Night Hike

Last night Ross & I went on a night hike through Shepherds Hill Recreation Park.  Ross picked me up from work and we headed from here.  When we were about 10 minutes away from the park, it started to absolutely bucket down.  But we decided to do at least a 20 minute hike no matter what.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) we missed the turn off to the entrance and had to do a big loop (in peak hour traffic) to get back to it.  By the time we got back there the rain had stopped.  :o)

I was really nervous.  I have never done a night hike before and have never been confident even in the day.  But I had my new shoes and my head lamp and I had Ross with me.  He has walked the paths of Shepherds Hill many times at night and assured me we would be fine. 

Off we went.  Straight up the first big hill.  It took a while, but it was so worth it when we got to the top.

What an incredible view!  The paths were wet and slippery, but my shoes proved their worth and I did not slip once.  They were muddy and saturated, but my feet were perfectly dry.  I LOVE my new shoes!  LOL

We did a big loop.  We couldn't go to the far side of the park as the creek was seriously gushing and there was nowhere to cross.  But we wandered, and climbed, and talked, and had an awesome time.

I was stunned when we got back to the car, it felt like we had only been walking for 30-40 minutes and I knew the park was bigger than that.  We got back in the car and I was quite amazed to see we had been walking for an hour and a half.  It truly did not feel like that long!  It was sensational. 

Because Ross usually works on weekends we are going to try and do this once a week for our training for Heyson.  I am actually not worried anymore.  We would have easily covered 4 or 5 kms last night - probably more.  If we take 5 days to do heyson it is only 12 kms a day.  I am no longer worried that we won't be able to do it.  We have heaps of time to start taking heavier and heavier packs with us and I know we will be fine.

The other cool thing last night was I got to test out my She-Wee.  It was easy to use and mess-free.  And it was VERY cool being able to pee standing up!

Yesterday I went to the bookshop to get a running book I have wanted for a few months.  Unfortunately they were out and I had to order it, but I ended up getting a copy of "The Ultimate Runner: Stories & Advice to Keep You Moving" by Tom Green & Amy Hunold-VanGundy.

It looks pretty good and I will try and start reading it in the next week or so (although I have about 12 or 13 books out from the library, plus the next Book Club selection I need to get through as well). 

Tonight I am going for a walk and I will do a few little runs in there.  Start Running starts Thursday.  My heel/achilles is still slightly tender so I don't want to push it too much, but I do want to have done something before Thursday.

xox