How it all began...

I'm not even sure when, actually... but it was definitely more than a year, or even two years ago.  I'm guessing that I first had the seed planted about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro sometime in 2008.  That year, Anne Curry, as part of some Today Show "environmental awareness" thing, attempted the climb.  I watched some of the footage, and I remember the drama surrounding her 'not making it to the top.'  It must've given me the thought, somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind, that if she could undertake that, why couldn't I?    Sometime after 2008, Jessica Biel also made the big Kilimanjaro climb along with some other celebrities.  Once again, the idea pinged that these celebs are really just mere mortals, so if they can... you get the idea.  It might have been around 2010 that I mentioned the idea to my sister, who herself enjoys travel and challenges, and she jumped on board with me right away.  We started talking dates, and although years in the future, it was settled that late 2013 or early 2014 might be do-able.   Time passed, and we kept working on making this a reality.  It got to be 2012 when we decided that a summer trip (since I teach school) would be best and that a full-moon summit would be ideal.  About this time, my BFF for the last 30 (gasp) years, Liz, decided that she wanted to be part of this big event, and now we were a group of three looking to make it official. 


I should probably interject, here, that early-on in this process I would not have been in any kind of physically fit enough shape to do this. Somewhere in 2007 or 2008 I started running for the first time in my life with the idea of trying to complete a 5K race.  I did it, and felt like I could do more, so I did my first 10K.  Next came my first triathlon (which was also celeb inspired: if J-Lo could do it, so could I!), followed by a half-marathon, and in April of 2011 my first (only, and probably last) marathon.  What I learned about myself in the marathon and triathlon training processes is that I really want/need a big goal to be pointing towards in order to stay motivated to stay fit.  Just 'looking good in jeans' isn't motivation enough for me.  After the marathon, I was stuck for a while, so the Kilimanjaro idea bubbled up to the surface and became "the next big thing."  This is when we started to really search for a tour outfitter and make it official. 


Sara, my sister, did a lot of the leg-work and helped narrow down our possible tour operators.  We booked with "Climb Mount Kilimanjaro"  (www.climbmountkilimanjaro.com) , with one main reason that Henry Stedman, the main guy at this place, literally wrote the best-selling guidebook about Kilimanjaro.  That gives us a lot of confidence that we are dealing with someone who knows what's up! (19,340 feet up, to be precise).  If you like their page on Facebook, (search for Climb Mount Kilimanjaro), I believe you will be able to see updates about our progress on this trip.  There is also a web site called Team Kilimanjaro  (www.teamkilimanjaro.com) that may have that info, but I haven't confirmed that 100 percent yet.  Anyhoo... with confidence that we had picked a good company, we committed to the trip with a deposit of funds, and that made it official:  Sara, Liz and I will be trekking up Mt. Kilimanjaro from July 6 - 13, 2014.  


Stay tuned for more blog posts about my preparations, packing list, etc.  Read as little or as much as you'd like! :-)