12 Mile Walk

When I said I was going on a "short" walk yesterday I think I underestimated exactly how far 12 miles is. I started out by taking a train from 13th south down to Sandy, UT at 100th South. If you are familiar with Utah roads you'll know what I'm talking about. When I got of the train I noticed a small bike path that headed north and decided to take that and see how far it went. I was pretty excited emotionally at this point to find a nice path. The path took me through historic Sandy. Its a pretty neat walk if you ever get the chance. The path didn't last as long as I would have hoped. I'd guess it was about a mile, but I wasn't really keeping track.

Once the bike path ended I headed west over to State Street which I stayed on for the majority of my walk. I had packed my camelbak full of water and brought a couple cereal bars with me just in case, which proved quite valuable. Somehow I chose the hottest day so far at the start of this summer to do my walk. The high yesterday was 90° F, but as I found out the record highest temperature recorded for the same day was 92° back in 2006. A hat would have been nice if I had thought to bring one because my thinning hair doesn't seem to block the sun from my scalp anymore like it used to.

According to google maps the walk should take about 4 hours. After about 2 hour I wasn't nearly halfway finished and I could hear 7-11 calling my name. Luckily state street has a quite copious supply. My first stop was around 56th south I believe. Gatorade never tasted so good. I was feeling a little weak so I ate one of my cereal bars too. I stood out side the store for a few minuets in then started out again. I kept thinking of how nice a pool sounded right about then. Unfortutly I don't know anyone with a pool nor do I have access to one. I did pass by a place that rents spa's which also sounded quite nice. I might have to check that out later.

Around 80th south I reached Midvale, UT. I wasn't even half way through at that point and I could start feeling my feet hurt. It wasn't bad at all and my hopes were still good for now. I felt good. Everything was going great! Its amazing how fast feet can go from a kind of feel good pain that just lets me know I'm doing good to a pain that made me want to hop on a bus. Buses pass frequently on state street and there was nothing stopping me getting on one. I had my bus pass right in back pack. Sometimes the buses would even wait for me thinking I was trying to catch them before they took off. But I just kept walking.

I passed through Murray, UT which was the halfway point and also the home town of American Idol runner up David Archuleta. By halfway I could really feel my feet hurting and I could feel blisters forming. What should have taken two hours according to Google took me about two and half hours. Not too bad, I was making ok time.

The second half of the walk was not too exciting, in fact I would even say that I did not really enjoy it at all. At the time anyway It wasn't too fun. It was hot, I could feel my skin being burned by the sun; sunscreen is on my list of things to bring for the next walk. It felt like I was walking across pine cones that had been crushed up into small pieces. I made another 7-11 stop around 40th south and drank another Gatorade. There was a bus stop there which was very temping but I passed. To get me in a better mental state I did pass Dave's Gas, which I though was kinda funny. Too bad it was closed down. Maybe Dave had such bad gas he couldn't attract any customers?

Well by the end of the walk 5 hours and 20 minuets later, my legs hurt, my feet hurt, and I had a headache. Emotionally I was fed up and sick of walking. I was almost mad at myself for doing it. Why put myself through that last 4 miles of misery? Well today my muscles are sore, my feet still hurt, and I have blisters I can feel move between my toes when I walk. Physically I feel sore, but mentally I feel great. That's the reason I put myself through it. The benefits I will get from walks like these greatly outweigh the pain I go through to get them.

I would have had this post up yesterday, but I was tired I went to bed around 5pm and didn't wake up until 6:30 this morning. Thanks for reading. I hope at least someone will be able to get encouragement about what I'm doing and be able to start making changes to have a more active healthy lifestyle.