Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Walking? - Oh Noooooooooo

May be I should not have done it... May be..Sometimes I dont understand where my brain deserts me in the most wanted moment and absconds somewhere.
That saturday dawned as yet another lousy day. Me and my husband decided to take a walk on a long trail (An idea discovered, after google showed us the nearest trail) and get some niccceee food in an Indian restaurant(Hey, now dont take assumptions. I dont implicitly or explicitly mean anything about my cooking here) and do the groceries shopping for the week ahead and head back home.

Had some Rotis for breakfast. I packed a big can of water and stuffed in couple of Strawberries in a small box (that can by all means fit into my small handbag). The water can being big, I was sure that I will not be carrying it during my walk, so just in case if I feel thirsty I can munch the berries which I have handy. Oh, how clever of me :) I did have plans of Pear's instead of berries but considering the dimensions of my handbag and also the fact that the berries were counting its last days I dropped the idea of stuffing Pear too. But my more cleverer husband partitioned my bag, cleared few stuff and managed to stuff 2 pears inside my bag.

Fine, now all set ! We started out. We were on the trail, originally stretching about 8 miles, it had a lake at the end of 5 miles. Beleive me, we had plans to walk till end of the trail. We walked and walked and walked and after I started feeling little tired I proudly searched for the board to see how much I have crossed, just to know it is less than 1.2 miles. Oh My god,Heavy disappointment ! It seemed like I would have covered atleast 4 miles ;) Less than 1.5? This is atrocious. I have been walking for so long time but ...J U S T 1.2?? That count appeared too meagre, may be had I converted it into metres I would have felt better and proud :) Anyways we were chit chatting and walking. Another 20 mins, my heart started planning to take a U turn and walk back. The display board said that there is a lake at the end of five miles. I was tempted to hit the lake somehow so that I can make a round-off of 5 miles which feels like a good number :) So was biting my teeth and managed to move forward. On and On and On I went, I felt it was impossible. But now there is a new problem. Having walked for so long I definitely needed a rest atleast 30-60 mins, before I start back. Unfortunately the only point where I can sit and relax was at the end of 5 miles. Rest throughout the trail it was just a broad path filled with many people jogging,cycling. I then thought back, I would have made a U-Turn when my leg started giving singals long back. I was imagining too much of myself and came on and on, and ended at a state where I have to walk till the lake, if I need to sit and relax for a while.

Whole world seemed to be laughing at me. All through my life I never have done something called 'Exercice' and the most I used to do is to take the stairs instead of elevator. Now dont imagine any 2 digit, it is to reach the 3rd floor. For such a kind of physique, this is not too much, but tooooooo toooooooo much of strain. Cursing myself heavily I walked along with my husband. Poor he, though he was not as tired as me, he was tired as well. And whenever he tried to talk with me, I just shut my mouth and kept walking as I felt the energy I have, might slip out of my mouth if I keep talking and I cannot walk back home :) Beleive me I did not have energy to talk too..I was cursing the trail, why cant they have some rest areas in between, probably one at end of each mile. Anyways, luck favoured me and at end of 4.2 mile there was a small sit area next to a what was appearing like a pond. Full of tall trees with fall colors. I felt heavenly, went there and sat for a minute. Then my heart started becoming cranky again and thought anyway as I had come 4.2 miles, I can as well reach 5 miles and take rest at the lake, may be for an hour or so and then start back. And so, we again set out, somehow pushing myself to walk we reached 5 miles, just to find out that its a Private lake :( And no proper instructions to reach there too :( I cant put it in words of how I felt..I was standing on the road and wondering where the hell am I going to have my 1 hour rest :( My husband was feeling so sorry for me, good for him and his usual work outs at gym saved him from feeling as tired as me.

I was amused at my brain for giving me hope (false-hope?) that I can somehow make it. Heavily controlling my tears I started walking back. So that I can go and relax a bit on the rest area I found at end of 4.2 miles. But walking the 0.8 miles back seemed like a mountainous task for me. Somehow we made it there and I ran and sat near the pond. I was controlling my overflowing anger n pain on myself. Was feeling so thirsty. Alas ! I had walked for almost 2 hours non stop. But no water bottle :( Took out my strawberries, it can never taste worser. I just spit it out. Thanks to my husband for brining the pear. It was so good and juicy that I finished the whole of it in less than 5 minutes. Removed my shoes. My fingers were blessing me. Sat there silently looking at the pond. My husband was even scared to talk with me as I was filled with anger and pain. :) Spent about 20 mins there and the thought of walking back 5 miles haunted me. Grrrrr...What sort of a trail, I cannot even book a call-taxi. No motor vehicles allowed. I went to the extreme and thought of asking lift to cycle-walas. Hmm ! There is no back seat in the cycles ya ! But still for my figure, I can as well manage sitting in front. Anyways ! With all such wild thoughts we started back. I was in my own thoughts, and my husband dared not to speak with me. I was praising myself for finding such a wonderful plan on a saturday morning. I was squeezing my mind and thought what all can make me feel lighter. I stopped watching road ahead, I watched at the sky and walked for a while, but later found passers by looking queer at me and so dropped the idea. I fixed my eyes on the land and never took my face up and walked for a while like that. No remedy worked fine. And i also discovered,taking 20 mins rest has only spoilt my muscles and I was feeling all the more pain now. And by removing the shoes I guess I did one more mistake, coz my fingers were paining like hell after that. I was at the verge of crying but trying to self-motivate myself and kept walking. I stopped and bent my legs up and down but nothing gave me releif.

My god ! what if I am going to faint in the middle. Huff ! Poor man, he cannot carry me for sure. Neither can anyone. My husband said he will call 911 and people will come and carry me in Helicopter, Wow, that would have been so marvellous :) But somehow my heart told me that I will not faint. I have never fainted once till now in my lifetime so may be I felt so. And I continued for another 2 hours with my own crazy thoughts after which I saw at the end of broad road, cars passing by. Oh my god ! I felt so happy. I wish I hit the road soon. I started walking fast, infact running..and there it is. Finally I spot our car and rushed to it.
Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuufffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ! It took us 5 hours. From 11-00 Am to 3-00 PM. Took the water can and emptied it half. I ofcourse had difficulties in getting inside the car with legs bent and sitting like that for rest of my journey. If you can recollect, I had plans of going to Indian restaurant and groceries and head home. But being 3-00 PM the indian restaurant was closed for lunch and we ordered a pizza over phone, collected it and I forgot the thought of groceries and went back home and fell with a big thud !

But a small sense of excitement popped up. Hey, U made it ! U made it ! almost 10 miles, Wow...

Yes I ofcourse felt a sense of accompolishment though the rest of the whole day and next day, I was walking like a Robot :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Enjoy what you do.. i do understand the task was too much to be accompolished.. dont plan like that.. cause though u walked.. u didnt enjoy it.. right..even the rest area... anyways.. its fun to trek in the U.S.. they have very good trails..
Anandhi