Clean up from my support team

We left Grande Prairie around 7 a.m. Mike drove while Amber and I guzzled coffee. It was raining and raining some more. We crossed our fingers, it was not raining in Grande Cache. It was. We met Tymmarah and the four of us set off to do leg 1. 

After we finished leg 1, Tymmarah took her leave and we hooked up with Laverna to continue on to leg 2. The rain had stopped by now and it was plain muggy. I felt pretty good. I stubbed my left foot a few times going up Flood but I just soldiered on. The agony began when we went through the slugfest. My toes were screaming out in pain. At the end of it, I realized my sneakers were a tad bit too tight. So imagine going down, down and down some more, and your little toes are banging against the inside of your sneakers. Not fun.

Crying didn’t help. Swearing didn’t help either. I tried to keep up with the others but I was going so painfully slow on the down hills. I burned it up but coming down was pure torture. Mike and I had caught up with Laverna and Amber at the top of Grande. We all went down together but I just couldn’t keep up. Mike went up with Amber. (I think he was tired of my crying and whining)  Laverna stayed back and tried to comfort me.  I was so thankful but I felt like a moron. 

Almost down, I had a breakdown … okay my third breakdown. I told Laverna, I can’t go any further with these sneakers. I sat down on the ground and took them off. I was too scared to look at my feet. So I hobbled down in my socks. It felt great and liberating. I picked up the pace. 

Mike called Laverna at one point. Are you guys alive? Yikes! Waiting at the Grande Cache cemetery, they had enough time to dig a shallow hole.  Hmmm. I don’t think they thought I would ever make it down. 

So thankful to everyone for being so supportive and understanding. I asked them to leave me to the cougars and bears but they wouldn’t do it. 

Above is the video… right after I came down. Mike and Amber took great care of me!