I was bent over with my hands on my knees in the middle of the main road, my vision getting blurrier by the second, and I was about to pass out from exhaustion.
My respiratory rate had to have been 30 cycles per minute; I could barely catch my breath.
It was in that moment I knew I effed up.
After what felt like an eternity of panting and trying not to faint, I was finally able to get my bearings, and my vision cleared up just enough for me to make out my partner's silhouette jogging towards me.
He looked worried. When he caught up with me, he touched my shoulder and asked if I was okay. I wasn't, and I don't know what in God's name made me think I was fit enough to sign up for a 5k-mile run!
He led me to the side of the road and motioned for me to sit and rest. He then sat beside me. I told him he could go on and that I would catch up with the rest of the gang when I could, but he refused. I low-key didn't want him to leave me.
After a while of resting and catching my breath, we finally stood up and continued the run.
I never considered myself to be athletic, and more importantly, I never considered myself to be so audacious.
When Ed sent me the flyer for the 5k mile run, I had never even done something like that. In fact, I hated the mere idea of walking for too long, let alone running.
It was wayyy outside my comfort zone, but you know what my ass did? I agreed immediately. Matter of fact, I registered for the event before he could even register himself. Mind you, he was a gym rat and had been for five whole years.
The day of the run rolled around, and we got to the venue where it would kick off. There was a big crowd; I'm talking 200 to 300 people.
We walked up to the table, got our number tags, and waited for it to start. We took some pictures and scanned the vicinity, you know, checked out the competition.
There were a variety of people there. Those that looked athletic as hell, men with buff arms and defined abs, doing all kinds of stretches. Ladies in cute gym wear, athletic too, stretching and mentally prepping for it.
Then there were those who it was obvious came for the fun of it. They were all smiles and just happy to be there, chatting up a storm with their friends.
I remember this one girl who was bragging, she said, "The run isn't even that hard, I'll be done with it in 15 minutes." We'll get back to her case shortly. 😅.
The race eventually started. You already know, at first I was doing great; we were running and having fun with it. Ten minutes in, my body systemically couldn't handle the stress. We would run and then stop and run and stop. Most of the stops were because of me, not gonna lie 😊😊.
Anyways, I know I couldn't have done it without my partner; halfway through, I was ready to join the emergency bus carrying those who couldn't make it.
But he kept me going. And if I wasn't there, I'm pretty sure the man would have gotten first place easily 😅. He'd disagree, though; man likes to act modest. 🌚
We passed a lot of places too. I got to see the great Yaba Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, aka Yabaleft. Okay, that's the only place worthy of mentioning 😉.
Towards the end, guess who we saw inside the emergency bus panting like a walrus? You got it! The girl who was busy bragging at the very start.
45 minutes later and after countless persuasions from the losers to join them in the bus, we got to the finish line. Heck yeah!!!!
The feeling was amazing. We got our medals and took pictures 😎. It was an amazing experience, to be honest. And I am happy I got to partake in it. I couldn't have done it with a better person. Ed was the perfect running mate. Thanks, man.
A great lesson I took away from this is, always see it to the end. Your goals, your plans, your ideas—always execute them and see them to the very end. You'll be happy you did.