Public Hiding

As the days get longer, thanks to the advent of Day Light Savings, and the weather warms up, my exercise routine turns to running outdoors. There is a very nice lake near our townhouse that has a paved 4 kilometer loop surrounding it. It makes for a nice 50 minute run when looped twice. Given the fine weather this night, I decided to embark on one of these looped runs. The idea being to loop it twice, then run to the grocery store nearby for a few dinner fixings. However, about three-quarters of the way around the second loop, I accidentally found one of the upper-turned pavers with my left toe and quickly found myself splayed across the track, coming down hard on my left knee, right shoulder, and right side of my face. Having just past a gentleman walking the other way, he kindly stopped to assist me, assuring me that I had only grazed my face and it didn’t look too serious. I could see the damage to my knee would rapidly create a goose-egg size swelling, but it wasn’t too painful, so I carried on with my plan of running to the grocery store. However, I should have taken a side detour to my house preceding this entrance and inspected my wounds for they were far worse then I envisioned. Emphasized by several concerned stares as I wandered the aisles and one Maori boy’s comment, “Whoa, man, did you get a hiding?” No, man, I just hided my pride.