Sleeping Bag (minus 10 degrees Centigrade rating or colder)

Waterproof rucksack liner or heavy duty plastic sack

Elasticated waterproof rucksack cover

  

Clothing

Sweat-wicking T-shirts / vests

Fleece

Insulated down jacket or similar

Down mittens or similar

Thermal long-johns for summit night

Lightweight walking trousers 

Underwear (briefs are usually better than boxer shorts which gather and chafe)

Very good quality hiking socks and thin liner socks (socks should be at least a size too small otherwise they stretch and bunch causing blisters)

Breathable lightweight waterproofs (jacket and trousers).

Waterproof walking boots, sturdy and worn-in  (A Gore-Tex membrane or similar is advised. While Alpine or C3 boots are not required for Kilimanjaro it is important that your boots have good ankle and arch support and good deep read pattern)

Calf gaiters

Balaclava

Sun hat

Hygiene

Toothbrush, toothpaste & deodorant

Flat packed Wet Ones, travel wipes, or similar for personal hygiene on the mountain.

Kleenex tissues in plastic travel pouches or toilet paper

Hairbrush / comb

Lip salve with UV protection

Vaseline, to prevent chafing skin and heel friction blisters

Personal Small First Aid Kit

Pain killers (Ibuprofen)

Diamox (acetazolamide) if you choose to use this

Paracetamol

Zinc oxide tape and small scissors

Compeed blister pads (not corn pads)

Loperamide / Immodium diahorrea tablets

Any medication you normally use

Dioralyte sachets or similar rehydration packs

Health

Malaria Tablets (if you choose to take these)

Factor 30+ sun cream

Sun barrier cream white / blue for nose and ears

Documents

Passport (with additional 6 months’ validity after proposed expedition return date)

Tanzanian Tourist Visa

Air Travel Documents

Cash in US dollars in denominations of $10 and $20 and $1

Credit Card 

Travel Insurance Documents (Though not essential, most climbers choose to insure as lost baggage is a frequent occurrence)

Vaccination certificates (Yellow Fever, if visiting a ‘risk zone’ prior to entering Tanzania)

Other stuff

Camera and film or digital camera and spare memory cards

Sunglasses with UV-filter lenses

Optional high energy snacks for trekking (cereal bars, dried fruit and nuts)

Spare contact lenses and saline fluid, if worn

Watch

Head torch with spare batteries and bulb for summit night & tent admin

Water bottles & Camelbak (minimum total fluid carrying capacity should be 3 litres)

Water purification tablets / iodine drops (most choose to supplement purification achieved by boiling)

Ear plugs and blindfold (to aid sleep on afternoon before summit night)

Plastic bags (for dirty washing, wrappings, etc.)

Telescopic walking poles (optional)

Optional evening entertainment (playing cards, travel chess, book, etc)

Of which, as I was reading over this, we actually most of. Thanks to running I have all of the clothing I need for the climb.  HOWEVER, unfortunately thanks to running, none of my clothes are safari-appropriate.   Apparently, one should avoid blue, white, camouflage and bright coloured clothing on safari.  That pretty much lets out all of my casual clothing.

So ... that is our current focus - safari clothes, figuring out how to keep me warm at night (I am perpetually frozen) and all of the other odds and ends on this list.

Speaking of lists, what is that <img> at the top you ask?   Well, that's me finding html elements in the real world.  I've got a <div> bucket to hold my pics, DQ <menu>s, a <span> of table settings, a <p>aragraph about exercising trees, a <li>st of lovely faces we met in Sepilok, a nightmare of elevator <nav>igation in Bangkok, the <time>, an ordered list <ol> of our wedding day events and ... last but not least a great <blockquote> from Mr. Hemingway about Kilimanjaro:

“Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai 'Ngaje Ngai', the House of God. Close to the western summit there is a dried and frozen carcas of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.”

― Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories

OUCH!!!

My legs hurt a lot today! A lot of a lot in fact! The stairs in my house have become my worst enemy. My second worst enemy is now the stairs to catch the bus from work. My third worst enemy ... well, you probably get the point!

In all of my years in martial arts I have never felt such a full on toe to hip discomfort. The strangest part is that I am getting some sort of joy from the discomfort; like because I hurt so badly, I must have done a GREAT job!!! Very very strange. I feel that the more I run, the stranger it becomes!

I wonder though if I should also take this discomfort as a sign that I might not be ready yet for the trek back down Kilimanjaro. Most people focus on the trek up as being the hardest ... will I succumb to altitude sickness, will the last day up be too challenging etc. etc. etc. In my conversations not many people think about what happens after you summit. The answer: a long long long (40+ kms) walk down hill in 1 day. That doesn't really sound fun. In fact, for today it sounds completely impossible. I think I'd have no choice but to roll down! So, while I am beginning a new 1/2 marathon clinic immediately (tonight actually ... could prove interesting), I am also going to focus a lot more on cross-training in June. I have a new yoga class pass, can always do BodyRock and am discussing CrossFit with a good friend.

I'm also continuing with my mission to learn web design and had to pick a word editor. I've chosen Notepad++ for the sheer simplicity of it. While I did download Vim and have been playing with it on and off, I will focus for now with Notepad++ to move forward in my learning; Vim can be a later challenge!

Have a wonderful Tuesday and cherish your health! 

I'd rather be running!

Today is one of those days where I want to do just about anything other than what I am supposed to be doing (aka working).  I have had a wonderful realization though in that, even though I am somewhat uncomfortable from a trial run of the ½ marathon route yesterday, my first thought was ‘I’d rather be running’. 

Kilimanjaro is coming sooo close around the corner (including today, 51 days until we leave and 55 until climb start day), but even closer is the upcoming Ottawa Race Weekend.   

I started running with my Mum with the Merivale Running Room Learn To Run program in August 2012 and have LOVED it ever since.   We’ve completed the LTR, 5k and 10k programs together and I’m now finishing off my first ½ marathon clinic in preparation for the ½ marathon on May 26^th.  

This used to seem like an insanely daunting task but now it just seems like what my training has gotten me ready for.

With this being said, I am sooo nervous.  More nervous, in fact, than I am for Kilimanjaro.  Although, I suppose that the more likely probability is that this event is currently stealing my nervous focus.   Or perhaps I figure that if I can kick tush at a ½ marathon than Kilimanjaro will be a breeze.   That sounds stupid though even as it comes off of my fingertips … probably not a good sign!

The reason why I am nervous is what amuses me though.  I know I can do the distance but I am nervous about letting myself down.  I like to set my bar very high and then get completely wrapped up in nerves about failing to meet that bar.  Isn’t that silly?!?!    Dear self, as long as I try my hardest, don’t be let down by whatever notions my hyper-competitive version of you has come up with!!!

I think I’m normal though (words that don’t often come out of this one), in this regard.

So anyway, the biggest part of my training for Kili has been my running and I think its serving many purposes: 

• it is building up my leg strength;
• it is building up my endurance;
• it is building up my mental strength to push through discomfort;
• and, currently above all, it is distracting me from the nerves that would otherwise be associated with all of the Kili final payments and details that are due this month!

It is all becoming very very real!!

And The Winners Are ... The Mamut T Aenergy GTX ®

Wow, okay so this is well overdue!   I have been mighty distracted, but am going to continue the effort of making this a routine event.


After a long deliberation process, I have finally chosen and started wearing in my Kilimanjaro hiking boots.   The third time was a charm and I am now the proud new owner of some bright, albeit muddy, new blue Mamut T Aenergy GTX® (as seen in the photograph or here: http://www.mammut.ch/en/productDetail/302003830_v_5136_75/T-Aenergy-GTX%C2%AE-Women.html).


I thought I would write today's blog to put down a few of the tips and tricks I learnt during the selection process ... so ...

1) Know your booty needs


For us the decision was a day hiker.  This was based on the fact that we will have packs that are less than 50lbs (thanks to our team of porters) and do not have any ankle problems.  Waterproof is also a definite must for Kilimanjaro as we will have everything from rain forest to snow to trek through.  

2) Set aside plenty of time for the hunting process and get used to the returns process!

To select my boots required 3 attempts; each attempt costing at least a few hours in the shop.   Don't expect this to be a quick shop!  Apparently even seasoned hikers require a lot of time as models and technologies change and you are really cheating yourself if you don't try on a few different brands/models.   

Also, a great lesson learnt is to not hit up the outdoors shops expecting great (or any for that matter) service on the first nice day of spring.  This is guaranteed to result in crankiness (well, if shopping with persons of like personalities to myself).

And of course, keep those receipts!

3) A thumb's width is what you need

My first fail was buying boots that were snug.   This seemed like a great idea but upon research and the helpful advice of friends and coworkers this is a foolish plan.   Going up the mountain is one thing, but when coming down you want room for your toes so that they are not slamming into the front of the boot.   While I will not learn this lesson the hard way, apparently snug boots can equate to blackened toenails and pain.

I did, however, get a bit of an idea of this lesson this past week in San Francisco.  Even my running shoes became uncomfortable on the downhill portions of walks because I was too far into the front of them.

I feel like the downhill portion just may end up being one of our most challenging days!   At least my toes will be happy :)


4) Invest in a good quality technical sock

Invest in them and take them along for the boot shopping.   Outdoors shops (and running shops for that matter) have a wide array of cute smart wool and other technical fabrics designed to keep your feet dry and comfortable!

For Kilimanjaro we were aimed towards a mid-weight technical sock.  I can't comment on how correct this is ... but will hopefully be praising this guidance in July!


5) Take band-aids with you to the shop

For some reason, that I am not aware of, hiking boots have mean laces!!!  After doing up and undoing a few pairs you will start to get discomfort on the thumb side of your pointer fingers and thumbs.  After 6 or more pairs, bring on the blisters!  

Once this happens, once again, crankiness ensues.

6)  Regardless of style points (or lack thereof) wear them indoors a few times before heading into the great outdoors!!

I put up with friendly teasing and also received some great pointers by wearing each of the boots I tested in the office with my professional apparel.  This was a priceless plan as I eliminated 2 pairs of boots that I was completely in love with in the shop.  The best part of the office day was the stairs.  Nothing will tell you that the heel in the boot isn't right better than taking the stairs all day!   Also, in the office you can cover a lot more ground than you possibly can at home.

Plus, you get bragging rights that you are doing something cool in the near future!

Hiking Boots and Why Team Kilimanjaro

We attempted to get our hiking boots on Saturday, which turned out to be a very bad idea.   Apparently on Easter Saturday the world and his or her wife also needed hiking boots, tents, backpacks and all of the other outdoor paraphernalia that the shops on our list provide.  

We did, however, learn that we require a day hiker for Kilimanjaro.   Apparently hiking boots are broken out in light hikers, day hikers and hikers.  As we are not going to be carrying 50+ lbs and do not have any ankle problems, it is the MEC guru's belief that a day hiker will fit our stability requirements without adding the extra weight of a hiker.  Reduced weight sounds great to me!   However, he used all of his available time to tell us all of this and then didn't have time to follow through with any fitting.   So, after trying Bushtaka and Expedition and having much the same luck, we have decided to postpone this shopping to Tuesday PM.   

A lot of people have been asking how I picked Team Kilimanjaro, so I thought I might as well add in a few posts detailing the planning and decisions I/we have made to this point.   

One of the first things I did was lock down Team Kilimanjaro.   A lot of the people I chatted with who have previously climbed Kili recommend just arriving and sorting out a climb group when you get there; this can apparently be cheaper.  However, as we are travelling with Mum, there are certain levels of standard that I wanted to ensure that would be met and decided to book from here.  My key search criteria were: 

• Registered with Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (http://www.kiliporters.org/)
• GPS/social media tracking for people at home to folllow
• Routes/service that involved high quality tenting and not using the huts on the mountain (ask me about this if you have any questions)
• Vegetarian meal options
• Full service company providing safari options
• Individualized routes so as to avoid traffic jams as much as possible (this can actually be a thing!!!)
• Friendly customer service!

I contacted quite a few companies and Team Kilimanjaro really stood out amongst the others.

We will be climbing their own variation on the Rongai Route (http://www.teamkilimanjaro.com/rongai.html).  This is a 7 day climb on a quiet TK variation of the standard Rongai route which allows for a better climb high/sleep low differential than any of the existing Rongai routes.  This is great as the reason the standard Rongai route is so quiet is because it has the second worst likelihood of summitting (failure rate of approximately 50%) of all 6 conventional routes.  With their route variation, which they own exclusively, TK have great success on the Rongai route and we will hopefully have a more serene experience!

Feel free to ask any further questions you may have as to how/why I selected Team Kilimanjaro!

In terms of our training this week ... we are making progress ...

Training since Wednesday:

Thursday - 6km tempo run.  I did this with an overall pace of 6:18 though, so below where I want my 'tempo' to be

Friday - 7.4 km walk

Sunday - 14km LSD run

Monday - 3km run.  Today is supposed to be my off day, but hubby has decided to start running so we are going to work through one of the intro 5k programs with him.  I also skipped Saturday, so this is not not resting, just diverted resting!

I need to add in some strength training somewhere and will likely add in some  Bodyrock on my running rest days ... I love love love Bodyrock (http://www.bodyrock.tv/) and find their videos one of the most amazing ways to kick my own butt in around 20 minutes!

Accomplishments for a simple Wednesday

Last night we had hills training; 5 of them for a wonderful total of 6k of both mental and physical challenge.  

I find it incredibly motivating as our group has a wide range of runners; from first-time half marathoners (like me!!) to seasoned marathoners and everyone in between.  So, when I am slogging up the hill at what feels like a barely moving pace, fighting my brain’s desire to sit on the side walk, it is wonderful when an older runner springs by!  I definitely don’t think I would push myself as hard without those super fit calves and glutes sprinting away from me!  

The group is also wonderful in that those super fit members wait at the top of the hill when they have finished their repeats and actually clap and cheer for everyone as we complete the last one.  It makes you feel like you have accomplished something wonderful on a simple Wednesday evening (which, considering what we did and how fast we have progressed to this level, is actually pretty wonderful)!   This makes me look forward, even more, to the HUGE feeling of accomplishment that we are going to have as we summit Kilimanjaro!  I can’t even begin to imagine how amazing that will feel and am sooo looking forward to it :)   I do wonder though, after Kili, what adventures we will have to take on to get that feeling back!  

96 days to Kilimanjaro ...

I have been talking about starting this blog for a while now and have decided that today is the day!  There are many interesting things that I would like to blog about and have been overwhelmed by all of the possibility ... but I have decided to take it day by day and blog about what is interesting me.   

With this being said, my main initial focus is going to be preparing to climb Kilimanjaro and life's adventures before and after this milestone.  

Source: www.wallhunt.com

I feel like, as with most other things, the Kili deadline is looming up on us faster than we are preparing for.   On July 2nd we leave for Kili and begin our trek on July 6th.  This is not far away ... 96 days to be precise.  Eek!

People ask what we are doing for training ... ummm, well ... Mum and I run with the Running Room (love them!! check out their training programs here:  www.runningroom.com) and I am currently participating in the 1/2 marathon training program for the Ottawa Race Weekend (I'm sure I'll blog about this in later posts).  Other than that though, we haven't even bought our hiking boots yet!!   This is our Easter Wknd goal though ... that and to find somewhere in Ottawa to start our weekend hikes.    This weekend we may need wellington boots instead of hikers, but it will all be part of the training!  My hubby has not yet started any training; I'm not too sure what his plan is.  But dragging him out for weekend hikes is now on our to do list!!

I wonder who the least prepared person to ever summit Kilimanjaro was?  I have heard many tales from all ends of the spectrum, from triathletes who get altitude sickness and don't make it to inactive smokers who do ... it seems almost like a flip of a coin and mostly dependent on one's reaction to the altitude more so than the exercise.   With that being said I read a great post a while ago (I unfortunately can't remember the location) where the author worded it along the lines of: if you don't make it, you want to know that you did everything you could to get there and not have regrets about sitting on the couch in the months leading up to your climb.  I'm thinking that right now I would have some regrets ...so I'm taking this as my new mantra and taking this seriously.  I will make it to the top and if I don't I won't have any regrets!

Source:
www.ewpnet.com/eaimg/kilimanjaro.htm

Another perspective is that great training will make the climb an enjoyable experience versus a grueling physical torture.   I really want it to be enjoyable and I want to be able to take in everything I am seeing instead of focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.  I am sooo looking forward to just day after day of WOW factor.   They have plants that go from freezing at night to +30 temperatures during the day ... WOW.  We get to walk through areas that people refer to as other worldly because of the diverse vegetation ... WOW.  We get to see 100 foot ice cliffs while they still exist ... WOW.   

So, here it begins.   Today, with Running Room, we conveniently have hill training.  I despise and yet love hill training ... the torment of going up the hill is only overshadowed by the sheer joy of completing the torment!

I'm looking forward to publicizing this as it will motivate me to train harder and more consistently.  After all, you will all know what I have or have not done on the road to Kili!