waiting for the turn around

It's been a week since I've posted. My family might be ready to disown me ~~ no snide comments, craft pictures, rants about teaching, or pictures of our adorable kids from me in an entire week! Can you believe the audacity? 

This might be the reason ~~ remember these? 

No? Check out the story of them here. I'll wait. 

Remember now? Um, yeah, I haven't put those shoes on since that day.

There's a group of gals at work who go walking after school Monday through Thursday. I can go Tuesday through Thursdays, so decided to join them two weeks ago. I knew the route they followed. I had walked a shorter version of that route before (three or four times). The route is not a piece of cake ~ but is achievable for me. I didn't know what sort of shock I was about to experience.

On my first day with the group I found out that another lady, Laura, was a rookie too. She was excited that she was not the only rookie. I still didn't get it. As the group sets off from the school Laura and I are immediately left in the dust of our principal and the rest of the group. Holy crap they walk fast! There was no keeping up unless we wanted to bust out into a brisk jog. I told Laura I was glad she came and she echoed my gratefulness. We settled for being slower and kept an eye on those in front of us. 

The first part of the walk is uphill, toward a mountain. As we watched the speed walkers I realized they didn't turn where I thought they were going to. They kept going ~ straight. up. hill! Laura said she thought they were going all the way to the mountain base. I told her no way, they'd turn soon. We kept following.

When we got to the street where I originally (and foolishly) thought they were turning, we kept going straight too. And going. Huffing. Puffing. UP HILL! At some point the make up of the air must have changed because I am certain I was breathing fire straight into my lungs. Must have been the altitude. Did I mention we were rookies? At this point if someone asked us if they jumped off a bridge would we follow? Well, apparently the answer to that would have been yes, because we followed them up that dang hill. Although by this time they had turned a corner and we could no longer actually see them.

Finally, we reached the turn. Guess where it was! Right! At the base of the mountain. I don't know why we didn't just climb the barrier and start climbing the mountain!

On legs of spaghetti, we turned the corner. As we turned the corner I looked at the handy dandy sport band and saw that we walked a solid mile up hill. The rest of the way is basically down hill.

At this point, our friends are no where in sight. The walk is basically a rectangle from the school. Laura and I kept walking. Now we could actually talk as we made our way back to school. We had a nice chat. Halfway through the last leg of the walk we see a group of people in front of us. For a brief, and silly, moment we think we have caught up with them. We then realize they are coming toward us. They had returned to school, got a drink, and come back out to find us. 

When I downloaded my sport band information I found out we walked 3 miles. We averaged a 22 minute mile. Not bad for the first time, I think. 

Laura and I have not walked the three miles since then. We turn the corner where I had originally thought they turned. It's still almost 2 miles. It's still hard to go up the hill. This week we even increased our route by going a little further up the hill before we cut over. We are still slower, but our times are getting better. We have accepted this. One day we might be able to keep up. We are very close to walking the whole 3-mile route again. Maybe next week.

You know how people say that exercise gives you more energy? But you have to have the energy to put forth the effort to exercise? Vicious circle. Well, this whole story is meant to say that I'm still waiting for the turn around of the energy. On the days I walk I just want to crawl in bed at about 6:30. I am mush. 

On the other hand, I am excited for the day when I reach my 100th mile. Thanks to the sport band, I'll know when that happens. And because I know you'll be on the edge of your seat until that time comes, I'll let you know as soon as it does.