INSPIRATION

Craig, Mark, Machu Picchu, Paul & I

Paul & I ended 2009 and rung in the New Year hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I had wanted to do this trip because I thought it would inspire me and start this year off better than last year. Instead of being in a wheel chair I wanted to be hiking mountains with Paul. 2009 was about recovery. 2010 is about BIG goals, going long and taking life by storm.

My friend Mark had told me about this trip to Machu Picchu he was doing and suggested I go too. I was in immediately! Shortly after he donated to our TNT Wildflower fund and shared that in July of this past year his husband Craig was diagnosed with low-grade non-hodgkins lymphoma. I suggested that he sign up with TNT and do Wildflower with us. He was in immediately!

The first time I met Craig was at the airport as we were all on our way to Peru. I liked him immediately... no big suprise being that Mark is great. It turned out that Mark, Craig, Paul and I were very evenly matched on the trail and spent four amazing days together. We climbed mountains, hiked up stairs, down stairs, back up stairs and back down stairs, shimmied through caves, paused to let llamas go by, explored Inca ruins, shared snacks, stopped to appreciate the beautiful flowers, marveled at the peaks surrounding us, and took pictures...lots and lots of pictures.

Paul & I had decided as soon as Mark told us about Craig's lymphoma to dedicate our season to him. We have and official honored teammate, Gordie, but Craig is our Team Tilden's honored teammate. While we were out on the trail Craig thanked us for this. It made me pause and think about the fact that Craig has Cancer. He is asymptomatic, so you would never know by looking at him. He took every challenge of the trail in stride, had such a positive attitude about where we were and what we were experiencing and was just fun to be around. Cancer may now be a part of his life, but it is definitely not stopping him from living life to the fullest.

I went to Peru to be inspired by hiking the Inca Trail and to start 2010 standing with Paul at the top of Machu Picchu and I was. But it turns out that I had another source of inspiration, Craig. I know that as training gets hard and the miles get long, memories of Peru will keep me inpsired to push on and keep going.

-Saveria