Intimacy With The Hill

"This mountain of release is such that the 

ascent's most painful at the start, below;

the more you rise, the milder it will be.

And when the slope feels gentle to the point that

climbing up a sheer rock is effortless

as though you were gliding downstream in a boat,

then you will have arrived where this path ends."

-Dante

As a beginner, I dreaded hills and inclines. Faced them grimly as if they had to be conquered.

Each hill a test - I resisted them.

I've learned the truth of nonresistance.

Of surrendering to the hill.

Is there anything sweeter than reaching that crest and feeling your body straighten and your lungs expand and everything below sweet for what was earned on the incline?

Before I begin the ascent I mentally check my posture, my form. No hunching or straining in the upper body, staying straight with chest wide open and shoulders down. As I lean into the hill, I shorten stride and keep a steady cadence, no force nor putting all my weight on my toes - I continue to land in the middle, and making contact with the ground, I swing arms forward/and up.

Mentally, I visualize being pulled forward up and over and into the descent below. 

If you can do this, you will become intimate with the hill. 

With my intentions clear, my body follows, and sometimes I forget I'm running uphill - moments of reaching a crest and feeling I have "arrived where this path ends."

Today, I ran 12.75 miles, and counted 25 hills - hills that reminded me to empty my mind, and be one with the earth's curvature.