Of course you know I didn't climb one literally. I have written before about how I love lunchtimes, how quiet it is, no one around, good book or magazine and great food. It is very hard to tear me away from lunch but I decided today I had to do it. I left it till the last minute, but set out with 15 minutes to go before being back at work to walk the parking ramp.

It is 80 degrees today. As I am walking down the ramp I see people out on the sidewalks walking. I think to myself, I could walk out in the fresh air and sun too. So I head out. I see the Federal Courthouse to my left, work maps say it is .75 mile around the whole thing, three quarters of a mile. Its' hot. But I find myself gravitating that way one foot in front of the other.

As I am crossing the street a woman who clearly means business is striding purposefully in the same direction as me. Jacket tied around her waist, tiny strap sleeves, she is swinging her arms and walking. I follow her. As we walk she is staying in sight but gradually drawing away, that's okay, I will be like that too next summer, one step at a time.

I am coming up to the path that cuts through the compound for the public. I can go that way, or, I can commit to the whole way around, no going back. I put one foot in front of the other, and one step at a time I keep going. Gradually I am getting out of breath, I begin to cough up fluid, I try to concentrate on how beautiful the blossom trees look on the courthouse lawn and I keep walking, one foot in front of the other.

I round the corner to the home stretch, it is hot, the front of my shins above my ankles HURTS, I am sweating, I don't have a phone with me. I could sit down on the wall but I don't have the time left. No one will rescue me, nothing to do but put one foot in front of the other, again and again. I keep moving, I tell myself that gradually, before I know it, I will reach our buildings parking lot and cooler air. It is so hot. last summer I would have never gone outside in this heat, I had untreated severe sleep apnea and I was a mess.. I would have been sleeping in my lunch room. instead, I am walking, one foot in front of the other.

Finally I make it to the lot, as I cross the street again a gust of cool air brushes past me, it is bliss. By now I feel I haven't got the energy to get back to my desk. I reach the elevator and a girl is just entering, I dive in. I made it. I get back to our floor, walk in our office.. I have been gone only 16 minutes.

No one driving out on those streets knows it, no one out there walking knows it, all they saw was a 300+ pound woman pounding the pavement one step at a time, they don't know what I was doing, they don't know how it felt or what it cost, they don't know they were watching something just as monumental as someone winning a gold in the Olympics.

I climbed a mountain today, putting one foot in front of the other.