Don Bosco--end the fantasy

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Yard	Start time
22 Mar	Don Bosco	28	1:44.12	6:30

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Yard	Start time
23 Mar	Don Bosco	27	1:45.80	6:31

          No more fooling around. I’ve stopped this fantasy that my friend wants to do this. Dalilah’s progression is similar to many experiences of exercise wannabes. 

Last Monday—didn’t go because it was a holiday (those who don’t really want to exercise can find any excuse NOT to exercise).

Tuesday was raining—this was a good reason to call it off—I don’t like to run in the rain, either.  Not necessarily because of the rain so much, but because my clothes will become drenched. 

Wednesday we met to run…well, to exercise. She was there before me! I had to call her to find out where she was and how I could enter the Center.

          She kept saying, “I’m inside!” I looked around, all I could see were closed café’s and grocery stores. She meant inside the center.

          Then she said, “I’m waving my hand!” This is all very well and good for someone who knows where to look. I didn’t.

          I answered, “Fantastic! I’m waving my hand, too. What good does it do me?”

          On Thursday, I got to the center before her, at 6:20.  I called, she said, “Hi James. I’m coming. I’ll be there in 5 minutes.” Every time I call, especially before 6:30, the call from me has as much allure as filling 50-kg bags of sand with a teaspoon. She stumbled into the center about 20 minutes later.

          Friday, I get there at 6:20, as usual. This time I don’t call her. I don’t want to pester her, and I take off running.  After 20 minutes, I’m surprised to see her.

          On Monday, I let her off—I had too much stuff to do.

          Tuesday, she comes over about 6:40, and apologizes for being late. I tell her that it’s a sign of improvement because she was later on Friday.

          Wednesday, today, she comes over and apologizes again. After I hear that she went back to bed on Tuesday and slept until 10 am, I see the writing scratched out in the sand where we are running.  No more.

          My first clue that she wasn’t really serious was the fact that she wore some thin, flat, semi-worn out, tennis shoes with a cushion factor of zero. I told her she absolutely could NOT wear those shoes. She was going to injure herself, her feet, her knees, etc.  Don’t get me wrong, she doesn’t have to have fancy-dancy, super expensive shoes.  I wore these in a marathon:

          So you see, I’m not a purist who follows the shoe company’s recommendations and buys a new pair every 6 months. When she wants to get serious about exercising, Dalilah simply needs shoes with a bit of padding.  Anyway, her excuse was, “I have no time!!!” said with a pathetic whine that would make a football coach hide his head in shame.  She said she could go to the shop on Saturday.  She didn’t.

          So anyway, this little running episode was fun, sort of. She was never happy, but I’m not saying there is anything less than terrific about her. Some people just aren’t meant to go running. She needs sleep, she has a huge amount of stuff on her plate (she wants me to tell her more idioms). Sometimes, I think she has so much stuff to do that she’s in over her head.  She has me edit articles she has translated so she can improve her English, and we talk about news she finds in the NY Times and the Atlantic so she can learn more vocabulary and improve her pronunciation.  Her ambition is to take the TOEFL next fall. She is fully on track to get a fabulous score.

          What about me and our little running experiment? It was great for me. It got my butt out of bed really early.