When the Unexpected Happens

"Don't give up...Don't ever give up!"~Coach Valvano

The first typhoon on Monday brought high winds but no flooding to our neighborhood. The second typhoon on Friday had no wind power that I noticed, but our compound, and then our home, flooded.

In a twisted irony, we were all far more prepared for the first. Even the loooong running pathway alongside the West Bund had been closed off—and guarded— the night before the storm. For the second typhoon, I had only heard it was coming but it seemed no real precautions were being taken by folks, except I had noticed the day before the “sea wall” (actually by the HuangPu River) was closed, thereby closing off a section of the running pathway. I hadn’t seen that happen before.

In brief, the second “tai feng” jacked us up somethin’ fierce.

You know how they say in extreme circumstances some folks find superhuman-like strength to, for example, lift up a car to save someone? Well, I ran through nearly knee-deep dirty water carrying two sandbags at a time, just bouncing over the brownish muck. Three trips outside the gate to grab the sandbags and bound back to our front door.

The next day, it was difficult to even pick up one bag at a time.

Water was literally coming up from beneath the floor. It became nightmarish when I thought early on that it may eventually just take over the entire joint. Every wringing out of the towels, every scooping out of the water only brought more in its place.

Chengye & I soldiered onward, like Sisyphus rolling his rock up the hill—-over and over and over again.

No running happened on Friday. I had not planned on that one. In fact, nothing on the original agenda happened that day nor half the days since due to inordinate amounts of time spent cleaning up, waiting for landlord, super and repair people to arrive and having to constantly clean and re-clean floors after every visitor departed (Call it OCD, call it what you will).

Meanwhile, a straight 10.5 hours’ of heavy clean-up that fateful Friday, September 20th, brought on several days of muscle fatigue. In particular, my left hamstring was knotted up—now sore just along the top edge—my lower back was inflamed for nearly two days and my right quad was trashed. It felt as though I’d done a HIIT workout, then run a marathon, finishing off with another HIIT workout for good measure.

In my first two days of running again—Saturday & Sunday—I could barely get into a stride at first. I started at 5:43 km pace on Saturday, but pretty soon worked it out to a steadier 5:20’s pace for 10k. On Sunday, it felt almost worse at first beginning around 6:40 km pace but later getting back into 5:20’s with maybe some 5:15ish km pace in the 9th-11th kilometers.

A far cry from what I was doing just before the storm hit.

Monday was another unexpected day off. The amount of effort it took getting the dead washing machine out of the back patio and then the “new” (read: refurbished, but appearing mostly new) washer in place was herculean. Slight exaggeration but by the end of it it was already around 5pm and we hadn’t really eaten much nor rested for hours. And then the super came by to put primer on the walls over where he’d weatherproofed two days before, to help prevent mold in the future.

Though no running had happened, I was still super hungry and enjoyed two entrees at Fortunate Cafe—my favorite vegan spot. Shanghai’s best. It was great to finally relax and the housework is nearly done—I truly hope. The wet clothing and towels fermenting for days are finally being washed and today is a normal day back to reading, writing, recruiting for the new biz venture and then off for an evening run by the HuangPu River.

My soreness is dissipating, little by little. Can I go hard tonight? Perhaps. Only time will tell. But as Coach V reminds us, “Don’t give up….Don’t ever give up!”

Lastly, for my maternal grandfather: “Happy 100th, Papa! We love you!”

Rest in Peace—Papa H.T. Waldrop, 1924-2009