15 miles; team walk

I nearly missed out on the team walk again due to incomplete info about the meeting place. The meeting place this time was by a Dunkin’ Donuts, and people who have met there before knew that really meant behind the Dunkin Donuts. That detail wasn’t in the e-mailed directions, though, so when I arrived five minutes early to the main parking lot in front and no one else was there five minutes later, I was muttering under my breath and about ready to chalk it up to another miscommunication about where to meet and drive home. Fortunately, another first-timer arrived just before I was ready to give up, and she had something I lacked the foresight to bring: one of the coach’s cell phone number. A quick phone call and a couple minutes later, and we were joined up with the main group in the back.

This was a sidewalk and surface street route with lots of turns and opportunities to get lost, so Coach Lynn had handouts for us with the map on one side (the route highlighted in yellow), and turn-by-turn text directions on the other. The first part of the walk was to be a loop of just over 9 miles, and then the second part would be an abbreviated portion of that loop. When that much thought has to go into avoiding getting lost, my strategy is to stuff the map into a pocket, and then just follow a coach. I walked with Coach Lynn last time, so this time I walked with Coach Alison.

The conversation flowed easily with Alison, so she was a very enjoyable walking companion. She works for CNBC, producing investigative reports, so that was interesting to talk about. Her most recent piece was about brand-name pharmaceutical companies paying off other companies to keep cheaper generics off the market. Surprisingly enough, that’s legal - but hopefully won’t stay that way. Next up is a hard-hitting expose about vegetarian marshmallows. Who knew.

I knew there’d be no shortage of conversation when Alison asked, “Do you watch a lot of TV?” Do I watch a lot of TV… Are bears Catholic? Does the Pope— nevermind. Yeah, you could say I watch a lot of TV. We compared our tastes in shows and liked a lot of the same ones, so that was good for several miles. I asked her if she had ever seen a show on Comedy Central about a field reporting team that goes out producing fake segments, where the main characters are fictional, but the people they’re interviewing for their reports don’t know it - sort of like those Daily Show segments, or maybe Borat. At any rate, I thought it might interest her since it’s a spoof version of what she does. Naturally, I couldn’t remember the title while we were walking, so Alison, if you read this, the show was called Dog Bites Man. I don’t know if it will be coming back for any more seasons, but they aired maybe a dozen episodes. If I understood Alison’s description of her job correctly, she would be Tillie.

At some point during that first big loop in our walk, we were cutting through a neighborhood that called for lots of turns, and Alison realized we’d made a wrong turn. She got out her map and proceeded to demonstrate why a man and a woman can’t look at and interpret the same map at the same time. It was clear (in a roundabout way) that she was looking at her map and deriving meaning from it, but before I could ever get oriented to where we were (or had been), she would spin the map 90 degrees - sometimes clockwise, sometimes counterclockwise. If ever you doubted the thing about men and women being different when it comes to spatial reasoning, this would have made you a believer. I was tempted to ask, “Can you imagine making a turn in your head?” but didn’t. She sort of muttered things about this turn we took or didn’t take, and referenced street names, but I never once saw her point with her finger, or trace a direction to give a hint about which way we’d come from or needed to go. It was one of the most mysterious uses of a map that I’ve ever seen, but she seemed so confident that I just put my map away and watched her play Rubik’s map until she figured it out. She did, so we retraced our route to the point where we had gone wrong and got back on track. It turned that first loop of just over 9 miles into 10 miles, but that wasn’t a problem.

When we got back to the starting point after the first big loop, we took a refreshment/bathroom/chat break with the other walkers. Most people end up walking with one or two other people most or all of the time, but those little groups spread out as people fall into their natural pace. After the break, some of the walkers were done for the day (training needs vary), but Alison and I continued on, joined for the remaining 5 miles by… I’m gonna say Joanne, but I may be mixing up names. The good company continued for the rest of the walk, and we completed that portion without any more map-spinning.

Physically, this 15-mile walk was the first long walk to take a toll on me. It was also my longest walk yet, so it makes sense that it’s getting harder. My stamina was good the whole way, and the only time I breathed hard was when we had to walk up a long grade and I happened to be yapping. My knee, I’m happy to report, was also fine the whole way. The place I really felt this walk was in my feet. I think it’s time to get a new pair of good walking shoes, to replace the old running shoes which I have been using. I switched from my regular running shoes after my first long walk, because I got blisters, and this other pair (and different socks) resolved the problem. On this walk, though, it felt like the cushioning lost its bounce somewhere around mile 10, so my feet started hurting and got progressively worse toward the end. I wasn’t in agony, but the marathon will last 26.2 miles, so I definitely would like to avoid a situation where the pain starts at the 10-mile marker. I also felt the exertion in my legs more than usual, but I think that was related to the feet. I didn’t notice it so much while I was walking, but when I got out of my car after the ~40-minute drive home, I had a minor case of Jelly Leg Syndrome. When I took off my shoes and socks, I had a blister on the heel of my left foot, and oddly enough, a sizable blister between the big toe and second toe on my right foot. Walking around was a little tender for the first day, but a couple days later, walking feels normal. (The toe blister popped on it’s own, and the heel one had only barely formed.)

My big goal this week isn’t about training - it’s about fundraising. I’m way overdue on getting my fundraising campaign going, so feel free to wag your finger at me. Also, feel free to click that pretty “Team in Training” logo near the top of the page, and if you’ve enjoyed my training updates and think leukemia should be cured, that link will take you to my official donation page, where making a tax-deductable donation by credit card is quick and easy. (You don’t even have to enjoy my updates - wanting to help cure leukemia and other cancers is enough.) I’ll be passing the hat by email and snail mail soon, so if you’re someone I know who hasn’t heard from me for months - even years - your luck might be about to change.