The first thing that came to mind when coming up with the title for today’s blog post was Stephen King’s fascinating horror story “The Long Walk.” It is a book about a brutal walking competition that often ended in death…. Today was another group training session and the schedule called for a 6 mile walk. I forced myself to roll out of bed and made it to Forest Park by 7:02 AM. The thermostat on the rearview mirror in my car said that it was a bitter 19°. I was only 2 min. late, and I saw the team already ahead of me. But, I figured since I was there I would go ahead and give it all that I had. I started walking and turned on my iPod. About 3 seconds later it said “connect to power source”, I was devastated. It sat on the charger all night long! How in the world was I going to walk six miles in the freezing cold alone with no music for motivation?

After about 10 min. I realized that I had my BlackBerry phone and I’ve heard all the wonderful things about Pandora internet radio, but never actually tried it. I quickly downloaded the Pandora app to my phone and plugged in my Yurbuds Earphones. Ahhh….Music! But it was still so cold, I kept telling myself I’d warm up soon. I thought I was dressed appropriately, but apparently not. Even with two pairs of pants my legs froze the entire time. When I got to the water station that TNT set aside for us, it was pretty much frozen…. I walked and walked and walked. I felt like it was never going to be over. I wasn’t really tired or out of breath, just cold. I considered cheating and taking a shortcut many times. However, I stuck with it. For the first time I did the entire 6 mile loop around Forest Park. As I got close to the end of my last mile, I saw what looked like my coach headed in my direction. Was it a mirage or did coach Tina come back for me? She really DID come back for me, I was so excited! She complimented me on my pace as I wasn’t too far behind the group and she finished out the last half-mile or so with me. I was happy that I finally did the entire loop around the park, but I was so cold it was hard to enjoy it. My legs almost felt numb. I did however sit down to a nice omelet with fresh veggies from the Visitor’s center. At least the hardest part of my day was over.

4 Comments
  1. Im with you on the aversion to cold walking. Being in central Tx, we’ve not yet seen the 19 degree mark yet but walking in 33 ain’t fun either. I was so absent minded this morning I forgot the music, earbuds and the phone. Luckily (?) for me, I had my husband who helped push me along. Darn him! We finished the 3 miler and I’ve been relaxing on the sofa with a dog on either side most of the day. Gotta relax on my last day of vacation! Thanks again for the inspirational reads!

  2. DD, you’re welcome! Thanks for stopping by my blog. It’s so good to have a workout partner to push you along the way. Congrats on the 3 miles!

  3. the good news? You know you’ll make it to the finish line of a 10k race…even if it means walking!!
    YAY for you!

  4. Kathy, that reminds me that completing a 10K is on my goals list. I was really kind of scared to sign up for one, but I guess, that fear is irrelevant now that I’m scheduled to walk 8 Miles on Saturday. I’m going to see if I can find a 10 K before my half marathon in April.

Leave a Reply