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2010년 9월 8일 수요일

Beyond my physical limitation

> Subject: beyond my physical limitation
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 02:07:36 -0700
>
Hi my dear Jennifer and Peter,

> thank you guys for your email, encouraging me and telling me about what's going on there without me. First of all I really appreciate your stories and you guys working hard, which makes me always happy and proud of you. What brought me to tears, was that Peter is closing his college carreer, just joking.
>
> It came to me without sign of warning, climbing the most difficult mountain in Korea. The weather man said it's gonna be raining in the afternoon on Sunday. As a totally unexpected and uninvited guest to my climbing club, I showed up myself around 10 pm on Saturday where we were told to be, a parking lot of a big department store. Because of the forecast of rain and the hardness to climb that 2nd highest mountain, 1915 meter in altitude, second to the mountain Halla in Jeju island, only 15 guys joined this time less than half of the normal climbing. In fact it takes at least 2 days to climb it because of the total distance people walk and the 4 to 5 hours of driving to get there from Seoul. This time they decide to finish it in 2 days without sleep.
>
> We arrived at the starting point of that mountain, Jiri-San, at 3 am. After preparing briefly for the whole journey, we started moving on, heading to the top. It was peach black in the forest, most of the guys, no, all theguys without me wears a flash around his head like a mineworker in the mine. I bought a small hand flash light. There were numerous groups at the same time, some equipped with the walkie taklie also. Anyway, my heart was filled with some excitement and fear, like can I finish without problem? or how hard to climb it, can I do that? ..... The trail was mostly filled with all size of rocks you imagine. Ah I should tell you the total distance we had, it was 18 km or 12 miles. Jiri-san is the biggest mountain with so many adjacent mountain tops around, it spread over half of the southern Korea. We should climb around 4 km or a little less 3miles, the shortest distance to the tops. Can you guys do the simple geometry problem, a tiangle with a 2 km in height and a 4 km of the side? what is the angle of that triangle? I think around 45 degree, right? You have to climb all 4 km in 45 degree. It was so steep that my breath soon got faster and deeper, sweating sooooo muchhhhh in every step. We've got to be at the top in 4 hours according to our plan, finishing the total course in 10 hours, remember the total 18 km?
>
> My physical red signal started blinking in less than 30 minutes after starting. You know what happened to me. I have to fight the hardest game through out the next 12 hours, the time we finished the toughest hiking ever in my whole life. Mixed with other groups in the dark, everyone just kept moving his heaviest legs without talking. Looking back down the valley I climed, all I saw was the line of the light moving slowly through the darkness. Here and there we heard the ahhh and huh and oh my god..... It was like a fight with himself, you must endure the physical tiredness and limitation. Your body keeps telling that I can not move any more,,,,,, you must move up to the top. The most heartbreaking course was the stairs made of iron over the toughest area because of the danger and the condition of that particular area, like full with big rocks and some cliff etc... As we moved on, we soon got tired. But we had to keep moving up. we took a break less than 5 minutes in every 30 minutes climbing. While we stopped to take a break, so many young guys passed us up.
>
> I don't know when but my mind began to recall a scene I saw in a movie: a swaggering guys moved his heavy legs one by one before he collapsed out of water or exhaustion. I thought it was my turn to be like him if I keep doing this a little more..... You know how toughest guy I am, I am among the first group going up to the top. I rarely climbed a mountain in my life and also I am quite a overweight guy. In Seoul I gained recently 10 pounds more. It was really difficult to move my heavy body and legs. The last half miles to the top was more than 45 degrees full with rocks. If anyone stands up, he may fall down the mountain because of its steepness. I feel dangerous also. I had to sustain my body as close as possible to the ground not to fall down.  It was raining like a mist, we could not see much the scenery because the fog like rain quietly fell and blocked our view and wetted us. Climbing up such a steep mountains soon made us run out of gas, short of air, gasping deeply at every step, sweating enough to soak to the skin completely. I slowly had the stinky smell of my body, very strong odor of sweat and bodily secretions....  At last I moved my body to the top and fell down there for a while. I was filled with the undescribable feeling, thank for God and achievement and all kinds of feelings surrounded me. Many of my expert friends already there waiting for me, they began to shout cheer up LA guy...... I had the biggest smile and a laughter hugging my friends......
>
> We had felt coldness in less than 5 mimutes at the top because of  strong wind and rain. We hurried to cover ourselves with the thick parker we had in our backpack. Our downward journey showed itself like a big puzzle to solve. It took us 5 hours to get the top. We had a simple breakfast we prepared. Then we must go down the another 12 km or 8 miles. I sensed that my body began telling me I had pain in my joint like knee and torso. Especially the end part of my leg with my upper body began to hurt. It added the intensity more and more. Not long before I started move down, I had to get the special treatment like annointing the painkiller on the cramped spots and taking even a painkilling phil also. The rain also got stronger and stronger. What made us difficult and disappointing was that we had to climb up many more smaller mountain whenever we climbed down. I could not take it any more. I could not move forward my leg any more, totally exhausted. What was worse, my left new shoe doesn't fit me good. My ankle began to soring, giving me another pain to endure. Ah.. what a feeling I had during that horrible hours. I repented my unpreparedness both in physical and in mind. I thought I could do it anyhow. But the reality proved me how hard it was climbing the toughest mountain. I slept less than an hour in a bus to the mountain. I guess we kind of made many unseen but stupid mistakes.
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> What I learned while climbing down the rocky trails, it is more painful and difficult to go down than go up the mountain. Whenever I stepped down, my whole weight gave tremendous impact both on knee and leg and thighs. My pains moved around the muscle right above the knee. I had to get another treatment there. My expert friends tied there with a tight bandage, which relieved some pains I had in everystep. The trails had some signs here and there whenever it is necessary to give the people how far and where to go. The last 6 km really killed me. I can not describe the toughness I had......
>
> I had one of the most joyful feeling at last when I saw the end of trail to the paved road.
> Even today I have pains in my muscles. I still don't want to step down the stairs while I go out to the street. But I had a precious experience: the confidence, which makes me have an assurance that I can do anything. It was really a good challenge to me. I hope you guys do that kind of adventure in your life too.
>
> Thank you guys for your love and care. My business showed its final stage now, I may have a start in this weekend. Pray that we do the best of us in every day with God's help and love for us.
> I really miss you guys, hope to see you soon. love yaaaaaa........ from dad in his grace
>

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