Thank God and Tree

I’d like to give an official shout out to my friend and kettle bell trainer, Tree Baca for putting me through so many excruciating abdominal workouts. If it weren’t for the core strength she has helped me develop I believe I would be missing some teeth right now. I was happily jogging down the supply trail up on Haleakala Crater this morning, having reached the top 9 minutes faster than my last time. I was moving at a good clip but carefully since it is a fairly technical, rocky, single track when I tripped and the ground rushed up to meet me. My face was within two feet of the jagged, evil looking rocks in front of me when I swung my arms back, effectively doing a reverse pike in midair and stumbled a few more steps before coming to a halt, still on my feet, adrenalin rushing and giggles erupting, thinking about how funny that would have been to an onlooker with my body comically flailing down the trail. I firmly believe that if I hadn’t been doing Tree’s workouts I would have gone down. I felt my abs pull me out of that frightening downward spiral. I’ve had some close calls on trails before but I’ve never seen the ground so close that I could taste the dirt and rocks and grit of broken teeth in that split second I thought I would fall. I calmed myself, looked up to the sky and said “thank you” and continued to finish the trail faster than I ever have. So, thank god and thank you Tree. I’m home safe and sound.