Can't...Keep...Up...

The title of today's post has two meanings. One, I still can't seem to keep up with this blog, and two, I went on a hike today and well...see the title.

I have a couple of colleagues, one of who is in great shape, and the other who is in pretty dang good shape. The second one feels very out of shape, and so when we were all at a meeting together, decided to start going out hiking together. We set this as a date.

The ironic part is that if you take our initials and put them together, it spells "HEK." So I decided to call our group What the HEK. I get a kick out of calling them up and saying "Where the HEK are we going to meet?"

I know. I'm a dork. When my daughter is a teenager, I will be the living body of embarrassment for her. I can only dream of reaching embarrassment heights like Dave Barry, a former columnist for the Miami Herald and my all-time favorite author. In one of his books he talked about how he felt it is his role in life as a father to embarrass his son whenever possible. His proudest achievement? Getting to pick up his son from Junior High School in...get this...the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.

I could never live up to that. So I have to settle for stupid puns that don't even always make sense.

Anyway, the plan was that the two of us that have dogs would bring them along and I would bring my daughter in a hiking backpack. Since they are both aware of my back issues, they said they could take over with the pack if needed. (I am blessed to have such good friends.)

We met at a park that is in the middle of the city. Now for some dumb reason, I had assumed that being in the middle of the city, it would be at least mostly flat.

This was stupid.

First of all, the city is NOT flat, considering it goes from hills down to a river.

Therefore, a park would likely be built in areas that regular buildings can't be; i.e., the not flat parts.

Therefore, the park was definitely NOT flat.

Being the chatterbox that I am, we set off and I was telling one of my stories. Pretty soon, I was ... telling ...*PANT*... one ...*PANT*... of ... my ...*PANT*... stories*PANT*.

Eventually they pretty much informed me they were now going to carry my daughter for me.

I left out the part that my daughter kept leaning sideways in her carrier, picking leaves, and shredding them into my hair. She thought this was HYSTERICAL.

Of course she stopped when my friend carried her.

We got back to the park lodge, refilled water bottles, and my three (me, my daughter, and my dog) departed.

The other two kept hiking, probably at a much faster pace.

I decided not to go to the gym. Those hills were TOUGH and really made me rethink the run part of this triathlon.

But I'm still crazy enough to think I could do it. I should probably get around to registering before it fills up, like my sister keeps telling me.