​

Today’s Miles: 24.9

Total Miles: 1,035.8
Balskota – August 14, 2016

A giant sheet of ice spills through the peaks in the distance. It hangs in front of me for hours as I walk down a long, high valley. My feet feel heavy. My legs struggle with the weight like they are dragging the hard miles of the last weeks behind them.

I try to focus on the glacier. I fix my eyes on the black peaks breaking upward through the ice, at the blue cracks in the white sheet as it bends downward. I try and push the miles out of my head. I try and forget I am walking at all.
But my body knows. It remembers every mile. Some days it draws strength from the memory. It brushes off climbs like they are moving sidewalks. It surges through every step. Other days the memory brings weariness and the long, tired string of wear pulling on every movement.

I trudge forward, strong enough to press on, but not without protest, not without forcing myself uphill, not without feeling every mile. Every step comes slow, dragging, pieced together until the sun disappears.