AROUND BURKE LAKE
Yesterday, I almost fainted walking around Burke Lake, not far from where I live in Burke, VA, a suburb of Washington, DC.
That never happened before and I have been walking, or running around the Lake for 30 years. In 1980, I arrived in Washington as a foreign correspondent for major Arabic newspapers and magazine in the Middle East – still my job. I established an office in the National Press Building, two streets from the White House, and my wife and I bought our present house. At that time, there were forests between our sub-division, Cherry Run, and Burke Lake.
For 30 years, I have been going to Burke Lake (circling the lake is five miles). First, running with our dog, George, a golden retriever; then training our three children to bike or camping with them; then, walking while the children biked. Now, the children have grown-up, I walk with our second dog, Emma, a border collie.
Now, walking around Burke Lake is my only exercise. So, I try to do it everyday, winter, summer, spring and fall, rain and shine, though sometimes I find excuses not to. Because I go to office early, around 7:: 15-7:30, I come home early and go to the lake around three or four o’clock in the afternoon
For the last two weeks, it has been very humid and very hot, about 90 degrees. I don’t mind the heat (I am an immigrant from Africa, a Sudanese), but it is the humidity that bothers me
Yesterday, because the sun sets around 8:30, I decided to go to the lake later in the day, when it might get a little cool. I went around 6:30, and the temperature was 80. (It takes me about an hour and a half, but I don’t walk briskly; I put on a head radio, go with the dog and take it easy. So, it is partly exercise and partly entertainment.
Yesterday, I should have noticed that there wasn’t a single tree leave that was moving. The day before, around sun-set, there was a little breeze, and that was when cut the grass.
But yesterday, the tree leaves were motionless. About one quarter of the way, I started feeling exhausted (I am in my sixties), so I slowed down. But, it seemed to me that there was not air to breath. I took my shirt off, and that was the first time in 30 years that I did that.
Usually, it is nice to walk in a continuous shade under the tall trees, but yesterday that trees seemed like blocking the air, so I couldn’t wait to reach the open area around the dam, hoping to find some breeze. No breeze. I felt I was going to fain any time, and thought of calling 911 from my cell phone and hoping, if that happened, someone would be around to call 911, and, there were not many people walking or jogging.
When I made it to the restroom area, where there was a water-fountain, I splashed my face and hair with water, drank a lot and felt a little better.
And when I reached my car, I didn’t want to start the air-conditioning quickly for fear of adverse reaction. I opened the windows and drove home.
