MEMORIES THAT LAST FOREVER

Written by ioMerino Outsider Hailey. 

My ioMerino has travelled with me to some pretty incredible places. It is always fun to look back at photos and remember the exact moment - where you were, how you were feeling, what you were thinking. Photos do an amazing job of preserving a moment, of locking it in time. But there is so much that can't be frozen into that photo. Your thoughts, the smells, the feel of the air, the conversations that were had. But if the memory is special enough, you will remember some pretty important details from it.

That is why I like to have a favourite piece of clothing, one that is my go-to for some of my favourite adventures. It is kind of like having a song that instantly transports you back to a moment. When you hear it your mind takes you straight to the time you played it on repeat to get through a hard section of a race, or during a road trip when you cranked up the volume and sang with all your might. When I pull out my favourite shirt I instantly get transported back to my favourite adventures with it on. My favourite shirt? My ioMerino Mongrel of course.

 Click here to check out our current Mongrels. Be Quick! Only limited stock available!

I want to try and give you an idea of where I have been in this shirt. And how when I pull it out of the closet, there are so many memories attached to it. I climbed up 5000+m peaks in Ecuador in it. We took on the challenge of climbing 6 high summits in 2 weeks, all over 4500m. Although we came shy of our goal by one peak due to unstable snow conditions, it was an enormous achievement and an adventure I will never forget. I returned home to Canada at the end of March after being away from home for my longest stint ever - 5 months. On my first day off since returning home, my friend called me up to run. We hadn't seen each other since last summer. We got a break in the weather and found some sunny snow to play in. It was amazing! I guided our Run Like a Girl retreats in Peru along the famous Inca Trail in Peru and visited the newly discovered rainbow mountains. We went down to Peru early to fit in some extra adventures and see parts of Peru we had never seen before. At 5100m the summit of the Rainbow Mountain really took our breath away... figuratively and literally! On the final day of our Inca Trail hike it was freezing cold, so I put my Mongrel on underneath my coat. It was the shirt I wore as I walked through the Sun gate and looked down at Machu Picchu.

I was lucky enough to find a break in my work schedule to fly down for a whirlwind trip of California with my friend. I don't know many people that would be crazy enough to run for 3 days straight in the high mountains of California, but I am happy I have at least one friend that will!! Our final adventure of the trip was the summit of Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada. An absolutely stunning peak that stands the tallest of all mountains in the lower 48 states. The weather where I live can be pretty unpredictable. My husband was leaving to return to Costa Rica 2.5 weeks ahead of me where we live half the year. We were deep into October and experiencing the usual rain. When we woke up one morning, a beautiful rainbow was in front of our bedroom window. We took it as a definite sign and squeezed one last alpine adventure of for the year at Rainbow mountain.

So, there. 5 adventures, 5 memories, just like that. So vivid, so memorable... and brought right back when I put on my Mongrel. I think it is pretty special to have a shirt like that if you ask me.

Click here to check out the new season 2018 Limited Edition Mongrel.

You can follow Hailey's adventures through her social media:

Instagram: @haileyvandyk @runlikeagirl

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/runlikeagirlBC 

Website and blog: runlikeagirl.ca