trailwalker moments

Some memorable Trailwalker moments:

• cheering on the Gurkhas (and other super (sub 18-hr) teams) as they ran past us (reminder: we started 2.5 hours before the first official start time).
• being offered gummy candies by Mike Harrison at the bottom of Rooster Hill on Stage 3.
• getting a call from Ikea about a shelf I'd ordered while we were stopped at our first support stop. Bizarre...
• having my fill of carb gels (don't even want to look at them for a while...).
• drifting off to sleep while walking... a few times.
• receiving applause from the high school volunteers whose job it was to cheer on hikers entering check point 4.
• getting to the half-way mark and knowing that the hardest climbs were behind us.
• being so tired and unreasonable that I hoped my teammates would actually suggest taking a nap in the middle of the trail. Thankfully Dave was willing to give me some of his Red Bull, which helped get me through...
• getting to the top of Needle Hill (with the help of U2 on my iPod, and super-hiker Cindy walking behind me) on Stage 7.
• wanting to quit in the middle of the night on Stage 8, but then realizing it would be more work to try to find my way home than to continue and finish.
• seeing the sun come up from Tai Mo Shan (Stage 8). What a welcomed dawn!
• looking forward to cinnamon rolls (made and served by my mom) at the bottom of Tai Mo Shan.
• being "towed" by super-hiker Cindy, and then later by my dad (he'd had only 3 hours of sleep the night before, so ended up dropping out after Stage 3, but joined us again for Stages 9 & 10).
• FINISHING!