the long walk

i haven't been sleeping too well lately, so haven't had much energy to be posting. also not helped by the fact that i decided to do the 6 km walk in the round the bridges event on sunday.

don't ask me what possessed me to enter this event, other than it seemed like a good idea at the time. for the first time ever, we had a muslim women's team & i wanted to be part of that. there were 13 of us "scarfies", and the funniest bit was just before the race started. we were all standing in place (towards the back, of course), and the announcer said "very soon, the moment that you've all been training so hard for". we all collapsed with laughter, as very little training had been done by any of us!

and yes, i really felt it. i'd been trying to get in some walking during the week. i'd done 3.8km around the hamilton lake the previous sunday, and a couple of half hour sessions on the treadmill. it's just so hard to find the time!

i was ok for the first 3 kms, particularly when we were walking right next to the river. i really love the fact that our river doesn't have any development close to the banks. it retains all it's natural beauty, and in many places, you hardly know you're in the city.

the 5th km was the hardest, which i felt was a drag (reminded of the stephen king novellette, "the long walk". well, ok, no-one was actually shooting at me, but i definitely identified with the descriptions of pain!). the 6th i didn't mind so much because i knew it was almost over, and even managed to put on a burst of energy for the last 250m. who would have thought! but the really painful bit was walking from garden place (where the race ended) to my car. my feet were so incredibly sore, it took me quite a while to shuffle along to the carpark.

still, i'm glad i did it. i enjoyed the company, and the feeling of being part of such a big event. and i wasn't too sore on monday, just the end of my toes really. if you're really interested, you can see photos and videos of myself and my daughter here.


and i have a more serious post on the recent law commission report up at the hand mirror.