In terms of
doing things that scare me, there is no limit at the moment. Still half
sleeping on Saturday morning I debated whether I would go mountain biking again
or go for a run. When I momentarily got out of bed to make some toast and
coffee, I found a note from Cindy that she had gone to the market, would be
back by 11 and if I wanted to go for a run with her she would be delighted.
On a side note, this proves that
Cindy is healing quickly. After her face had been swollen in every place, it
turned strange purple and yellow colours all over but it now looks mostly
normal again. She had a doctor’s appointment Friday and they told her she could
run if she wanted to.
As noted
before Cindy is very tough. She has a bottomless amount of unrestricted and
temperamental energy (her ancestors are Italian), and she used to run marathons
and do triathlons as a regular work-out. Although she doesn’t do that anymore,
she is still probably much fitter than I will ever be, even though I am pretty
fit. The run that I like to do around here is about 8 miles, which is 12.8 km,
and I usually walk some of it and take my time. Cindy refers to this as her
“small run” (although she did acknowledge that it is no trivial distance).
Going for a run with Cindy classifies very much as more than something scary.
Also
because I have never run with someone before. I prefer my own company, my own
tempo, my own encouragements (“Why am I doing this? Oh, ice cream. Let's run a little faster and get home for some ice cream.”)
But I
decided I should give it a go. She will never be less fit than now after 3
months of no running (but moving house) and 1 week of being ill. And either way
if I want to run a half marathon sometime soonish I might as well push myself a
little harder occasionally. I could always say/pant “go ahead, I’ll see you in
a few hours…”
It worked
out well though, which really surprised me. She is still getting back into it
so her pace was more or less equal to mine and I could keep up with her pretty
well. Interestingly she would always speed up going uphill, which is where I
slow down to a crawl, but I managed to keep within chatting distance. That was
something else interesting: my theory is that I keep my breathing super regular
and in coordination with my feet (4 steps in, 4 steps out) and never ever will
I not control my breathing, because I want to keep my body regularly oxygenated
to keep it functioning properly (think yoga). But Cindy is very chatty and so
we were talking the whole time but I didn’t collapse or run out of breath,
which I hadn’t expected.
At exactly halfway
through the track you get to this lake, and Cindy’s routine involves taking a
splash. Which was really nice on this hot day. And your sopping wet clothes
keep you cool for the rest of the run. And when we arrived back at the house,
well, surprise, another lake, another splash. I could get used to that.
And I had
to get used to that, because Cindy’s next plan involved swimming across the lake
on Sunday morning. We went to see one of the neighbours who apparently likes to
swim, to drag her along. She looked at Cindy with what I recognized as a scared
look – “will I be able to keep up at all with this super woman” – and then at
me with a “at least she’s in this too”-look. So Sunday morning the neighbour
and me sleepily followed hyperactive Cindy into the lake. She made us wear
bright swimcaps and tied 2 “get well soon” balloons to her swimming suit, so
that boaters would be able to spot us. It was very nice, about a 40 minute swim
in total, nice and quiet. The neighbour and me were able to keep up very well and
were happy about the excursion.
Who know’s
what’s next. I’m actually tempted to try a longer run …
