Sand

When I was about 16, I walked from Friends School down to Cherry Hill and then back up to the Inner Harbor in about 2 1/2 feet of snow. Breaking through that snow, over and over again, felt like I was walking through the top of a wedding cake. 4 hours and a sunburn later, my friend and I wore ourselves out. Muscles were cramping for at least a day.

At around age 17, another friend and I walked from the Jersey part of the shore all the way down to Ocean City on the sand. Several hours and a sunburn later, our calves were on fire. We took the bus back up.


Today was the first time I ever ran on the beach. I ran out to one side of Mariesas beach and back, then ran out to the other side. Running in the sand, on a slant in parts, is really difficult! I could feel my arms and stomach ?muscles? (or what would be muscles if I ever worked on them) compensating for the sliding around. Everywhere were signs shouting "Danger!" in Portuguese. No way will I wander out into the water: I'll watch the surfers from afar, as I trundle down the beach, safely away from the riptide.

And 'trundle' really is an appropriate word to use. Expended a lot of effort to go as slow as I did. When I would get to parts of the beach that were really hard-packed, however, I felt like I was Paula Radcliff, racing down some magic piece of concrete that appeared out of nowhere. The amount of energy different between running partly uphill in sliding sand and running on a flat, hard-packed surface is quite large. By the time I finished, my legs were exhausted. And I was feeling good prior to the run. It was the sort of feeling good that usually means I can run about 2 1/2 hours or so with no problem. I made it for 45 today.

Amazing views all the way around. I like Brazil in the winter. Might try an hour or an hour and fifteen tomorrow. All is not lost, even with the all-you-can-eat buffet included in the conference for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Still working on my conference paper, which means I'm also catching up on my crosswords. 5:02 for Monday's!