Coach Dawn was there, and she gave me some advice.
“For this lap, don’t walk the same way. Side walk. Duck walk. Walk any way but normally. And stop every 15 steps.”
It sounds goofy, but I did it, almost the entire way up. Side walk. Stop. Duck walk. Stop. Side walk. Stop. Regular walk. Stop.
It helped. I had 10 under my belt now.
I kept going - the final ascent was in sight!
My first ascent had been 1:05. My last ascent - the ascent to get my Red Hat - took me 2 hours and 45 minutes. I spent that entire lap soaking it all in.
I only have one regret from the event. After I finished, I spent 4 hours cleaning up, showering, wearing Normatec boots, and even dozing off for a nap. I missed going up to the top with all the people coming in at the end. I heard about it all at the evening dinner, and I regret missing it.
After crushing my own challenging goal, nothing would have been more fulfilling than watching others do the same.