Sucking Up Hill…

The city of Grahamstown was built in a region of mountains, which is incredibly beautiful. Our dorm is at the bottom of about three mountains, which essentially means anytime you want to go to an event you are headed for a hike up a mountain. Our first show yesterday at South African National Arts Festival was a film being shown at the monument. The monument is a very industrial looking building the top of the highest mountain in Grahamstown. There is a hill that eventually leads you to a small footpath at the base of the mountain that guides you to the top. Now most of you know, I am married to a soon-to-be-former military man, so climbing the mountain for him seemed to be a breeze. I, on the other hand, got some much-needed exercise Monday morning. This mountain path was ridiculously steep. Every step felt like a lunge. With each step your body is naturally pressing all of your weight into you heals to try to keep you upright. I thought about half way up the mountain it would be my legs or thighs that hurt, but that wasn’t it. Instead, I felt like I couldn’t take in enough air. Not like an asthma attack, more like my breathing felt shallow. I tried my Pilates deep breathing – didn’t work. I tried taking large breathes through my mouth – didn’t work. The oxygen was burning my nose by the time I made it to the top of the mountain. Most annoyingly every 3 minutes or so Marcus would stop oh a good 20 or 30 paces ahead of me to wait for me to catch up and to check to see if I was alright. (Okay he’s a good husband) But I waved for him to keep going so I could continue to trudge along in peace and not feel rushed to continue the climb. This guy didn’t even break a sweat :p. After the movie, on the way down the hill Marcus turns to me and says, “Yeah you were sucking on the way up.” :) No Kidding.

Sidebar: when we got down the base of the mountain an Asian man on his way up asked if the monument was at the top. We replied yes. He looked as if some one had punched him in the solar plexus with one hand and slapped in the face with the other. (marcus's description) He turned, shuck his head and started to climb shouting, “Shit… Fuck… Shit!” Marcus and I laughed as we headed down the hill and I thought: “Yeah me too bro. Me too.”