The last time I went running outdoors I somehow managed to pull all the tendons in the bottom of my right foot which left me for the best part of a week meaning I could barely walk more than a few paces without finding myself in excruciating pain. So not wanting to injure myself once again, I have kept myself from going running only unless it is on a treadmill where even there I have kept it to nothing more than a light jog...
...This morning though I decided that six weeks was long enough and after eating just a banana for my breakfast I headed out on what I planned to be nothing more than a ten or fifteen minute venture to check out just how my feet responded to the tarmac.
I had planned to take a circular route and assumed upon leaving that I'd simply have to take four consecutive left-turns to bring me back home... but an hour after leaving I was beginning to wonder whether I should have in fact checked the map just like John and Denice had told me to do so (numerous times).
Ben knows best
Whilst my plan was theoretically sound I had failed to realise that unlike at home the roads here go literally for miles without a turning and so an hour in to my jog, which by this point was now definitely a run, I had only taken three left turns. And whilst heading along what was the straightest of roads I became increasingly frustrated where over every hill that I passed, the road would once again disappear over the horizon without giving me the opportunity to take that 4th and final left turn!
It would be nearly 2hrs after leaving John and Denice's that I would return back home and drenched in sweat from head to toe I admitted hands down I should most probably have checked the map before leaving. But what I (and they) really wanted to know is how far I had actually gone and so after a quick shower I checked the route online to discover it was a rather impressive 12.375 miles... or just shy of 20km.
It would be nearly 2hrs after leaving John and Denice's that I would return back home and drenched in sweat from head to toe I admitted hands down I should most probably have checked the map before leaving. But what I (and they) really wanted to know is how far I had actually gone and so after a quick shower I checked the route online to discover it was a rather impressive 12.375 miles... or just shy of 20km.
True to form I had left that morning to go for a light jog and ended up virtually running the length of a half-marathon
I found myself going to sleep that evening very proud, for I had managed to run further than I had ever previously managed. However, dampening my spirit was the knowledge that I had only reached this accomplishment because I was too "proud" and too stubborn to take even take a glance at map.
Going to sleep, I was as proud as I was ashamed.
Going to sleep, I was as proud as I was ashamed.
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