A Walk: A Documentary

A Walk

No thanks to Demola all my resolve to avoid drinking last night was defenestrated immediately he showed up at my doorstep. I had already turned in and was about to turnoff the lights when he barged in on me as he's wont to do on Friday nights. Anyway I was happy to see the dude and we went beer hunting we ended up in a dimly lit lounge and a few bottles of Guinneses later we decided to call it a day at about 1 a. m. Well, that wasn't bad considering our antecedents; perhaps age is eventually catching up with us.




Sleeping was made easy, the alcohol did it's job. I woke up with a low key headache blasting subtlely at the back of my head. My joints were like super-glued, I knew I couldn't move them even if I try. I checked the time and was shocked to see it was already six in the morning, there was a light traffic on Eko Bridge, there were also a couple of joggers heading towards National Stadium. I knew I needed to workout but I was tired, very tired. I looked through my windows once again and the sun was already smiling, I headed for the fridge grabbed a Fanta took a sip and decided to join the joggers.

I donned my sports gear and started with a slow trot, with no defined route plan I headed for Railway compound via Apapa Road ten minutes later I was at Federal Medical Center Ebute-Metta heading for Tejuosho Market along the railway tracks. The railway compound reflects Nigeria, a paragon of neglect. The foundry was in derelict and several NNPC branded coaches were left sadly rusting away. There were some Chinese boys in heavy duty boots coming out of newly built CCECC quarters and that was the only activity of note throughout my trip through the Railway Compound.

I headed for Barracks Bus-Stop via Tejuosho road where my Ibo brothers were already busy displaying their China made fabrics outside the newly completed Tejuosho market, it suddenly struck me that these traders will never be able to afford shops inside the complex. At this juncture I started my power-walk with a swag. I was tired but far away from home already, the convenient thought of taking a bus back home came along and without much ado I abandoned the the easy option and continued. By now I guess the residual alcohol in my system had been fully metabolized on the other hand the fatigue has probably pushed it's effect to the background, which ever way I was happy my head was in an all clear state.

At Barracks there were some joggers mostly running towards the National Stadium, there was this particularly endowed lady cat-walking ahead of me. I didn't really have time to checkout her wares as I have started jogging once again, at stadium the entrance was a beehive of activities, sellers of used sport wears were already at peak sales period, and yellow busses were doing their very best to disobey the traffic lights and jam the road. I slowed down and got myself a bottle of water to quench my nagging thirst, with no time to wait or waste I continued jogging at a very fast pace towards Alaka taking only three sips from the water bottle. At Iponri Police Station I reached my limit and started once again my swagger power-walk till I got to costain.

I looked down at my white trainers the lace was still intact but there were a few red mud stains on it. I remember the rail tracks had some red mud patches, I looked up, saw a BRT conductor, I smiled at her, she smiled back but she never knew I have been jogging for the past 75 minutes covering about 7 Kilometers.