Hurts so Good

I woke up this morning stiff and sore.  You would have thought it was January 8, not July 8 – that’s how reminiscent it was of those early days of my five mile walks. I came THIS CLOSE to downing a few Aleves, but talked myself into holding off until after my shower, and it was the right call.  The hot water loosened my aching muscles enough that I didn’t need meds, but I was still hobbling around and cursing the fact that I keep forgetting to wear my knee brace.

It was wonderful.

I was reminded that I am doing something special, something that requires a real effort, and takes a toll.  And I learned that my body has NOT adjusted to walking five miles a day, at least not in the sense that iI thought it had.  I have been walking around the last few weeks thinking that this has gotten easy, but the fact is, it IS easy when you do it in small increments throughout the day.  I don’t want it to be easy, I want it to be hard. I want my knees and the backs of my calves to ache after a really strenuous workout, and I want the rough justice of really suffering when I neglect to stretch afterwards. 

It was a busy day, and I didn't get to my walk til 8:10 pm.  Banks lasted an hour, and then I walked to St. Ed's for the last half hour. I had the scariest experience!  I was listening to an NPR podcast (my headphones miraculously healed themselves) and I thought I heard firecrackers in the distance.  Then it sounded closer, and then it didn't sound like firecrackers, it sounded, God help me, like gunshots. Maybe 8-10 of them.  Just random pop-pop-pop sounds. It sounded like it was coming from the south end of campus, but when I took my headphones off, it sounded more like north campus.  I stood there, frozen, waiting to hear someone scream, or SOME sign of disturbance.  But the sounds ended and.......nothing.  I saw a couple of joggers running around (with ipods) and a car driving slowly through campus and no one seemed to have a care in the world.  So I headed home, but my heart was pounding.  If you read anything in the paper tomorrow, remember you heard it here first.