Today I decided to break from my usual routes as of late and go on my favorite run up Mt. Tabor. I can’t do the volcano too often as it is a pretty hard run and it usually takes it out of me. As I was heading up to the top I thought about the stairs that I never take (I instead take a much gentler incline that wraps around the east side. When I got to the top and was doing my victory lap around the half mile loop that rings the peak I thought instead of doing a second lap I should run down the stairs and back up. I was a little nervous about how I would hold up as I had never done them before, but I went for it. Down the steps I went seeing all my hard earned elevation evaporate and at teh bottom I reluctantly turned around. I have rather long legs and taking steps one at a time is often laborious. So I took them two at a time and up I went. The stairs in this area of Tabor are broken up into five mini sets. The first set went really well, I was up them in no time. Feeling inspired I continued on and found myself at the top of all five sets in no time. I thought to myself, what is the beef with stairs? These were easy! I was a little disappointed that they weren’t harder. Just a little though.

So back to the top I continued on my normal route and started thinking about the lower stairs. Tabor has a stretch of stairs on the west side that go about halfway up. They have always looked a little scary to me as they are steep and skinny, but there is a railing and fencing on either side to keep people off the embankment’s erosion project. so I wrapped around and decided that I would give them a shot since I had such good luck on the upper stairs. I was able to do two at a time for about half of the stairs and then I pooped out and switched to single steps. OMG it went on forever and ever. I finally just stopped looking up cause it was discouraging and instead focused on my feet. Bt the time I made it to the top my legs felt like they have never felt before. Big gumby like rubber things that I had no control over. Its a good thing there were railings going down as I definitely needed them. I made it to the bottom and continued on barely able to pull my feet up off the ground to clear roots and other obstructions in the path. Somehow I made it to the street level and slowly plodded the remaining two miles home.

Once home I realized how hungry I was and headed to the local Mexican restaurant for a burrito. As usual I can’t resist their tamales, so I loaded up on a couple and an order of chips. All my burned calories back in my stomach! As well as a belly ache. And now I need a nap.