Oops

Today I went for the longest bike ride since probably about a year ago. It was very interesting...5 1/2 hours of quality saddle time, and lots of picture taking. However, I ended up on the highway, which I'm not gonna lie was a little scary...

I was on my way home and I was really tired and so instead of taking the sure way back up the mountain (which was more steep on the way back) I decided to go the other way, which I had done once before with my teammates. But, at a juncture where I could have taken one road towards Gwangali, I decided to go towards Haeundae, because that's where I was planning on riding through on my way home. However, in looking at the place names I must have missed that the road which led to Haeundae was an interstate...(thank goodness it only lasted about 8 or 10km...) haha. But, even worse, was the fact that towards the very end of the highway (I think actually the highway had already ended at this point), I turned around...my reasoning stemmed from the fact that I saw on a sign that the Gwangali Bridge was 5km ahead. Now I didn't pause to think that I had successfully survived the highway without getting pulled over by the police, or that the road did not lead in only one direction....but I think I was still nervous about having been on the highway (I was only nervous because I was pretty sure bikes weren't allowed, not because I felt like I was in danger), and didn't completely realize that I was now off the highway and that surely I could find a road that would take me to the place I needed to go without going on any more forbidden roads...so instead my mind focused on the fact that I thought bikes definitely weren't allowed on the Gwangali Bridge, so I turned around. Yup. I TURNED AROUND. On the highway. (Actually, I was off the highway at this point, so I turned around BACK ONTO the highway...but the kicker was that now I was going AGAINST traffic (because there was a divider on the highway that was a little too high for me to jump with my bike, with the additional factor that cars were speeding by at 80km per hour and I didn't want to be a complete fool and try to cross the road, ha). So anyway, I walked the bike through the Haeundae tunnel in fear of being pulled over by the police (at one point a cop car with lights flashing started coming towards me and I got a little nervous that it was going to stop and punish me for being an idiot (although at that time I might have appreciated someone getting me off of the highway haha) but it didn't - it just drove right past), and then when out of the tunnel, I started riding my bike slowly, again, against traffic. I was trying to find the point where the road had split so I could take the other road, a juncture which I thought was closer than apparently it actually was...so after about 20-30 minutes of riding and walking time combined, I decided to just turn around and ride with traffic - because I was almost sure that that place where I had turned around the first time was near the end of the highway.

So, riding again with traffic now more cautious than before and praying not to be pulled over, I biked for the second time down interstate 65, and finally reached the end. At that point, it was only about 4 or 5 more km until that road (still highway-like but officially not a highway so I don't think I could actually be pulled over, although if a cop saw me I'm sure they would be wondering HOW I got onto that road in the first place, haha) spit me out onto a road which I was sure was ok to bike on, took a bit of a rest, and then rode back the busy roads to my house (now those busy roads are going to seem like back roads compared to the highway haha).

I'm sure the people who saw me walking or riding my bike in the opposite direction on the highway were thinking...who is this incredibly stupid person? I tried not to think about the embarrassment factor...I bet my heart rate was 20 beats per minute higher just being nervous and embarrassed. haha.

But anyway. I was planning on doing a 1-2 hour run after the ride, but because it ended up taking me about 6 hours for the trip (5h 15min of which I counted towards exercising), and since I started out later than expected because of doing Korean homework, I decided against running. Although I really should have - my legs are really sore and I need to start doing bricks - but I can start that next weekend I supposed.

So instead of running, I actually decided to cut my hair....haha. Yup. It wasn't a completely spontaneous decision, I had been thinking about it for a few days, and I was thinking about going to a salon but I can't speak hair-cutting-related Korean, and I wanted something very different (or rather dramatic, not just a trim), so I decided in my fatigued state that I would have some fun with my hair and if I ended up messing it up horribly then I could go to a salon and say, 'make it look like it wasn't cut by a drunkard with a chainsaw'. But actually, it came out quite nice I think. I've come to the opinion that it is much easier to cut your own hair in layers than it would be to just cut it straight, especially if you don't have two mirrors. So now my hair is a little longer than shoulder length (and I might actually shorten it a bit more and reduce the layers a bit) and there is a monkey-load of hair in my trash barrel now. Haha.

What a great day. :)