Climbing to New Heights

     Hey! As of late, I've been taking my physical health a lot more seriously (which is apparent if you keep up with my running blogs). However, simply running around everyday and eating a little healthier can get a little boring. Sure, it's challenging to keep running several miles in the sun each day, but is it fun? While enjoyable, I feel like the novelty of running into the wilderness has worn off a little bit, fun-wise. That's why when the opportunity came up, I blindly agreed to go to a climbing gym with my buddies Angelo and Brandon.

    To provide a little background, exercising at climbing gyms has become a sort of phenomenon in my friend group. While it started with Angelo experimenting a little with his cousin, eventually more and more of my friends started getting memberships to climb at the gym several times a week, and even those who didn't get a membership would frequently tag along to use a free guest pass to try it out. As I watched more and more of my friends succumb to this climbing fever, I stubbornly declined the invite to try it several times, since I was committing to my new habit of running daily and I still felt a little insecure about my weight when it comes to an exercise as intensive as climbing.

    However, a month of my running has passed now. I feel more confident, more fit, and in the mindset to try new things now, already having conquered my reservations about exercise. With a newfound confidence and determination, I asked Angelo and Brandon when the next time their guest pass would be renewed, and when I got my answer of "uh, tomorrow dude," I locked in and committed to the new venture with my friends as guides.

    After an almost hour long drive to the climbing gym, the realization that I still had no idea of what I was doing started to settle into me. The anxiety that always creeps into the pit of your stomach when entering a new, foreign place had also found its way into my gut. All of these insecure, nervous thoughts evaporated when the clerk at the front desk said, "How do you spell John Brown?" Taken aback a little, I replied: "um, exactly how you think its spelled." With a sheepish smile, the clerk apologized and we all had a little laugh about it, and it put my mind to ease. There was nothing to be nervous about.

    Still, the tall, colorful, imposing walls were mildly intimidating to me as we walked past them, making our way to the back of the gym to stretch and put on our climbing shoes (side note, but I wouldn't have thought this required a whole new set of shoes). After a couple of minutes of stretching, Sensei Angelo explained the difficulty scale of each climb and which ones I should be starting with. The first climb I did was practically just a straight forward ladder, and though it was very easy, it was still my first introduction about how it felt to be supporting my weight on a wall, relying on my foot placement and grip to not fall down like a moron and embarrass myself.

    The next few hours went by quickly: I'd size up a climb, figure out how to make my way up from below, maybe watch someone else attempt it before me, then try it out myself. Admittedly, I think for the first few climbs I purposely sought out easy climbs that I knew wouldn't pose a challenge to me, since I just wanted to familiarize myself with climbing before actually challenging myself. I also spent a good while watching Angelo and Brandon try out their own climbs, as well with observing some other more experienced climbers try more extreme walls.

    I did eventually settle on a climb that posed a challenge to me, towards the end of our climbing session. Though fairly simple, it required me to use more energy in keeping myself steady than other climbs did, where I'd just brute force my way through speeding through them. On this climb, I had to hold myself there and think for a few seconds, since one bad foot placement would get me stuck and kill the attempt. Finally, with some coaching from Sensei Angelo and silent support from Brandon, I pushed myself to stop getting wrapped up in thinking about my foot placement and just go for it- and I got it.

    While it wasn't a particularly difficult climb for anyone else, getting this climb right felt very satisfying to me, not just because it was a genuine challenge for me physically, but also because I was able to push through the mental roadblock I had where I was insecure about my foot placement, getting me stuck. With every attempt I did alone, I would always second-guess my placement and get stuck there, stunlocked by insecurity over what I was doing. But with the encouragement and support from my friends behind me, I was able to overcome this anxiety, push myself beyond what limits I set formyself, and beat the climb.

    I really enjoyed climbing, and while I don't think I'll join the climbing cult anytime soon, I look forward to tagging along with my friends whenever they have a guest pass up. Challenging myself like this was satisfying, and trying something new is always fun, but really, I'm just glad I was able to share an experience like this with good friends :)