1% of the way?

On Saturday, we met our coaches, and others like us doing this kind of event and fundraising for the first time, and some people who have benefitted from the blood cancer research funded by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. And got more details on what the training will entail.

One piece of bad news for me, was that we'll be meeting at 6am or so on Saturday mornings to travel to our hike locations in local hills. I'm definitely not a morning person. :(

Today I found a pedometer for $1 at an everything-for-a-dollar store. Cool! I like finding a cheap way to do things. Unfortunately, it reset its count many times during today's walk, so apparently that exhausting long steep stairway at Comm Hill was only some 17 steps. Hmmph. Christina urged me to toss it and buy a proper one whose reset button is protected. Instead, I hacked off the protruding button with my pocket knife. I think that will do it.

According to Google's topo map, that stairway only gained some 46 feet in elevation, or maybe the equiv of going up 5 floors. Or 1/100th of the elevation we'll have to do at good speed to succeed at Half Dome. We have a lot of strength and endurance training to do. Next time, I plan to count the steps (myself and with the pedo) and try out a gps unit, to calibrate that staircase more accurately.

The view from the top of the hill was awesome, with the setting sun making a fan of rays of light over the western hills.