How to Quit: Why binning my latest expedition was still a success

It was the last stretch of a 54-mile paddling trip and pain was shooting between my right elbow and shoulder. A close friend and I were kayaking the Union Canal on a four-day trip from Glasgow to Edinburgh and we had 18 miles to go. The wind was against us, the blue skies from the previous, glorious afternoon had been swallowed up by storm clouds, and I was barely paddling a mile and a half per hour.

“You’d be much faster if you paddled the other direction,” a walker helpfully shouted from the towpath along the canal. I thanked her for the advice and continued onward, trying to catch up with my friend, who clung to the side of the canal in cold drizzle for half an hour waiting for me. 

Read the full story at SOLO, by Flash Pack.