we closed the loop
”Wanna walk twenty miles, counterclockwise, around town, to take some pictures, one day after our moving there?”
That’s how Estevam felt it was appropriate to introduce me to Loop de’Ville — and I don’t even think in miles yet, my brain still does kilometers, meters, kilos and Celsius.
I said yes verbally, knowing my internal monologue would have given up after two miles, and just thought I’d deal with the reality of that information when the time came.
”Are we going into the woods right from the beggining?”
The time came, and so did Hurricane Helene. The Loop was pushed to the following weekend, and I got this 7-day credit to mentally prepare for something I had never gotten close to even trying.
We’re no strangers to hikes, taking the opportunity to get lost in the woods of South Brazil (literally, but more on that some other time) whenever possible, but twenty miles felt like an Olympic effort and I wasn’t yet ready to be confronted with my fitness failures while adjusting to life in a new country, so, saying I was intimidated by the amount of outdoor gear I was exposed to within two minutes of getting to the starting line is a severe understatement.
“This is not so bad, we get to be in the shade!”
But I’m no quitter (is what I kept telling myself, Cheer Zone after Cheer Zone) and by the end of eight amazing and exhausting hours, there I was, basking in my private glory, patting my own back, and throwing my feet up while savoring a well-deserved beer; my brain vivid with images of marathon runners crossing the finish line and kneeling, getting standing ovations and preparing for the podium…
…except that in my version, their medal was a box of donuts and that rewarding feeling of invincibility only a dopamine rush will give you.
