And over prematurely, at least for me. At Stage 11 my legs cramped up and I couldn’t go on. I completed about 60% of the course, climbing 6 mountains out of 10. Now I’m home and exhausted, but I’ll survive.
I got up at 4 a.m., and met the other three teachers in front of my apartment complex. They picked me up and said that the other teacher had “car trouble” and couldn’t make it. That should have been my first warning, but I ignored it and jumped in the car.
Komuri-sensei came by at the starting line to see us off and take some pictures of us. The other teachers managed to talk him into climbing the first mountain with us. We left the starting point at 5:30, and charged up the hill in the darkness. One of the teachers had lent me his headlamp, but I ended up just using my keyring light in particularly dangerous areas. I made the first hill no problem, and the teachers were all relieved.
We reviewed the map at the top, and it turns out that the course is only 41 kilometers long – not the 50 kilos that was advertised initially. Also I noticed that we would be reaching the summit of ten mountains on the course. In my mind I had pictured hitting the top of the first mountain and then going on some kind of a ridge trail hitting each one with no trouble. Wrong!
After Mr. Komuri split to catch a bus back to his car, we turned and went up through a large town. I was feeling really good – no blisters, no pain, no problem. I was taking stairs two at a time and not even breathing hard. Something that surprised me was that we came completely off the first mountain to sea level and walked a ways to the next mountain. Then we climbed that one. Repeat six times. The mountains were averaging about 1500 feet each, so there was a lot of elevation gain and loss. By the third or fourth mountain, I was starting to feel the effects of charging through the beginning of the course.
The trail was crowded with people also climbing mountains, and they walked very slowly. I usually hike in fast bursts with lots of breaks, but since I was hiking with other people I had to do what they were doing. We took a break every hour, and only stopped for five minutes or so. My hiking partners charged down the hills, almost running, and eventually the pace was getting to me.
As for the other teachers, they were paying a high price for all this speed. At each stop they pulled off their shoes, and worked on their feet – I was surprised to see lots of blood, but they just played it off like it was no big deal. One teacher kept re-taping his leg, and each time he stopped he’d tear it all off and start over.
The last mountain I climbed was 2300 feet tall, and that just about did it for my poor legs. Each break I rubbed them down and stretched them, but the cramps were running up and down, and it got to a point that I had trouble lifting my foot of the ground on the flat trail.
At the top of Mt. Maya we stopped and rested, and I had about twenty minutes to try to get the cramps under control. The rest of my body felt fine, and for a brief time I thought I had it fixed, but as soon as I squatted down they started up again.
I gave the rest of the teachers the bad news, and they tried to convince me to stay the course. Just one more mountain! It’s all easy from here! I felt bad, but I knew that if I kept it up, I’d feel a lot worse. Besides, the last mountain is the tallest, at 3000 feet, it was way beyond my ability at that point.
I took the cable car down the hill, rode the bus to Sannomiya station, and I just got home.
So I’ve learned one thing about hiking – there is a big difference between my idea of hiking and hiking in Japan. Distance and endurance are the focus here, but the things that I’ve loved most about hiking are the exploration, the nature, and taking time to just enjoy nature. There was none of that today – so I’ll have to be a little more selective about choosing my hiking trips in the future.
Well, I’m off to take a nap! Good night for now!
