9K

I just finished a 9K walk to the Han River and back. It started shakily with a hint of a heartburn-y feeling that I now know is a kind of low-grade angina, but I rested on a local bench for about seven minutes, and there was no problem afterward.* If I stopped after that, it was only to snap photos (only one of which came out, alas—see below). Otherwise, my pace was a much-better-than-usual 3.9 kph—still slow by human standards, but better than my usual lame, decrepit pace (3.4-3.6 kph). The cooler nighttime temps doubtless helped. I'll do another 9K walk on Thursday, then tape my feet up for an 18K walk that I hope to do starting early Saturday so that I can eat later in the day. Eating and then walking is still bad news for me despite my having weaned myself off insulin (my blood-sugar numbers have been fine, too, for the past 17 insulin-free days—not radically different at all, and sometimes even better than when I'd been using that poison). Angina when not moving is almost nonexistent now.

In other walking news, I've been thinking about my route. While I'm dying to do the Four Rivers one last time, I've also been thinking that I'd like to redeem myself after last year's disaster, in which my walk was interrupted for a month because my feet had gotten severely injured after some nastily wet weather. So my choice is: a last-hurrah 633K along the Four Rivers path or one more shot at the Nakdong River route, from Busan to Andong, with no stupid injuries and no damn month-long breaks this time. But that walk would be only about 400K, factoring in the places I'd stay at.

travel companion, tired of life

I'm going to have to make a decision within the next few days if I want to get this year's tee shirt designed, printed, and sent to me in time for the walk.

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*That's how it was before my heart attack last year, too! Life is on repeat.