Climbing Cowles Mountain

 

A friend of mine had spoken to me about her climb at Cowles Mountain and I was interested. Yesterday I give it a go. I was shocked at how high this was. It's 1 1/2miles that looks like 5 with incline, stair master, and treadmill hybrid. There were boulders you had to climb over, steps starting at your knees to get over, and snakes to be on look out for. From the beginning I was having a hard time breathing right. It didn't help I had completely forgotten my in-haler, it was a complete fail on my part. Not even 1/2 up the mile I had to tale brakes to find a good huff in air. My good friend assured me we had no rush and could stop as many times as I needed. So I kept on. Once by 3/4 mile (there are mile marks through the trail) my stomach got upset and I was ready to puke and call it quits. I got dizzy light headed and scared, but yet when I looked over and saw the scenery and how high up I was I wanted to keep going. So I grabbed as much air as I needed and thought to myself 'you have to keep going, you haven't piled yet and if you puke oh well you puked'. I was determined to at least finish the mile. And then the weirdest thing happened.... I was beginning to feel great. I was no longer hugging and puffing for air my breathing was normal, I no longer felt like piling my brains out and suddenly I realized not only has a breeze come in to help breathing but I climbed over my mental wall and now I felt unstoppable... So this is how that feels, to conquer yourself. Buy just when I felt unstoppable the darkness started rolling in and I said oh hell nah! I scared about these snakes coming out, every noise I heard I was paranoid of. So I called it a night and braced myself for the walk down. That was fun -_- I used the flashlight on my phone to see my steps. Almost busted my butt about three different times. And the best part my phone died and I no longer had my own light to see well. What an experience. I'm bummed I wasn't able to finish it especially after I was feeling good but I know I will, I will get to the top. Ill have to get there a little earlier and bring my inhaler ;).