Peaks and Valleys

Having lived part of my life in Colorado, I’m quite familiar with, and love very dearly, the Rocky Mountains. In the mountains, the air is cleaner, the sun is brighter, the world is quieter and more beautiful than anywhere else. When you are on the top of one of the peaks in the Rockies, the view is something to behold. I can’t describe it. I love being there.

But also having climbed up in the mountains, I’m very aware that its beauty can be deceiving and it can change on a dime to become a dangerous, scary place. The valleys are cold and desolate and to get over one of the peaks seems impossible when looking up from the foot of a mountain. It’s terrifying.

Peaks and Valleys. My 2011.

Peaks

Goal #1: 2 marathons in one year. Jersey sucked. Philly was fun.

Goal #2: Pass all my classes (hello, Calculus & Physics)

Goal #3: Become a lululemon athletica Ambassador

Goal #4: Start my own running/fitness blog to educate the community

Goal #5: Try as many fitness classes as I can in the city

My angel baby niece

I have so many people to thank without whom I never would have achieve any of these goals this year. JB, The Obi-wans, all of my siblings and family for their support, my gorgeous friends, my E. 66th St. lululemon family, my NYU family and all of the wonderful people who happened into my life at just the right time to get me through this year.

Those were the Peaks.

The Valleys were awful.

Valleys

Having my family member getting sick was one of the biggest blows of my life, not just of 2011. I never dreamed in a million years would happen to us/our family but it did. It’s been devastating. It still is devastating. Even now, I cannot comprehend how she gets through day to day, but she does. She’s braver than she knows and I am just at a loss for words when it comes to describing how this illness has affected me personally and my family as a whole. The battle will continue into 2012, but I pray and hope and believe that 2012 will be so much better. It has to be.

Me getting sicker was just the pits.

It ruined one of my marathons and derailed training for the other. It humiliated me on a regular basis and in ways I will only tell JB. It made me doubt myself, hate my body, and caused me to have to take (and continue to take) a series of very harmful drugs. Not. fun.

If there’s anything I have learned from hiking my through the Rocky Mountains and navigating through this year, it’s that with the Peaks come the Valleys and with the Valleys come the Peaks. The most important thing is how I deal with them. Do I let the Valleys consume me or do I fight my way up the winding switchbacks, however long and torturous they may be, to get to that next Peak?

I choose to fight. I choose to live. I choose to keep my eyes set on the Peaks and remember that with every step I fight to take forward, I am leaving the Valleys further and further behind me.

That’s was my 2011.

Here’s to a better year in 2012 for all of us. If you had an amazing 2011, tell me about it! And let’s rock into the New Year looking toward the Peaks together. Have an amazing night, everyone. Happy New Year.

Now go out and run!