Walking Report

Very cold walk this morning. Only about 3 miles. Bitter wind. We have had no snow since December, and so the landscape is this unappealing frozen brown ground, coated with the sand that the public works department spreads on the street in ice and snowstorms. There are leaves and uncovered bits of trash that won't get cleaned up until spring. The trail has been muddy, and the muddy imprints of footprints are now frozen and hard, so the surface will trip you up if you're not watchful.

Last night Housemate and I met up with a group of interested walkers -- nine came, and two more sent proxies to hear about the training schedule. What was conceived as a casual, "hey, we're doing this half-marathon in May, anybody else want to do it too?" gathering sort of took on a life of its own. I printed out a packet of materials -- the registration page for the event, a spreadsheet schedule showing weekly mileage and an outline of our walking schedule (T, Th, F at 5:45 AM, 3-5 miles, plus a long walk on one weekend day, building to 16 or so miles). And I printed out some other sample schedules from the web, and a couple of articles on building speed while you walk. It turned out to be kind of an impressive packet. And Housemate talked about socks and shoes, and we brought our water belts and ice cleats to show folks what we used to train for the marathon. People were taking notes.... Among the gathered folks, one woman had gotten really excited about printing up funny t-shirts as a group, so had made some phone calls about price and design, and gave a little report on that. And one of the women is a physical therapist, and she offered to lead a weekly strength training custom workout for us, or maybe a specialized Pilates class for the group. Whoah. We went around the room -- eight women and a man, age ranging from 28 to late 40s. People had different reasons for being interested in walking -- from the political ("I'm studying urban planning and I'm interested in building pedestrian-friendly cities") to the athletic to the social. Everyone talked about the idea of having a goal to build towards, and having a group of people working towards it alonside you, how attractive that combination is.

Comments

[LawMom]

Sherry, how did you find this particular group of people? Are they co-workers, friends? Did you know all of them prior to the meeting? I think this is a great idea...I personally would find it easier to continue something like that if I was in a group that I had to be accountable to.

[Scheherazade]

Let's see -- the group was a former co-worker of mine, and a woman she now works with, who I also know socially. And a friend of that woman, who I may have met once before but don't really know. A co-worker of Housemate's. An aunt of mine. A woman I went to middle school and high school with, and her boyfriend/friend. And then the two women who sent proxies are friends of one of the women there. So it was kind of a hodgepodge of people, a loosely connected web of friends and acquaintances, with an open invite to pass along to anyone else who might want to do it.