Malady Du Jour

Shin splints. This is really getting ridiculous.

I left around 6:30 this morning. There were only three of us in the dorm last night. Yet again, someone leaving at 5 kicked a metal water bottle and sent it rolling around the floor and banging into metal bunked legs. I knew the other guy was leaving around six; when I got up at 5:45 he said I could turn on the light, but neither of us could find a light switch, so even though it was just the two of us, we were both using our phone flashlights to get everything packed and ready.

I was actually cold this morning. However, there was a pretty steep climb within the first mile, so that warmed me right up. It happened to occur after my Aleve had kicked in, so climbing wasn’t that bad on the legs, and it felt great knowing I could do it without huffing and puffing like in the beginning. The downhill was very steep, and I took it very slowly.

Lots of fields today, but we did follow a river for a bit midday, then a canal the last few miles into town.

I wasn’t convinced I’d be walking into town. At the first town, about six miles in, I took pictures of two taxi company cards tacked on the board. I never ended up calling one, but I also haven’t ruled it out. I’m so tired of finding the good in each day instead of the days actually being good. Not perfect, not fabulous, not problem-free — just good on the whole instead of thinking about how much every step hurts.

Walking in to town I saw a cow and horse in an open space in a row of houses and business. I pulled out my camera and realized the other person taking a picture was Tom. Since we’re all across the street from each other, and we’ve caught up with Annette, we had a Borda crew dinner at a real restaurant. There were two good sounding options, but one opened at 6:30 pm and one at 7:30, so we took the early one. The other would end way past our bedtime.Read more