“Keep going…”

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Shared by Breanne Smedley

Yesterday, I had the idea to take Charlee on a quick run in her stroller before dinner.

“Just 15-20 minutes,” I told Brett.

I wouldn’t say that I LOVE running.

But the thought of pushing Charlee along in the stroller while taking in the beautiful scenery of Penn Cove with the backdrop of the Cascade Mountain range sounded like something we would both be in to.

We are staying at a rental house in an area of Whidbey Island that has a ton of hills.

But you never really understand just how hilly a place is until you start running.

What seems like just a slight incline in the car quickly turns into burning booty and calves when trying to huff up a hill on a “run.”

Add to that a 25-pound stroller/toddler combo and I soon realized that I had my work cut out for me!

I started on a downhill portion of the neighborhood, making my way towards the water.

I found I actually couldn’t run this portion as the stroller was moving too fast and occasionally getting caught up in rocks as we made our way down, causing Charlee yell “WOAHH!” a few times.

Now for the way back up.

I turned the stroller around and looked up at the daunting hill in front of me.

It was probably only about 100 yards, about the length of a football field.

I told Charlee out loud that we weren’t going to stop running until we made it to the top.

Quickly my lungs started burning.

It was so steep that I could only run on my tiptoes.

My arms were outstretched, pushing the stroller ahead of me as I dropped my head between my biceps and looked towards the ground.

Using pinecones and leaves on the ground as markers, I’d tell myself just to make it to the next one.

“Good, you made it. Now make it to the next one. Now, make it to that leaf.” I’d keep saying in my head.

I would occasionally look up and see that progress was slow. I still had a long way to go to the stop sign at the top.

“I could probably stop and just walk,” I thought. The incline would still make it a good workout.

I saw Charlee’s feet kicking out of the front of the stroller.

I told her we were going to run to the top.

She’s watching. Don’t stop.

She’s counting on me. Keep going.

You can do hard shit. Almost there.

We finally made it to the stop sign. It was two minutes of climbing, but it felt like I could collapse.

I parked the stroller and put my hand up for Charlee to give me a high five.

She smiled and met her hand with mine.

We then made our way back down the hill to complete the whole loop again.

Just to prove to myself I could.

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