Deerathon Cut Short

The plan was to run through PolyU, OpenU, BaptistU, CityU, ChineseU, then take the MTR to cross the harbour to Wanchai, then continue to run to HKU, and finally finish at Happy Valley, for my version of the Deerathon. 

The run to the first 4 sites were uneventful.  

Other than a bird that seemed to have followed me from PolyU to OpenU.  

Perhaps it was a different bird of the same type.  But they did look very similar to each other.   

If it was the same bird, why was it following me?  If it was a different bird, why did I see two similar birds at the entrance to two universities within such a short time?  

CityU looks positively ugly right now.  Even worse than PolyU.  It would not have been too much out of place as a prison. 

I was feeling pretty good after passing CityU.  I had run 9 kilometres and was feeling strong.  I felt confident that I could go through TaiPo Road to Shatin, and then run along the waterfront and reach ChineseU without too much trouble.  

I was going slightly downhill into Tai Hang West and was just cruising when it happened.  Before I knew it, I twisted my left angle badly, stumbled, and almost fell. After teetering for several steps, I regained my balance.  But my left ankle hurt badly.  Fortunately, just a few steps away was a fire-hydrant where I could sit down.  

At that point, I was wondering whether I could walk off the effect of the twisted ankle, and continue onto ChineseU.  I really didn’t want to give up the idea.  Deep down, I felt it was unlikely.  I was simply hoping against hope.   

As soon as I sat down on the Fire hydrant.  I took stock of my condition and felt that it was worse than I thought.  I felt light headed.  Vision was blurred.  Everything seemed unbearably bright.  I even saw patches of light blue where it was brightest.  And it wasn’t going away.  

I knew it was the reaction to shock.  I kept my head down, and prayed that I do not faint.  Sitting on a fire-hydrant, that could have been bad.  I dared not stand up either.  The ankle was hurting badly and I was afraid that I might collapse.   Finally, after what felt like about 10-15 minutes, the blurred vision was largely gone.  I tested my angle.  It still hurt.  But I found that if I put most of my weight on my right foot, I could stand and kind of hobble across the street to sit down at a bench in the park.  That way I could rest more safely.  

Gradually I started to feel better, almost normal, except for my ankle.  There was no way I could run.  I had to go home.  I was going to hobble over to the MTR station.  At that moment I got a text from my wife.  She locked herself out and I had to return home immediately.  So I ended up taking a taxi. 

So much has happened. And it was not even noon. 

Come to think of it, I twisted my ankle when I was feeling good and was not playing enough attention to where I was going.  That has happened to me before.  More than 20 years ago, I was running past ChineseU on Taipo Road towards Taipo, also going downhill. I was feeling good.  Suddenly I slipped, fell and dislocated my left shoulder.  Twice, running along the East Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade, I was feeling good, lost concentration, clipped something, and sprawled on the ground, cutting both hands and knees.  In fact, I was reminding myself of that just a few moments before I twisted my ankle this time.  I don’t know what else I could do to avoid that.