Hike #739; SUNY Albany to Kingston (63.4 miles!)

 Hike #739; SUNY Albany to Kingston (63.4 miles)!

11/23 and 11/24/13 Albany to Kingston 60+ Mile in 24 Hours with Tom Vorrius, Matt Davis, Dan Lurie, and Justin Gurbisz.

The group at Collins Circle, SUNY Albany

There are so many things we leave unfinished in life. I see it every day with older folks I come across, talking about the "Glory Days" Bruce Springsteen sings about. In all of my travels, I meet all sorts of different people from all walks of life, and some of them are only discovering what they want, at twenty years my senior or older. People are plagued with regret and unrealized dreams. Their lives are frosted by the knowledge that they did not live to the potential they thought they could.

A quote I have repeated many times and embraced since my "Glory Days" is this: "To dwell on the past is to rob the present; to embrace the past is to nourish the future". I always took that as meaning if we accept where we've been without regret, as learning experience or whatever, then our futures will be all the better for it (I think I heard it on an old episode of "Kung Fu").

Jillane asked me somewhat recently why people my age and older are always talking about high school. I used to get defensive about it, like it was insulting. I certainly don't dwell on it. I had some fantastic times, but I feel very honestly like I'm having much better times now. But what about other people?

An old friend of mine, who's name I won't mention, told me before my ten year high school reunion that he chose not to attend, pretty much out of shame. He told me his life was not where he thought it should be, that things looked positive back then, and he seemed destined for success, but that his job and his life did not meet his expectations. I tried to console him, and talk him into coming. He's really a great guy, and I felt a great sorrow for him. To this day, I still think of him and how I wish there was something I could do to lift this horrible feeling for him, to help him believe the truth that people will not see him as a failure, and that very few of us are on the track that we thought we'd be on all those years ago. I think he's doing better, and  hope the next reunion we plan he'll make a showing.

High School was a great experience for me. I feel as though I came to be who I am now at about the age of 17. I'd learned and experienced to that point, and continued from there, but so much of my core from that point remains the same. So much happened that year and my life really changed. It was the year I became confident, and stepped up to make my dreams a reality.

Of course, the year was 1997, and on my 17th birthday I arranged my first twenty mile hike. Very shortly after this hike, which we completed in 7.5 hours, I began thinking about time and distance. Hike #3, my friend Conrad and I completed in only about five and a half hours. If I could hike twenty miles in 7.5 hours, could I walk sixty in under a day? A twenty four hour non stop hike?

I'd led a few long  hikes and started trolling my friends for interest in this sixty mile hike. Some were interested initially, but it was hard enough to gather people for twenty miles let alone something that crazy. I kept asking around, with the plan of hiking from High Point NJ to the Delaware Water Gap, then along the old Lackawanna Railroad back to Washington. I asked one of my gym teacher, David Childs, who ran the Wilderness Experience course if he would be interested in trying this hike with me. To my great surprise, even he thought it was too much.

With lack of interest, I concentrated my efforts on day hikes or short backpacking trips, connecting them all in the way that I continue to do today, but the sixty mile/24 hour hike concept has always been in the back of my mind. I wondered if I would ever get the chance to do it.

With so many positive experiences with Metrotrails as of late, I started talking about it again. Dan Lurie was an inspiration because he had done over forty without a break recently. Justin and many others started showing interest as well.

The other thing haunting the back of my mind was the fact that my recent backpack with Jillane was not yet connected with other hikes I had done. I learned early on that I have gift when it comes to memory, but that it is like a building block where I need to have some sort of continuity or common frame of reference or it's all lost. I've been to more than half of the states in the country, and so much of my memories of it are gone. All I have is pictures. I recognize that in order to retain things, and in order to appreciate a place fully, I need to make the connection by foot. In accepting that, I've trained myself to remember even more through these connections.

I NEEDED to connect the hike we finished in Albany with others we'd completed. Sure, there are trails that make connections, but it would take me a very long time with many hikes to connect the Long Path or other trails across the Catskills to where I'd been. On the other hand, Albany and Kingston are just about sixty miles apart....

From Kingston, near the bus terminal, there is a continuous rail trail that leads south and could easily be connected with the recent hikes I've been doing in the Shawangunks. If I could walk from the Collins Circle, at the SUNY College in Albany all the way to Kingston, the remainder of the connections would be enjoyable day hikes that would be not so far for people to travel. I proposed the idea to optimistic support.

I scheduled the hike and put it on the Metrotrails meetup group. Several signed up immediately. I couldn't believe it might actually happen. Just after posting it, my friend Jonathan Wilson managed to run seventy miles in a day, though that was on a track, and at a much faster rate. This was inspiring for me. I didn't feel like it was a competitive type of thing, because what I would be doing is much different, a hike that I have not done through who knows what. It gave me hope though, that Jon could run/walk seventy miles in twenty or so hours, four hours to spare, then I should be able to cover the sixty.

By the night before the hike, we were down to only Dan, Justin, and Tom ready to go. At the last minute, Matt signed back on, and so we all set off in my car to Justin's then on from there to Kingston bus terminal. We bought our tickets, boarded the bus, and arrived at the SUNY college I believe at exactly 10:30 am.

It was good to be somewhere now familiar to me to start this hike. It also felt good that I was on sort of a "mission", and even if I didn't complete the sixty miles in 24 hours, it would be a success because I'm just however much closer to making the connections I wanted to make. No matter what, the trip would be a success. Jillane gave me a card before I left, which said not to open it until I started. I was truly afraid it might be something negative. Matt reassured me "I'm sure it's going to be something positive. It will be a wish for good luck. You'll see".

He was of course right. It was a very sweet card with exactly the support I wanted and needed from her. With that, I was ready to go.

We headed along Washington Avenue, on the wide green swath of grass and trees that paralleled the college campus, heading southeast. We took the road across Rt 85, past the Rosemont Playground, and then further southeast to I think Manning Blvd, then left on Lancaster Street. This led us out to St. Mary's Park below the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, a nice building towering above us. We crossed the grassy park, and then went by tennis courts. There was a fence on this side of the park, we we had to zig zag through to find the way out.

We cut across another lovely college campus area and by a courtyard to reach Western Ave, turned left, and then right on Quail Street, then left on Elberon Ave.

We came out across from Washington Park, a lovely park with a large pond in it and paved trails around the perimeter. We took to the trails on the left side, north side, of the pond and continued on. We passed a closed pedestrian bridge over the middle of the lake, and a lot of employees putting up Christmas lights. It looks like one of those parks that allow public to drive through and view the lights this time of year. We then passed the Lake  House, which had a lovely stage built into the back of it.

Beyond the lake, we continued into a sort of garden section where there was a giant, creepy looking statue of Moses in the center. Justin of course had to climb up on it. There were some amazing huge trees around this area.  We left the park on the southeast side, and followed Madison Avenue into town, pretty much the center area, where we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts. I think Dunkin Donuts rather sucks, and it was insanely hot inside, so I spent most of the time out of it. There was a pizza place called Dino's across the street, so I ran in there and got an amazing slice on the go.

We turned right down Delaware Avenue, and then went left into Lincoln Park. We took a closed roadway south toward Morton Ave, crossed, and continued on Swan Street which led to a baseball field. We kept on across a vacant lot to Boenau Street, and followed it to Second Avenue. We made a brief right, then left on Putnam Street to it's end where we cut across another grassy area. There were good views from these areas off to the left toward and across the Hudson. I was looking for a path I saw on aerial images, but couldn't find it. We had to continue through this park south until we hit McCarty Ave and turned left, heading down hill.

As we headed steeply down hill on the road, I saw a lot of green apples laying in the street and on the sidewalk. Surely they must have been rotten I was thinking. I picked one up, and to my great surprise it still looked ok. I wiped it on my shirt and took a bite. The guys looked at me like I was insane. It was delicious!!! I began picking a few more from the tree and eating them. They'd thought they were crab apples, but they were actually very good golden delicious or something. Some of the juiciest I'd had too. I couldn't believe they were still ripe and not totally rotten in late November. I had to send a photo of it to Jillane.

We reached Rt 32 at the bottom and turned right under Rt 787.  We passed an old gate house to something on the right as we moved away from more of the industrialized areas. We were really leaving Albany now. We crossed a bridge over a river called the Normans Kill, and then passed some industrial places. Along the way, we checked out a side path that went under the railroad tracks that were parallel with us, but it didn't look as though it would lead us where we needed to be so we kept on along the road into the village of Glenmont. We turned off on Old River Road away from the main road because it looked more pleasant, and a guy working outside told us about abandoned railroad cars down a track ahead. We thought this was on our route, and that it would work out well, but when we told him where we were going, he let us know that would not work out for us.

We soon came back out to the main road, but then came to near where the railroad tracks go beneath. We took a dirt lane to the right, then headed down to the tracks and turned right, heading somewhat south.

The tracks took us over Wemple Road, followed by Clapper Road, mostly on a shelf in the hillside surrounded by farmlands below to the left, and woods to the right. Soon, the whole right of way gave way to woods and became more secluded.

We soon reached an interesting spot where Interstate 87 went over our heads almost directly over where the tracks crossed a trestle over the Vloman Kill, a lovely little creek. We continued south from here under Beaver Dam Road, then to the village of Selkirk, on Maple Ave. Here, the tracks curved sharply to the right, but an abandoned line continued straight ahead. We tried to follow the right of way, but had to turn back because it was some sort of gated industrial yard. I thought it might be a good through route, but it's a good thing we didn't go through because there was a security storage place that it also passed through.

We followed Maple Avenue to the east, which would unfortunately add distance. We crossed a bridge over 87, then turned right on Rt 144, River Road. We mostly just stayed on the road, but got off of it at one point on a parallel path through a property with a sign marked "Scenic Hudson". We had to come back out to the road to head south.

There was an abandoned diner, and then around where we passed beneath the Castleton Hudson Bridge, there was an abandoned house on the right. We seemed to be doing okay on time, and it was there, so we decided to check it out. Justin, Tom, and I went through I think every room.

Looking around, we could see this house was a burn victim. There was a burnt smell about it, and and some charred areas. It was in pretty bad shape. We headed out of here and continued south, and passed through some agricultural areas, one of which had what looked like a bee hive out in the middle of the field.

We passed by quarry areas on this huge stretch of road, which was where I wanted to make it past had we kept on the abandoned rail line I initially wanted to follow. Since we still had a little daylight, I considered this a success. A large quarry area was located to our left, and we could get on a hill beside us and get some views of the Hudson. There was a little pavilion near one of the quarry entrances, with a view of the Hudson as well, including up stream to the previous bridges. We took a break here, and Justin flopped to the ground much in the way my cats do, only he didn't get up. I was surprised that he was so tired so early on, it not even being dark yet.

We descended on the road a short distance and made our way into the village of Coeyman's, with high hopes for some food and drink stops. The road took us down and over a bridge high above Coeyman's Creek, a lovely creek in a narrow ravine making it's way into the Hudson with docks and a navigable section just down stream. As we crossed the bridge, we assumed there'd be a rocky section of rapids, but none of us expected to see a grand natural waterfall directly below us.

There were no stores anywhere close by. It was getting cold and dark at this point. We had just enough light left to take photos of the waterfall. Coeyman's was otherwise a disappointment. We grumbled about the existence of sidewalks as we continued.

"Why even have sidewalks? There's nowhere to even go in this town except maybe to look at the waterfall". We continued along the main street out of town, and passed a trail head on the right with a little bridge. We didn't have the time or daylight to check any of this out unfortunately. We crossed the Hannecrois Creek and then left Albany County to enter Greene County. We soon reached the village of New Baltimore, and kept to the road closer to the river, which was more direct, while the heavier traffic road went slightly up hill to the right. We were getting some snow flurries, and our Arizona RX Energy tea that Justin was drinking was turning into a slushy.

The town was pretty this time of night, and it was nice to be walking the dim lit streets with less traffic, but it was a disappointment that there was no food. There was one up scale restaurant that was down hill from us to the left, but we weren't going to take some long side trip for something like that.

The main street came back to River Road, Rt 61 and continued south. The road from Coeyman's to New Baltimore was awful. People were on it driving far too fast and we weren't visible enough. That was rather unnerving. After New Baltimore things calmed quite a lot and the road walk became pleasant.

We were starting to feel the fatigue really at this point (except Justin who had already flopped a couple times). I brought out the 100 proof Peppermint Schnapps I'd purchased for this journey, and Tom, Justin, and I sipped from it for a while. The others didn't want any yet. We had silly conversations and laughed through this section, which was really nice. The quiet roads were great, and there was just enough light from the stars or whatever was in the distance to keep the road visible enough for us to walk on. Some of the nonsense talk began in this area, when for whatever reason the concept of butter came up, and Tom was saying how much he liked "Lake O' Lands" brand. I thought it was quite funny, but Tom wasn't getting it, and I figured Justin just didn't find it funny. Dan, walking right behind us didn't seem to laugh, but was certainly taking it all in, no doubt finding it entertaining silently. After several times repeating back more about "Lake O' Lands" butter, and  having them neither realize that it was backwards, or even question why I would be bringing up such a mundane thing over and over, I turned to Dan and asked "So Dan, what do you think of 'Lake O' Lands' butter?".

Always ready with a clever comment, Dan replied "It's definitely my favorite dyslexic butter!". I think Justin realized it first, then Tom. Lots of laughing and even more silly conversation followed. I wasn't tired yet, although it was late and we'd covered a good distance. I decided on this trip I'd try one of those Five Hour Energy shots for the first time, but Justin started calling the current drink "Five Hour Schnapps".

We continued soon into the village of West Coxsackie, which of course in our frame of mind was worth at least a few giggles, and comments about it being near "East Ballsack". We walked back and forth on the road a little bit, bu then determined that there was food along the road to the west in a short distance.

We headed to a small store that had some seating, I think Griffin's Market. They had a couple of weak malt beverages, but nothing that would do much for us. I think we got some hard teas or something, and had a nice little sit down dinner thing. I had brought a lot of clif bars and such, but I think this is where I had my second slice of pizza. It wasn't super great, but it was something, and it was open.

Feeling refreshed, we continued on and turned right on Bailey Street. While we were walking, a cop pulled up on us to ask what we were doing. We managed to hide our brews in our coats. I told him we were walking sixty miles from Albany to Kingston, that we were part of a hiking group. I had to repeat myself once, and with no questions, not even an acknowledgement. He slowly turned his head and continued driving ahead. He was very awkward, and he was suspicious of us. Of course, they don't see people walking through town, not on a cold night especially, and certainly not to Kingston.

The road soon crossed the active railroad tracks. We heard the whistles blow and saw the arms go down. A train was coming. The cop had just crossed the tracks when the train went by. This was double tracked, and very soon, a second trail coming the opposite direction was coming by on the opposite track. My plan was originally to take a road that it turned out was not public...it was a prison road. A large prison stood in the way of our direct route, so I suggested we walk the tracks past the prison, then onward to the back roads I was originally intending on. Everyone agreed, and I said that as the train went by, we hurry onto the road so we'd be out of sight by the time it passed.

When the second engine passed, we hurried off. The engines moved further and further from sight, and the only sound the remained after a short while was the sparring of the couplers and low squeal of moving metal and cargo. We could see the jail clearly to the right, and certainly if they flashed their light our way they could see us, but the sound of the train made our foot steps inaudible. It was sort of a surreal experience with the ambient light barely hitting us from the jail, and the sounds of the rail cars moving at a not so fast speed beside us. The second train was gone quickly, and only the one moviing in the opposite direction was still there. By the time it was gone, we had some tree cover along the edge of the tracks. When we reached the next road, Flats Road, we turned off of the tracks, but rather than follow the road, we cut across the field to the right at a diagonal to reach Flintmine Road. While out in the field, I saw one car go by, and I assumed it was the same cop we saw before looking for us. We would not be visible in this field. We cut through some corn, then made our way to the road and immediately turned left, heading south.

Just as we were making the corner on the road, getting out of sight from Flats Road, I saw more headlights on the road. I wondered if they would be coming our way, but they didn't. We didn't see any cars on this road for quite some time. I still had some schnapps left, which we sipped and enjoyed for some time. Tom laid down at one time along side the road, and then looked around him to see a white dusting.

"What kind of ass hole fertilizes grass alongside the road????" he yelled out. Justin reminded him that it was just snow, that it had been flurrying just a little earlier. He laughed realizing the silliness of it. We continued south, then turned left onto Flats Road, which crossed over the tracks and continued on the other side. We could have walked along the tracks for further if everyone wanted, but no one was really keen on it. We soon crossed Murderer Creek, named for reasons I do not yet know. Merits further research.

Flats Road took us south to Rt 28, where we jogged right, then left onto Howard Hall Road. On one of these back roads, a friendly couple stopped and asked if we were okay. They offered us something but I don't remember what. We joked that they were swingers and they were trying to lure us into their lair of debauchery. We continued south, crossed Leeds Road, and then reached the intersection with Rt 385.

When we got to the intersection, we were immediately stopped by state police. Apparently someone called them about us walking the roads in the middle of the night, and one of us stepped onto their yards. The police explained to us why we were stopped, and we let them know what we're doing. The one guy seemed like a real hard ass, like Joe Friday, but the other guy was a smiling, cordial one, who reminded me of Bill Gannon, Friday's partner from the old show. They took all of our licenses and copied down the information before we were allowed to go on our way. I really expected to see them again, because I told them the entire route that I was planning to take. Standing around waiting for nearly a half hour here was one of the things that really killed our momentum. We all got very cold not moving, and starting back up again I could feel the pain starting in my feet. We were left to continue along Rt 385 to the right.

Somewhere in here, the sole fell off of the bottom of my right shoe. I had decided at last minute to wear a brand new pair of basketball shoes given to me by Conrad Blease. I thought they were comfortable and had room in case my feet swelled. I thought for sure they'd be fine for one hike. When the sole fell off I couldn't believe it. Fortunately, Tom had some duct tape which I was able to use to hold the sole on for quite some time.

This road really wasn't scenic or nice to walk. There was more traffic, though that wasn't much. We eventually got to Rt 23 north of Catskill, and took a break at a closed mini mart and service station. We then continued on the road down hill, and turned off to the right onto High Street, to I think High Street, then North Street, then Cooke Street, Main Street, and Union Street to Water Street.

There was a pathway that went down toward Catskill Creek. There was an old railroad bridge, now pedestrian bridge across that I wanted to use. Unfortunately, when we got down there we found that it was closed off for construction. I still wanted to cross, and of course Justin was going to do it no matter what. So Justin, Tom, and I hurried across the bridge, jumping over barriers and quickly but cautiously watching our steps in case there were any missing sections where we'd go plummeting into the creek. Nothing was missing and we made it across just fine, and before any cars came by. Dan and Matt went up and around to the nearest bridge to cross.

We continued up to Rt 9W and turned left. This led us into the generic American highway section with all of the fast food chains and stores. Amazingly, McDonalds, bars, everything we went by was completely closed! This was disheartening. Matt and Dan soon caught up with us, and we continued on 9W south through this open area. There was supposedly a 24 hour Wal Mart we'd considered going into. Fortunately we found one store open on the right side, and we all went in.

What a relief it was to finally find someplace open. I wasn't up for getting any more liquor, and all they sold was more of the weak stuff we'd found before. Tom picked up one, which I'm sure helped. I opted to have some food, and then continue on. I think I drank my Arizona RX Energy somewhere in here, and might have even bought another. I just don't remember. We had some sort of snacks at this place, which was nice. Dan, despite the extreme cold outside, decided to purchase an ice cream sandwich and eat it sitting outside. Very strange!

According to Dan's GPS, we had walked almost exactly forty miles at this point. It was already my personal best. Google Earth, scaled later, came up with almost the exact same distance to this point.

It was tough to get going again from here. We turned onto 9W south, which made it's way away from the commercial area and into an undeveloped spot along the railroad tracks. The road was long and quiet. Tom and I powered ahead pretty well, though now I was in great pain.

The other three, as they told me, slowed to a speed of about a half a mile an hour. I needed to just keep moving. We just kept on going, and came close to more quarry operations heading toward the village of Cementon. The highway made a hard left turn to pass under the parallel railroad tracks, and we stopped for a break at the bend to wait for the others. They weren't catching up after a long while. I was starting to fall asleep, and so decided to take my five hour energy thing. I was ready to fall asleep right there on the curb.

The pain was also getting to be too bad. My muscles weren't nearly as bad as the rawness I felt on the bottoms of my feet. I took two Alleve, another thing which I rarely ever do, which really helped a lot. I talked to the others by phone and they said they were calling a taxi, couldn't handle any more, having completed about 47 miles, a personal best for all of them.

Tom told me shortly after that if I wanted to kick it up a gear, that would be alright with him. That totally surprised me, and that's what I did. He had no trouble managing the pace. Or at least it didn't look like it as far as I could see!

Tom and I powered on. I remember some of Cementon, but other towns like West Camp and Malden just blew by. I remember some of the road sections, moving along quickly, with little ups and downs along them that felt like they would kill us. Tom and I were having good conversations for quite a long while, but beyond the forty mile mark, I think we were trying, but he was by this point more coherent than me. I think the remainder of the time was just surviving.

We soon came into the town of Saugerties. As we were coming into town, the sun just started to come up. 9W makes some weird turns through town, and I tried to watch where it went, but we still overshot it by a little bit. We ended up having to turn back at one point. We headed down hill and crossed over the Esopus Creek on the Hill Street bridge. It was nice to actually have a view of the water, or of anything for that matter.

There were some nice old buildings lining the sides of the road, which were nice to see. We continued through South Saugerties, which had a few open stores, but we never stopped. We just kept powering through. I think the daylight helped us to stay awake at this point.

Also in this area, the sole fell off of my right shoe yet again. I decided not to even try to put it on again, and just go with it being like a glorified sock for the rest of the way. I stuffed the sole into the pouch no my pack, unable to tape it again because of the snow and how wet it was.

9W soon paralleled closely the Espopus Creek, which was flowing in a northerly fashion. When the creek turned away, we could see some waterfalls off in the distance. There were no trespassing signs everywhere, and property for sale signs that read "waterfalls". I read later that this is called Glenerie Falls. The creek is calm and then seems to flow over this rock formation when it shifts direction from east to north.

We continued the death march along 9W up hill, and then into the outskirts of Kingston. I kept using my phone navigation to update the route distance. Tenths of miles fell off of our distance rather quickly, but Tom kept saying "Don't even tell me! I don't wanna know! Let's just do this". He was right, but for some reason I couldn't help but to keep checking. The original route that I'd scaled off between SUNY college and the bus station I believe was 58.3 miles, and I knew that we'd end up adding more onto it somehow in different places so it would certainly equal sixty.

As we were getting into town, we passed beneath Rt 209, then dashed across the highway to get on the right side. We had to get to Ulster Ave at a fork. We passed along this road through the Lincoln Park section of Kingston. I determined at a point in this area that we had completed sixty miles. I knew it was at about that point, and so I stopped Tom to shake his hand and let him know that we had completed my goal. Still, we had to get to the bus station. This was just extra credit.

We made our way into town, passed some historic buildings and over railroad tracks that didn't look very active, part of the New York, Ontario and Western I believe. We soon picked up some of the "Kingston 1777 Trail", a walking route that passes several historic points of interest through town. We followed some through the stockade district, some of the oldest parts of town, then somehow on John Street and Front Street.

When we were a couple of blocks away, I told Tom we were just about there, and asked him how he felt about running the very last leg of it. I was already incredibly impressed that he kept up with me, but I was even moreso when he immediately agreed to the run.

We dashed up the road, which actually felt pretty good to exercise some different muscles. We should have run a little earlier.

We ran into the station building to find Matt, Justin, and Dan all lounging. It felt great to be back, having not only completed but surpassed the original goal.

Tom and I hiked 63.4 miles in 23.5 hours, finishing at 10 am.

My feet were raw and my legs were sore from that last twenty mile push. Everything I felt up to the forty mile mark was an absolute joy that I would gladly repeat, but everything beyond that was a physical trial of agony and self abuse. There were a few good bits, and some nice scenery, but the pain and fatigue was almost too much to handle.

I tried to drive home for a while, but I couldn't handle it. I felt I would fall asleep. Fortunately, Matt was feeling well enough and took over driving for me. I tried drinking a red bull, which I almost never do, but it just wouldn't work. After I sat down, I still could not fall asleep. Friends told me I was hyper stimulated, which would be why I couldn't pass out.

I could barely doze all the way back to Justin's, and then back to Washington. Even after getting home, I did not sleep until 7:30 pm. After standing up, I could barely walk.

The next day was even worse. I could barely get out of bed. I called in sick from work, to let them know I was successful but hurt. I couldn't think straight, and was terribly hungry. I didn't even consider that I could call pizza delivery. Fortunately, my mom bought me a cheese steak and delivered it right to my door. I had a limp for the rest of the week, and even with the next hike the rawness of my feet would not go away.

And so now my life feels a bit more complete. I feel empowered to know that I can walk such a distance in a day's time, and grateful that I have such amazing friends who are willing to share in such an undertaking.

The feeling I now have is like a weight off my shoulders, where I've truly proved something to myself more than to anyone else, but I've shared it with others. I can now move onto new things with greater energy, and focus more on things I'll enjoy rather than goals never met, and I wish for everyone to be able to experience such a release.