Finding Your Pace

The first time people start hiking up a mountain, they usually start out too fast.

I’ve been guilty of it myself.

My very first backpacking guide corrected me. As we started our steep ascent, he demonstrated a steady pace designed to conserve energy.

While one foot is on the ground, we take a slight pause with the other foot in the air, which gives us a slight break in between steps.

It might feel counter-intuitive, but you have to slow down a bit. Settle into the rhythm of step-pause, step-pause, step-pause.

Step-pause, thousands of times over.

When our journey is long and we are carrying a heavy load, energy conservation and steady pace is essential.

At times, we might feel a desire to push and skip ahead.

“Let’s just get this over with,” you might think. “Couldn’t we just run up this thing and get it done and eat our damn sandwiches already?”

But no.

That would backfire. It’s simply not the best way to get there. Especially when your journey will take days.

The cliché is true: slow and steady really does win the race, at least, when the “race” is up a mountain.

Or how about this old acorn: “The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.”

Funny how they’re true.

Sometimes, “keeping on running” means coming back after you’ve failed.

Sometimes it simply means getting up each day.

Sometimes it means adding another few words, or a few hundred words, to your manuscript, just as you promised yourself you would.

And sometimes it means editing your story, yet again, because you know it can be made better.

Whatever it is, we keep going.

Step-pause, step-pause, step-pause, step.

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Photo: Me in 2019, backpacking in Kananaskis, Alberta [/caption]