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March 26, 2006
the walking season begins! 
Yesterday was the start of the walking season. It was opening day at Portland Fit.
I wasn't feeling so hot. However, a coworker has joined, and has been checking in with me every couple of days about walking, and I was anxious to see my community of walkers and runners, so I went, telling myself that I could bail before the walk if I was still feeling bad.
The pavement was wet, and the skies were grey, but the crowds were huge. I immediately saw a number of people, and loved the fact that they called out my name upon seeing me. It's one thing to be known by sight, but a person's name is the sweetest sound.
So it felt like old home week. I chatted with lots of folks, and I'm sure missed others—like Hollie, where was Hollie?—it felt really good.
We did our three mile walk—up and back on industrial Naito Drive—and it felt good. I talked to some new people, and some folks I recognized. And it was fun, with the exception of two folks who were clearly hungover and were complaining the whole while. I had to remind myself that I had to figure out how not to be hungover on Saturday mornings—it was part of the learning process. But the complaining!
Marathon training isn't an easy thing. It's not impossible, and really, if you do the program, it's not very often hard. But it does require work, laying the groundstone with your first formal walk, and it does require some commitment: getting up early on Saturdays, and giving up the staying out late and carousing on Friday nights.
I think this was part of why I wasn't such a great AC—I don't have a lot of patience with those sorts of complaints. Do it or don't do it. In the end, we each have to take responsibility for following through. And it's not like I don't complain—I do. I don't follow through sometimes.
Heavens knows, I've had a rough winter where I didn't exercise much, and all my hard work in the way of fitness and diet disappeared. While I'm amazed at how quickly it happened, I'm the one who chose to focus on other things.
I'm excited about the fresh start. The new beginning. Spring!
Posted at March 26, 2006
Comments
hi - I was there at PortlandFit yesterday too! And I was very grateful for the massage volunteers afterwards... I rewarded myself with a visit to the perilously-close St Honore's Bakery for my second breakfast. I'm almost glad that place is a mob-scene on saturday mornings because it might discourage me from going every week. Eventually.
Posted by: heather w at March 26, 2006 12:03 PM
Best wishes with the marathon training, VJ! My walking gang has been doing plenty of 15K walks through the winter to keep things in gear.
Posted by: Wendy Bumgadner at April 1, 2006 4:34 AM