Archive for March 9th, 2009

Bye Bye Blog

Published March 9, 2009 Uncategorized 3 Comments

I have become a very dull blogger.  I don’t think I have written a blog in nearly two months.  Its not that I haven’t thought of it or thought about it I just haven’t been ‘inspired’.  Right now I am nothing more than that good old hamster running on the endless wheel of life.   I am focused on nothing more than the day ahead and inevitably the day involves sweat, pain and tears.  After that is complete I head to physical therapy to be put back together again.  Couple of ibuprofen and off to bed.  The next day dawns bright and its back onto the endless wheel.  I am consoled by my trainers that this intense schedule is finite and soon I will see that light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.  I’m not sure if I want to see it or not since when I catch a glimmer of the other end of the tunnel Everest won’t be far off. Three weeks and counting.

Now besides the gym I will need to start on the shopping list.  I will wander the aisles of Trader Joes adding yet more trail mix and almonds to my cart.  I’m not sure I even know how to pack for three months.  That’s a lot of chocolate covered raisins. The gummy bears will have to share precious space with oxygen tanks and regulators.  I can see it now pondering which to leave behind and which to carry….the dilemma of no gummies or no oxygen- perish the thought!  Cases of lip balm, face cream, gum and peanut butter all carried on the back of a yak to base camp.   

You wouldn’t want to be around me right now.  I’m not much fun. I’m distracted, flightly and flakey.  I’m a feeding machine eating anything and everything thats in my path trying to gain some extra weight before the mountain strips it away. Okay, now that is pretty fun.  I get up early, I go to bed early.  I swim, bike, run, pump iron, jump rope and suffer through ply metric exercises that leave my quadriceps screaming.  I’d take a yoga class to loosen up but I’m afraid I’d fall asleep during a down dog pose and embarrass myself.  I climb a ‘stairmaster’ machine with a weighted backpack and head to endless photo shots or interviews trying to sound sane and perky.

Yup, I’m a hamster on that endless wheel to nowhere forever optimistic that I will reach the gummy bears before I have to leave them at base camp because three pounds of those delightful colored clumps of sugar just doesn’t take precedence over a tank of oxygen.  Darn!

Climb On!

Posts by Date

March 2009
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

About Wendy Booker

In June of 1998, this 55 year old mother of three was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS after experiencing balance problems, blurred vision and numbness on her left side. When first diagnosed, Wendy was devastated. But it took very little time for her to transform anguish into inspiration. She immediately turned her hobby of casual running into a continuous pursuit and has now completed nine marathons.

Mountain climbing became the next conquest. Wendy learned about a team of mountain climbers with Multiple Sclerosis who were attempting to climb Mt. McKinley (Denali) in Alaska. With no previous climbing experience, she dedicated a year to hard training and set off with them in 2002. Although weather conditions prohibited the team from completing, Wendy attempted the summit again in 2004 on her own and she succeeded!

The feeling of accomplishment she experienced propelled her next aspiration: to climb the highest mountain on each continent. Just five years later, Wendy Booker has successfully reached the top of six of The Seven Summits – Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. McKinley, Mt. Elbrus, Mt. Aconcagua, Mt. Vinson Massif and Mt. Kosciuszko. Mt. Everest, the highest mountain on earth, still awaits for 2010.