8 Miles

We hiked 8 miles on Friday. The weight on our backs was probably close to 50lbs which is a fairly light load. We had some challenging hills on the route, but at mile 6 things were still going well. Then, the temperature jumped up to 95 degrees and within minutes, I was light headed and thought I was going to pass out. I looked around me. I wasn't the only one feeling that way.

Suddenly, we halted and took a 15 minute break. I checked to make sure everyone was okay, but I was really concerned that I wasn't going to be able to finish the hike myself. I kept drinking water and had a couple of Starbursts. When we started again, I could feel myself going internal. It was my job to be constantly checking on everyone else and making sure they weren't falling behind or succombing to the heat and here I was, not even sure I could make it.

I was so worried about falling behind while climbing up a steep hill, I actually over compensated and got ahead of everyone else. We stopped again about half a mile short of our destination to let the stragglers catch up. I was worthless. I went around checking others, but I finally had to sit down and recover for a moment. There was one more hill to climb.

When we finally made it back, we formed up to get accountability of everyone. I did everything I could to not look how I felt. It was all I could do to stand, but I couldn't let the fatigue show. I could not show that I wasn't up for the challenge.

I completed the hike, while 29 others did not (the either were heat casualties or just could not continue-all are fine now), but I still was still disappointed that it was so difficult for me.