Did you hear?

I climbed a mountain!

This one, to be exact.

We took a little mini family vacay to Montreal this weekend to see the St. Paddy's Day Parade, to spend time with my sister/brother-in-law and niece and to enjoy the beautiful city (in 25 degrees gorgeous summer weather to boot!)

I was not going to let the fact that I wasn't at home interfere with my training schedule, so Sunday morning I set out bright and early and very early on realized that running down the city street was going to be a pain if I had to start and stop at every traffic light!

The day before we had taken the kids to a cute little park that was right beside a mountain. So I ran back that way. Then I found a running/biking path around the park that was about 400m, so worst case scenario I thought I could run that over and over. Then, I saw another path across the street in front of the mountain (I attempted to run up some stairs, that were still covered in ice and then proceeded to slip down the stairs, in front of numerous people, I'm sure I blushed!)

I ran around, finally got to the trail and realized that wow, it was leading up the mountain. Not knowing how far up it went, I started off. And it was uphill. I'm used to running on the street in my little town, which is NOT uphill. It was tough. But the weather was beautiful, there were TONS of people running on the trail, so I kept at it.

And up I went. And when I thought I couldn't possibly go any higher?

There were stairs. And lots of them.

I always wished we had a big set of stairs near my house so I could run up them. Let me tell you - be careful what you wish for. By the time I got to the top my legs were on fire! But wow, what a view.


I ran a little higher and there was a beautiful building up there (with a ton of tourists!) so I around the grounds, and then started back down the other side of the mountain until I realized I'd probably get lost so I better go back the route I came on. So down I went.

And of course, with it being Montreal and all, there was always something to look at. Including firefighters practicing climbing/rescuing someone on the mountain (I didn't want to take pictures too close in case I wasn't allowed and didn't want big firefighters yelling at me!)

By the time I got down to the bottom, ran around the park two more times - I had done my 12k.

And honestly, I had a great time. There's something about running in nature, that just gets me going (literally!). And watching all like-minded people out there, challenging themselves, it's a very contagious feeling. It sparked something in me, I don't know how to write about it yet, but I'm hoping to soon. Something about how there has been many a times where I will go by the river and see people kayaking, when I see people doing long distance biking, when I pass runners in the street - I used to say to Jeff "I think in my next life I will be an athlete". Jeff would look at me and say "Why your next lifetime, why not this one"?

I'm turning 37 this year (eek!). There's part of me who just assumes that life will go on the same as it is now. Maybe I just still don't see that I will one day I will reach my health goal. I will have a lower body fat %. I will be a smaller size. I will be more physically fit. Is that why I never reach my goal and continually fall off the wagon (and no, I haven't) but do I just assume I will fail? Why do I think that other people can, but I won't?

But when I was running that trail, I felt something in me. I felt like maybe I could do it, maybe I was on my way there. I LOVED it. I loved the fresh air, being outdoors, running, pushing myself, testing my boundaries, giving it my all, and DOING IT.

See - not ready to write about it, I can't even gather all my thoughts.

So for now - I will leave you with me, of who I am.