Walking around in Circles.

So, the Chiropractor told me I should do my long distance walk at the high school track today. I looked at www.philsport.com to check the distance of each lane on the track, and how many laps I would have to walk in order to get 20 miles. I chose to walk in lane 8 because that was ONLY 72.019 laps. I put on the Garmin, because I wanted to keep track of my HR during the workout. I used the Timex Chronograph to keep track of the number of laps walked. Funny, everyone says that a Garmin doesn’t work real well on a track because of the turns, or maybe it is just too small an area to be accurate. When I uploaded the workout to my computer, the map looked really screwed up, but the total distance covered was accurate. I don’t know how, but it was.

Everything was aching a little when I started out, since my last walk was last Saturday, and that was a hilly 12 miler. So, I walked 4 miles, and then stopped to stretch and get some flexibility drills done. The stretching took about 7m30s. After that I just got to work. I didn’t have to carry my water of electrolyte drink, because I passed it every .278 miles. I carried my GU, Clif Bar, Clif Shot Blocks, and sectioned Clementines a small fanny pack that I carry behind me. I slide it around when I need to get something out of it.

When I first arrived, there were a few people walking, jogging, etc. They left after I had walked about 10 laps. Then a few others showed up, but they only stayed a short time. So, I just kept going and going and going. At 36 laps, or half way, I changed directions. When I was at around 17 miles, my head started messing with me. Come on, just go home. This is too difficult, just walking around in circles. Then someone else showed up and gave me renewed strength to finish. He was jogging in the opposite direction as I was walking, so I actually had human contact twice each lap. I thanked him for showing up when he did. When he asked me if I had been about to pack it in, I said yes because I needed to finish 20 miles and it was getting tough. When we met up a half a lap later, he asked me if I had said 20 laps. When I assured him I said 20 miles and I only had 3 laps to go to finish, he said I was the craziest person he had ever met. I told him thanks because I had accomplished what I set out to do today. I didn’t bother to tell him there are folks who walk a whole lot farther than 20 miles at a time!

Time for 20 miles today was 4:50:10 for an average pace of 14:30 (this includes time spent stretching because I did not stop the timer). Not fast enough but at least I got it done!