Keeping Up Appearances

Bonjour from atop Saddle Mountain, located near the quaint town of Seaside, Oregon in the Coast Range Mountains. Here’s a quick update I recorded for you from the summit (apologies for the wind):

Keeping Up Appearances

I’m a big fan of racing at top speed and fighting tooth and nail when it comes to going after big goals, but there comes a time in every journey when you have to slow down for just a minute to sort out the details and make sure the ship is sailing the right direction.

While I’d love to be out struggling up the next huge mountain (there are plenty around here for me to play on) I also want to make sure everything falls into place for my much bigger climbs.

That’s why I decided to take just a short trip yesterday up to Saddle Mountain. It doesn’t feel like a huge achievement, but it keeps my head in the game. It’s a reminder that I’m doing something I enjoy.

Of course, I still like to give it my all. Part of that is to make sure I get out of the house – even when it’s raining and miserable and I don’t want to – and push my boulder a little further up the hill so that when the time comes, the last nudge to the top is inevitable.

On Enjoyment

When you’re doing something you really enjoy, you don’t have to out-do yourself with every step. Sometimes it’s nice to just do what you love whether or not it’s a new personal record. Climb for the fun of it, I say.

That’s what this little trip was all about. It’s just for fun, but I’m also keeping up appearances for my long-term goals.

Of course, behind the scenes, things are going crazy. I’m headed off to climb Kilimanjaro next year, but when I started putting the plans together for that, I realized it just wasn’t epic enough.

After some retooling, some additional planning, and a big financial commitment, the plan is now to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Elbrus in the same trip – the tallest peaks on Africa and Europe.

That’s getting closer to how I like to do things. If I can swing it, I’ll run two marathons while I’m over there as well. The sheer thought of that terrifies me which, of course, means that it’s probably what I ought to be doing.

Remembering how sore I felt for a week after my first marathon makes me wonder how I could even possibly pull off two of them and two of the world’s tallest mountains in such a short amount of time, but I’ll give it my best shot. Who needs legs, right?

More Planning, More Doing

There are a lot of moving parts for this upcoming trip. Turning many thousands of frequent flyer miles into free flights and coordinating a make or break schedule for two mountains and two marathons on two continents – well, that’s a lot of work. It’s a big machine and some of the screws are still loose.

It’s coming together though, and I’ll be writing a detailed report on it soon, but in the mean time, it can’t all be planning. There has to be some doing.

That’s why I’m out and about, climbing the small stuff; enjoying it for enjoyment’s sake. But I’m also keeping up appearances.

What are you doing to keep up appearances while masterminding your big goals?

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Oh, and if you want to see all the pictures from the Saddle Mountain climb, you can see them over here on Flickr.