When Down Was a Circle of Hell More Feared than Up.

I got up late on Saturday and had little time to prepare for the Peacock loop.  My back has been bothering me, I was busy dropping off and picking up Yumiko.  I was not particularly together when I walked out the door after 5:00 AM for a 6:00 at Dillingham.

I got there and was in slow motion as I finished getting ready, and when Rex came back from doing a drop at the bottom of Long Road I was still trying to get ready.   Sarah was there, Rosie, a couple of guys whose names I should know.  They headed out and I was behind from the start. I stopped to take a leak and I was behind farther.   My back was bothering me, I couldn't chase, I was grumpy, I was stiff... so go screw yourself.



I got over half way up the Kealia switchbacks and I was puttering along, bitching out loud to myself.  Trying not to talk myself into falling down, so I could quit.  I looked up and it was still a long way to go to get to the Picnic Table.   I pushed, pulled my back a bit, hurt, froze, and thought about quitting for about the 20th time.  But I pictured myself trying to go down feeling like I was and knew that Up was the only answer.  I had to push up the switchbacks to the trail, up the road, and keep going if I was going to make it down the other side.  The only way out, considering how I felt was doing about eight miles to come out on at the bottom of long road so I could walk six back to the car.  Like I said, going down was impossible, I was likely going to pull my back and fall, and up seemed the only choice available--unless of course doing nothing could qualify at this point in time.  So I pushed on bitching and complaining, but at a lesser rate.

Rex was waiting for me at the picnic bench.  I popped my back a bit, bent over, and realigned it again, and could climb with only mild pain.  We pushed upward maybe 15 minutes behind the crew.   We went on up past the three way to the look out, and then back tracked Gordon's planning on running into the crew on their way along the ridge.

There were points along that trail where my back and the slick ground made it a bit difficult.  But I slipped and fell only once or twice.  We ran into the crew, plus Doctor Bill, and after some brief conversation I was at the back of the pack again, and I only went down a few more times.

I got to robs to find everyone standing around, we talked a bit,  Dr. Bill, who turns 70 in a week or two, headed out toward the rock piles,  Cheryl, Marianne, Judy, and another guy whose name I should know, came up the trail, and the crew headed down, and we joined the new gang.  I actually managed to keep pace with the group over the more even ground.  and stayed with them until we were on our way down long road.  Then I gave into some of the pain and lagged.

Rex and I headed out with 14 plus in the mileage and a bit over 5 hours.   We were both hurting, but I put my head down and just pushed up long road.  The pacing was good for me, and diverted me from my back.  We kept on, the intermittent conversation keeping us moving.  We stopped at the picnic table for a rest after moving pretty good down the road, and did the switchbacks, my back and legs in a bit of pain but nothing too bad.   We finished in about 8.5 hours and did 25 miles or so.  Not bad considering we are both really beat up at the moment.    

It was a good suffering, the kind of trek that simply teaches you to keep moving through the pains and to try and adjust rather than whine and whimper and quit.  (The whining and the whimpering happen, the quitting has to be denied and sub conscious urges resisted.)

I got home and found I had an arrhythmia that was way out.  It sounded like somebody taping out Morse code inside my chest. I think it was a bit too much potassium/magnesium electrolyte during the run.   I slept,  ate a bit, and it was a bit better, but doing some kind of off beat blues.  The next morning it was a bit better but it wasn't until I got out and did some fast walking that it calmed down a bit. By Monday it was back to a fairly normal beat.

Did Makapu'u lighthouse with Yumiko, and there were two large pods of Humpback Whales, and one of what looked like false killers. Plenty of action.