Originally Posted by Cypress
If she had kept up the entire way to where we stopped, there is a good chance I would have cried.
That's the thing. A person, regardless of their sex, who can keep up for only part of the way is not a challenge, at all.
Someone who can keep up with me for the first 5 minutes of a 20 minute climb, when you're pushing tempo and they are dying is the exact same thing. Hooray for them, but while surprising, they were in the red and you weren't. Simple as that.