Today was a milestone for me!!!

[RoseC]

Eek...2.5 miles is quite a hill! Way to go, LoriO!

[MaineMaid]

Congrats! There is a road near here which is great to ride on. However it has, when driving , an ever so slight incline. There is a meat market half way up this..um incline. I have driven this road for 25 years, noting in passing the "incline".
When I challenged myself to do the Trek Across Maine this July, the road was recommended as a great training ride. So, I rode it and came to the incline, AKA Meat Hill. I was truly amazed at the EVEREST that was before me. The first few times I managed to make it to the "first crack before the guardrail"; that was my goal. Then it was "get the rear wheel past the first crack.."blah, blah. Then it was "get the bike to the crack AFTER the guardrail".
The day I managed to make it all the way to the top I was in tears. I was cranking down in my granny gear but I just knew I could make it all the way. I was so proud of myself. One of my biking buddies who was also doing the Trek was at the top waiting for me...I thought he had rode ahead to a designated rest stop. Nope, there he was, standing in a cloud of bugs, and when he saw my tears he was thinking that I had fallen and was hurt. When I got to him I just reached across and hugged him, laughing and crying at the same time. I felt like I had won an Olympic medal.
That moment has stayed with me because it was the very first moment that I could see how much stronger I had become, how much determined I had become and how much "grit" I had cultivated. Getting up that hill has become almost a defining moment for me in my very new cycling life.

Jan