Up the hill

The bridge of Villa Trabia

In Palermo, there are not many hills.

The city is surrounded by mountains, and plenty of places to go hiking, but when walking in the city itself? It is mostly flat. Some notable hills include the Salita Raffadali in the quartiere Albergheria, and on Via Piersanti Mattarella, under the bridge that connects Villa Trabia to its entrance on Via Marchese Ugo.

When I used to live in that neighborhood, I would make sure to run under the bridge both on the way to Villa Trabia and back, in order to get some incline into my workout. For a seasoned runner, its probably not much of a challenge, but for me, it was enough that being able to run to the top was an accomplishment. In fact, when I first began training, I would just walk up the hill.

But then, some words of wisdom came back to me in a moment of déjà vu that I hadn’t thought about in years.

When I was in middle school, for a few weeks I ran cross country. I signed up having never run before and quickly realizing it was not my forte, at least not competitively. As far as I remember, I walked off the course on my first race and that was that. However, in the lead-up to the first race, running around different neighborhoods in our small town with my teammates, one training ground was my own street, a long, steep hill with a cul-de-sac at the bottom. Some of us thought that we could just run down the hill, use gravity to our advantage, and walk up. And I won’t doubt or tell anyone that that is still a perfectly fine way to get exercise. At the time, though, a coach was not going to have it. He told us, “You have to run up the hill.” What did he mean? You have to push yourself. You have to keep going. You can’t resign yourself to walk up the hill. You have to at least try.

When I got to the hill on under the bridge of Villa Trabia, at first I walked up. But then that voice came back in my head. You have to run up the hill. You have to go, you have to push through it. You have to at least try.

I have not quit many things - just walked off the course and not look back. But when I did, I know that I always tried. It is an important skill to recognize when something - some experience, some relationship, some whatever - is not meant for you, is not good for you, and is not going to get you where you want to go. Some races are not meant to be ran. When things get hard, when you have to run up the hill, make sure that you really want what’s at the top. Sometimes, you can get somewhere else just as fast by walking.

love,

greer