As Jotham lay on the road, panting, his heart thumping hard and his lungs fighting for air, he sincerely thought he wouldn’t live to tell his story.

After a couple of minutes in that state, he noticed a small crowd began to gather and people murmuring, “Is he dead?” “Looks like he fainted,” “Abi he has a heart attack…” Amid all the assumptions, he heard a confident male voice say, “Give him some space. He needs the air.”

By the time Jotham came to, he was sitting by the culvert with a tall, middle-aged man standing over him and staring in concern. “It’s about time you came back to this crazy world, my friend. I’m Dr. Jide and I saw you pass out while you were running.” Jotham immediately remembered the events that led up to this moment.

He had been pretty much inactive with his exercises and hadn’t gone for a run in about three years. After so much procrastination, he decided to get back to his run and set a target for himself.

He wanted to cover the same miles he used to when he was a consistent and fit runner, but the human body always has a way of sending signals to remind us not to bite more than we can chew.

Jotham took off from his estate in full sprint and after just a few minutes of pushing against the resistance his body was building, he collapsed.

After hearing his story, Dr. Jide shook his head and said, “That’s the mistake right there, bro. Your body is not a machine and you’re not at your full physical capacity as three years ago. You needed to coerce your body, joints, heart, and muscles back into the game by starting out with a warmup. Then follow with walking short distances, then longer ones. As your body adjusts to this, you can take it to a brisk walk for a longer distance”

“Again, watch your body’s adjustment and know when to take it to a mix of walking and running. You must go through these stages to prepare your body for a full-blown run, my friend.”

Jotham sighed and nodded in agreement. He knew this deep down but was too stubborn that he took too big a bite and it landed him on the roads of Lagos, panting like a ram about to be executed.

He thanked Dr. Jide, dusted off his workout gear, and walked home in regret – he hoped none of the on-lookers had caught the entire thing on camera and posted to social media. The thought of that sent embarrassing shivers down his spine.

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