On Monday, August 13th, Andrea Downard (Club Dance Instructor) and Scott Bushey (General Manager at Keizer), along with others, drove north from Keizer to the base of Mt. St. Helen’s. “We left at 10PM and hiked through the night,” Andrea told me. “We wanted to be on the top as the sun was rising. Earlier that day, one of Scott’s friends asked us if we wanted to go. I said, yes. Yes, I want to do this.”

On Tuesday, Andrea called me and said she wanted to talk about the trip. She wanted to tell me about what it had meant to live out this idea of fitness, that fitness is the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want. She came into my office the next morning and told me about her hike through the night and ascending into new and brilliant daylight.

Andrea, do you think you would have done this kind of thing a year ago? Or, even, do you think you might have done this kind of thing if you weren’t part of the Courthouse culture?

You know, it was crazy how willing I was to do this thing. I knew it was going to be hard. I knew it was going to be different. We hiked on this trail and had no real idea how far we were going or really where we were. We followed these blue reflectors that would glisten if we could find them with our headlamps. That’s all we had. Headlamps and these terrible flashlights. And it was so cold when we got on top. I loved it.

You sent me a picture with you and Scott in your “Do” shirts. Why did you wear those up?

I’ve been instructing for a long time, but it was not until this last Launch Week that I really started paying attention to what was going on. The message on the shirts meant something to me. I want to be involved, be part of something. Doing this hike has given me such an incredible feeling of accomplishment.

Andrea leans in and claps her hands and moves in her seat.

So, when we got out of the treeline, it turned into these boulders that you had to scramble up. And I could see the sky turning dark blue. I promised myself I was going to see the sunrise. So, I got on all fours and I did mountains climbers, just like from Spartan, all the way to the top. I was tired. I hadn’t slept. But, I told myself I was going to do this thing. And I did. I was the first one to the top.

It feels awesome. It feels like I can do anything. I want to do all kinds of stuff now. I want to do the C2V. I want to do the Warrior Dash. I want to do something really big.

I kind of feel like a superhero.