Heading to the Hills!

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. -- Nelson Mandela

This season I managed to climb the great hill of my open water swimming monkey...so I've been looking for more hills to climb - and surprisingly they are not too hard to find.  I'm going to climb the marathon hill (again) in March and beat it this time.  And then I'm going to climb the hill of climbing hills.  Remember earlier this year when climbing hills on my bike made me cry?  I do.  When we were looking at HIMs for next year (yes, I'm so excited after Patriots that I am ready for two HIMs for 2014), I said I wanted one that had a downhill swim, a downhill bike, and a flat run.  Yeah, not so many of them out there.  I was going to do Eagleman in Maryland (not a downhill swim, but flat - flat - flat), but the lodging sitch there was less than optimal.  Instead we decided that I'm going to do Raleigh 70.3 on June 1, 2014...my first official "IRONMAN (R)" race.  The swim isn't downhill, but it is in a lake, so I shouldn't have to fight the currents and tides.  They've changed the run course to make it less hilly.  But the bike course?  Yeah...it's another hill to climb.  Many hills to climb, in fact.  See?

Looks like fun, no?  No - but that's the point, right.  A new challenge - new hills to climb.  The climb is what it is all about.  Miley said so, before she became a creepy little twerker and all.  :-o

The struggles I'm facing

The chances I'm taking

Sometimes might knock me down

But no, I'm not breaking

I may not know it

But these are the moments that

I'm gonna remember most, yeah

Just gotta keep going

And I, I got to be strong,

Just keep pushing on

'Cause there's always gonna be another mountain,

I'm always gonna wanna make it move

Always gonna be a uphill battle

Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there

Ain't about what's waiting on the other side

It's the climb, yeah!