Friday, July 12, 2013

Day 4: The Tunnel


“The Tunnel” – John Murphy [28 Days Later Soundtrack]

Before I get into the (short) story for today, I thought I’d take care of a bit of shop talk.  Part of the point of this blog is to maintain some level of accountability.  If I don’t write, it’s because I haven’t run.  And then you – all 2 of you that may be reading this – will know.  It’s a way to keep myself motivated.  The other motivation comes from me telling myself that I won’t have a creative outlet for my floundering zombie fiction if I don’t run.
It occurs to me that, while all of this is true, it may help if I actually throw out a few numbers from that day’s run, as well as tell you a bit about my process. 

I’ve been using the Zombies Run 5K app from Six To Start, and it has been a tremendous help to me.  On top of giving me a running program to follow, it also helps to motivate me.  I’m still in the beginning stages, so I haven’t really encountered any zombies yet (well, one…but he was a mile away, so that barely counts), but it’s still a fun way to run.  So thanks to the folks who put that together.  It has been amazing.  I look forward to every run.

The app also tracks some stuff: distance run, time spent running, and my pace per mile.  I figured it would help if I posted some of those after each run.  Because, quite frankly, they’re a bit embarrassing at the moment, and writing them down for people to see will only motivate me to try a little harder my next time out.  So, at the top of each post, I’ll be writing down those stats for the day. 

Here are my stats for today’s run:
Miles: 2.85
Time: 43.52
Pace per mile: 15:24

And now, for the story.

It finally stopped raining, and I felt comfortable enough to put my socks out to dry.  Looks like I’ll be keeping my feet after all.  For now, anyway.  Those crawling zombies are death.

I found a little walking path off the main road today and decided to use that.  Maybe it wasn’t my best decision, as it was framed by trees on each side.  But there was enough room on each side of the path to see if anything was coming at me.  The trees also seemed sparse enough that I could make an escape through them if I got hemmed in.  Look at me, minding my surroundings.  I may just survive this thing after all.
As it turns out, I didn’t encounter any zombies, which was nice.  With the trees on either side and a slight breeze blowing, my running today was downright peaceful.  For the first time since this started, I actually felt happy.  Like everything was going work out just fine.  Which probably means that everything was going to go to hell for me tomorrow.  But, at that moment, it didn’t matter.  I slowed to a walk, put on some Englishman, and sang quietly along.  I’m sure it was off-key, but no one was around to shake their head at me.


“Classically Trained” - Englishman

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