day 8: crying in the club (if the club is the side of the road in brookhaven)

day 8 dawned with a lot of promise. i've been feeling trepidatious about day 8 (and 9) since almost the beginning of my journey because these are the two longest distance days of the entire journey! back to back! who planned that? let me at them! regardless, i started the day really well....and finished it crying on the side of the road in brookhaven. let's dive in, shall we?

• it has been a FULL WEEK since i stood near the water in brooklyn and began walking eastward! it's very difficult to think about it, because the days on the road have all sort of collapsed into one mega day. either way - it's been a week! yay!
• like i said: day 8 started well! i had a funny little continental breakfast at my hotel (there was some weird machine that made pancakes on a conveyor belt? is this the future?) and i began walking with actually a lot of energy! my body felt about as good as it has since day 2!
• what i discovered is: for a long distance day, it's much more sustainable to do shorter burst with interspersed periods of rest. long treks are JUST NOT IT. unfortunately, due to my own poor scheduling, i did the first half of the day at a lovely, broken up, leisurely pace......and finished it by pretty much half-marathoning my way to my airbnb without stopping - which was horrible!
• i had my second to last interview in sayville, and luckily from now on my path is pretty much due east (or east-erly) towards montauk! because of the boomeranging i did to get to my various interviews, i still have almost a THIRD of the distance of long island to travel! so make sure you take that into account when you're guessing exactly how far i ended up walking.
• i will say: as i make my way through eastern suffolk towards the forks, the scenery is changing, the way cars drive on the road is changing, the volume of suburbia is changing - i was wondering when i'd see that shift and it's gratifying that it's finally happening! it makes me feel like i'm heading towards that final stretch.
• i thought a lot about walking today - especially during the early part of the morning when i more or less had energy haha! one of my drama teachers at guildhall used to say that if you walked a very long distance, your body would naturally find an efficient posture for motion. i have not found that to be true, but maybe she wasn't taking into account the immense distance, relatively quick pace, and HUGE BACKPACK i'm contending with. what i have found is helpful (besides copious rests), is making my strides shorter when i start to feel fatigued, keeping my feet pretty much right beneath my hips. i don't know what the science would say about that.
• and i know what you all want to hear about! you want to hear about me crying on the long island roadsides! well i did! i admit it! i figured i'd have a day or two where the physical toll of the journey overwhelmed me, and today WAS THAT DAY. it was a loooooong distance day and my body was just shot by the end of it. i started my day at 6:30 and i'm writing this at 10:12. i was just sore and tired, and i realized that there was nothing to do about it besides keep walking. which led to my roadside meltdown, which definitely may have involved me saying, "i don't want to walk anymore! i just want to lie down!" dear elena of the past, it's me - elena of the future. don't cry, we are lying down.
  
• the BIG news! (as big as it gets around here) is that tomorrow was supposed to be ANOTHER long day of walking.... not only that, it was supposed to be the LONGEST day of walking for the whole project. however, taking into account how my body feels and the amount of time i'd be on the road (my rule is to be tucked in for the night before sunset, and i broke it by a little today!!!), i have made a BOLD decision to cover tomorrow's mileage.....by bicycle! yes, you heard right! tomorrow i'll be mounting the old iron horse (do people call bikes the iron horse or is that just bizarre lol) and spending the day moving at a (slightly) faster pace! i'm hoping this will give me time to recover for my last few days!
  

as always: i will check in tomorrow! just in case: does anyone know any good bike repair shops in suffolk county? hit up my instagram and keep an eye on my story!