What felt like 50 was actually 13

Yesterday I awoke in the wee hours of the morning- 4:30AM. Yes, there is such a thing. And me, Braydon, and Adam all headed up to Kolob to hike the West Rim trail. Even after having only 2 1/2 hours of sleep I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! =D I was totally unprepared for the hours and hours of heat, pain, and suffering I was to endure during that hike.
We were rather chipper at first, but we got quieter and quieter as the miles went on. At least I did. My brothers on the other hand, kept poking fun at completely innocent me! The scenery was beautiful though. Adam kept smelling trees, saying that they smelled like vanilla. I caught a very faint whiff once, but I think they had been sniffing too much, if you know what I mean.
Nevertheless, I did enjoy myself. It was amazing, once on top of a mountain, when the boys had gone around a bend ahead of me, I turned in a full 360 and saw nothing but nature. We were literally in the middle of nowhere! It was sooo crazy!!


About the last 1/3 of the hike, my lower half was done. My knees were creaking, my ligaments felt like they were going to pop off, my ingrown toenail was burning, and I was just plain tired! There was one point, at a steep uphill, that Adam and Braydon literally PUSHED me up the trail! Adam kept saying, "I'm 38, and you're taking the last good years of my life away."
Once the top of Angels Landing was in sight, I felt heartened, but still exhausted. We had been yo-yo-ing with these two chattery ladies and a silent man for the last mile or so and we were desperately trying to get away from their hearty yakking. But I was only shuffling along, my ears bleeding as well as all my other maladies. As we went down Walters Wiggles, Adam and Braydon seemed to have given up on waiting for me and left me in the dust. They did stop once after the Wiggles and waited for me to catch up, but that was it. So, with my mouth slack, and possibly drooling, and my gait shuffling I went the last 2.5 miles alone. *Sigh* I could literally feel the pity radiating from the tourists as they passed me. Haha, oy! We got home and I went straight to the shower and to the nap. Since then I have been hobbling around. It feels like I ran a marathon or something! Would I do it again? Probably not. Would Adam want to even invite me again? Probably not. But am I proud that I hiked 13 miles? Heck yeah! =D