[Nevertheless] I Reached the Beach

Our first steps of Camp Calumet's Reach the Beach Walk were taken as we prepared for our trip to Camp Calumet to take two of our children to Resident Camp, visit our Leadership and Service teen who was already there, and camp for nine-ish days with our eldest daughter and her boyfriend. We logged plenty of miles for the walk during those nine days. 

Throughout the eleven weeks of the Walk, we had plenty of adventures. We hiked Jackman's Ridge (hike 18), Mount Katherine (hike 19), Hoppers Birge Pond Nature Preserve (hike 20), Sessions Woods (hike 21), White Memorial (hike 22), Leatherman Caves (hike 23), and Sunnybrook State Park (hike 24). We logged miles at Lake Compounce Amusement Park, Quassy Amusement Park, Mystic Aquarium, the CT Science Center, and Old Sturbridge Village. We took many steps volunteering at Epoch Arts Tag Sale, helping in New Start (refugee resettlement) Ministry, walking to various activities around Camp Calumet, and in places including hospitals, the airport, physical therapy, churches, theaters, and various stores. 

When I signed up to be part of the Walk, I set a quite unrealistic goal for myself of hiking a little over 18 miles a week so that I would walk 200 miles - the distance the Reach the Beach relay teams run - by the end of the eleven weeks. That might not be much for some, but with my multiple chronic illnesses, chronic pain, and mobility issues, I knew that some weeks it would be a challenge.
 

At one point I dislocated my hip and couldn't do much for a couple weeks beyond physical therapy. Then I had a nasty reaction to a Hep B vaccine and was down for the count for another two weeks. On my bad days, I made sure to log every step, even if it was just to the kitchen or bathroom and back to bed.

This past Thursday, we logged our last miles for the Reach the Beach Walk. Up until that point, I had only kept tabs of my mileage weekly - I hadn't added up the weeks to see how close I was to my goal of two hundred miles. I was worried I'd get discouraged at how far away from my goal I was. With some trepidation, I added up each of the eleven weeks. Peering at the total, I was in shock. I added the numbers again just to be sure. Two hundred three miles!

I had walked, hiked, crutched, stumbled, and shuffled 203 miles in eleven weeks. When I set that 200 miles goal for myself, it sounded good to my OCD mind, but completely unattainable to my rational mind. Nevertheless, I reached the beach!

And better than anything I accomplished, the RTB Walk team together raised thousands for Camp Calumet!

It makes me wonder - how often do I sell myself short? How often do I set the bar lower for myself than I should or not set a goal for myself at all? At what point did my chronic illnesses rob me of confidence in myself to push myself beyond what I think it rational? When did I stop dreaming? 

My new goal is twenty miles a week. That's 300 miles by the end of the year. Aaaaand, go!