Conquering Kilimanjaro: A Post-Cancer Quest for Resilience and Reclaiming Spirit

I remember the moment I realized my cancer journey was far from over; it was when I laced up my trashed running shoes and decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. That's right, join me as I walk you through the transformative shifts in my training regimen, a testament to the power of resilience and the capacity for change within us all. With the Hike Like a Woman group's climb looming in June, I've revamped my approach, and I'm eager to share the breakthroughs that have eased my anxiety and could revolutionize the way you tackle your own mountains—literal or figurative. And since we're on the subject of steps forward, I'm curious—what are your go-to running shoes? I'm in the market for a new pair, and your recommendations would mean the world.

This podcast isn't just about prep for a summit; it's a reflection of a journey with my post-cancer body. I open up about the struggle to embrace my new strengths and the ongoing battle with treatment side effects. But it's also about the reclaiming of my spirit through setting the monumental goal of reaching the peak of Kilimanjaro, which symbolizes my 'cancer finish line.' As I share the insights gleaned from changing 'working out' to 'training' for a purpose, I invite you to consider how language shapes our mindset and actions. Whether you're navigating your own health battles, considering a grand adventure, or simply looking for inspiration to persevere, this episode promises to connect and embolden.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

If this were a video, you would be able to see me right now, because I'm holding up my running shoes and I bought a new pair of running shoes on November 10th 2023. And since then I have walked 338 deliberate miles in them and they're totally trashed on the inside. I have really bony heels and it's like my heels have just rubbed into the cushion and now it's just like not good. The tread on them is still okay and they're pretty comfy and cushy still, and I'm wondering if I can get another 300 miles out of them. But I also am curious what's your favorite brand of running shoes? So leave me a comment below and let me know your favorite brand of running shoes. These are on clouds. I kind of like them. I might get another pair, but we'll see my shoes that I'm talking about right now just tell a really small part of the story that I'm going to be sharing with you today. Today, we're talking about the big change that I have made to my Kilimajaro training plan, and not just my training plan, but my training in general and how that's going. For those of you who don't know, we are taking a hike, like a woman trip, to climb Mount Kilimajaro in June, so I'm recording this podcast on March 5th and it's less than 90 days out, so I'm starting to freak out a little bit. But I want to talk about training and how training is kind of helping me not freak out so much, and we're talking about this change in my training, and this is the change that I think is going to help everyone, regardless of if you're training for something like Mount Kilimajaro or not. We're also going to talk about grit and resilience, and I'm going to answer a community question about hiking with kids. Let's dive right in and talk about Kilimajaro.

Speaker 1: 2:00

When I was sick two years ago, I was scrolling on Instagram one day and I saw another cancer survivor who had climbed Mount Kilimajaro Lira, with skirts I think she's skirt girl hikes or something like that. She was hiking in a skirt. She is an African woman, and I was so inspired by her climbing Kilimajaro like two years after she had gone through cancer treatment, and so I was like man I hope that someday I'm strong enough to climb Mount Kilimajaro. At that time, I was so sick from chemotherapy that I was just even having a hard time walking around the block without getting exhausted, and so I really had to start from scratch, from nowhere, to get ready for Kilimajaro. And when the opportunity to climb Kilimajaro presented itself, I was like I have to do that. That is my cancer finish line. So since we booked the trip a year ago, I've been trying to do a lot of walking. I've been lifting weights, I've been doing yoga, pilates all of the things that I thought I needed to do to get ready for this climb, but I realized it just wasn't working.

Speaker 1: 3:19

I have also been missing my pre-cancer body. My post-cancer body is a lot different than my body was before I was diagnosed. My new body has scars. I have lingering side effects from treatment. I have lower energy. I have to take medications every day that make me feel sick and sometimes just exhausted, and I acknowledge that that's okay because I'm still here because of those life-giving medications. But it doesn't stop me from missing the body that I had before cancer. That was like strong and athletic and healthy and that taught six cross-country ski lessons a week and guided trips all summer long. So I've had to acknowledge that my new body has strengths that my old body didn't have, and my new body can endure a whole lot more physical and mental challenges than my old body could. So, as I've been accepting my new body and thinking about this climb and how significant this climb is gonna be, I've also had to kind of change my language. Instead of saying I'm gonna go work out, I've changed workout with the word train. So I'm not working out, I'm training because I have a goal. So I'm not someone who goes to the gym to work out, I'm an athlete who is training to climb Mount Kilimajaro and then the Sulcante Trail in Peru and then Kilimajaro again in 2025, because if you didn't get on this trip to Kilimajaro, we're gonna go back in 2025, probably August of 2025. So if Kilimajaro's on your bucket list and you wanna start training, I would start training now. And that's where we're headed with this conversation. Have you ever set a big goal and then stepped back and thought I'm not sure I can do this?

Speaker 1: 5:23

In January, I was recovering from another lumpectomy because I had a huge cancer scare in the same breast where I had cancer two years ago. So December and January, until I got the pathology report, were both super stressful months for me because I was like, oh my God, what if cancer is back? And then I had to go through another surgery. So after that surgery, I was in a total slump and I couldn't figure out why I was in a slump. Because I didn't have cancer, like the cancer had not come back. So I should have been feeling really good and really excited, but instead I just was not feeling good about myself. I wasn't feeling good about the couple of weeks I had to take off to recover from the surgery. I wasn't feeling good about the cancer medications that I still have to take every single day and I was just kind of feeling depressed and angry, even though I didn't have cancer again and I couldn't figure out why. So in my mind, even though I wasn't still technically a cancer patient, I went back to cancer patient mode, where I just kind of let cancer and my cancer experience go back to defining me.

Speaker 1: 6:40

But I was listening to a podcast that I did with Mary Ann, who is speaking at our summit, and she said something in her interview that was really fascinating. She said I'm not just a hiker, I'm an athlete. And it hit me that I've been stuck in this negative cancer headspace for 28 months where I've defined myself as a cancer patient and in doing so I've actually put limitations on what I can and cannot do. And even though my experience is cancer, I want you to know that this is not just a me thing. I think every one of us can probably name a time when we looked at our bodies and thought, oh my gosh, this isn't me. Maybe it's before, during and after a pregnancy, maybe it's during an illness, maybe it's after an injury, maybe it's just after a really stressful time in your life where you didn't take very good care of yourself. I think this feeling is something that's not just me, but it's all of us. So I asked our community a couple of weeks ago over on our Facebook page if you haven't checked us out on Facebook head over there. That's where we're the most active right now and Samantha responded she wanted to know how to get her training mojo back, and that's what I want to talk about today the transition to thinking about ourselves as athletes.

Speaker 1: 8:10

One thing that people tell me about our adventure trips is I'd love to go on that trip to Alaska or Yellowstone or Peru or Costa Rica or Kilimanjaro or Iceland, but I'm just not in shape or I'm just not strong enough, and that makes me super sad. So when we want to do something and we feel like we can't do it. It's actually the perfect time to stop, take a look around and ask what is the story I'm telling myself about myself? I was telling myself you're a cancer patient. Your cancer meds are causing you to gain weight, making you tired, keeping you from sleeping and making you crazy. But A little shift changed the entire story that I'm telling myself. I'm an athlete training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. So I would ask who are you? What's the story you're telling yourself about yourself? How can you shape and mold that story to change the outcome? And if you want to see the training program that we've put together for our trip participants, head on over to our website hikelakewomancom and click that train with us tab. You can join our free physical training accountability group.

Speaker 1: 9:23

I'm going to switch gears again because I do want to answer another community question. The question that I'm answering today is about hiking with kids. Colleen asked hike like a woman when you always have your kids with you. Hiking with kids is a whole different mindset. So I think Colleen is asking for some tips about how to hike with kids. My kids are 12 and 10. So I'm really way through those slow, painful years and I'm kind of into this preteen stuff where my kids are actually starting to get pretty fast and now it's like they're waiting on me and that's a whole thing.

Speaker 1: 10:07

So here's how you hike with kids. First you go to the store and you get their favorite candy. And if your kids don't eat candy then you're a much better mom than me. But my kids eat candy. So I would go to the store and get their favorite candy. For my kids that is, hands down, sour patch kids. So you've got their favorite candy and then you say, hey, kids, do you want to go see a really cool waterfall? Or hey, kids, do you want to go see a really cool lake? Or hey, kids, do you want to go climb some really big rocks? And then your kids are like woohoo big rocks, woohoo waterfall, woohoo lake.

Speaker 1: 10:46

And then you load everybody up in the car and you start driving and you get to a trailhead and you say, okay, let's go find that waterfall. And there has to be a waterfall there because you don't want to be a liar to your kids, because they'll call you out on that. But you get out of the car and you go on a treasure hunt to find the waterfall and you don't even mention the word hike because you are not hiking today, my friend, you are going on an adventure. So you're on an adventure looking for the waterfall. You find the waterfall, you splash around in the waterfall, you play, it's really great. And then you turn around to go back to your car and your kids start to get a little bit hungry and tired and emotional. So you reach in your pocket and you pull out a healthy snack like a banana or an apple or some carrots or an orange, and you say, hey guys, when we get back to the car I have some sour patch kids for you. And then your kids are like woohoo. So then they have the motivation to get back to the trailhead because they know that you have sour patch kids, because they really love sour patch kids. I mean, who does it Like who does it? So you get back to the car at the trailhead and you eat sour patch kids and everybody's happy because you just went on an adventure. Actually, you just went on a hike disguised as an adventure. So here's the deal.

Speaker 1: 12:18

It's fun answering your questions, I love it. And if you have a question that you want me to answer on our next Q&A show, we're going to try to do this once a month. All you got to do is send me an email hikelikeowomen hiat. Hikelikeowomencom. And I will answer your questions right here. And while this video is a little bit silly, I actually wrote a e-book about how to hike when you're pregnant and how to hike with kids. If you want a copy of that, send me an email hiat hikelikeowomencom. Or send me a DM and I'll get that copy over to you. Hey, thanks for being here. I appreciate you. This time we're talking about budgeting for outdoor adventures and answering a question about personal safety on the trails. You're not going to want to miss it, so make sure you subscribe to the pod wherever you're listening, until your friends if you think they enjoy the show. Thanks so much. I'll see you next time.