So this 1.6 mile circular dog walking route has become my fall-back, a regular outing taken at least once, usually twice a day around the outskirts of my estate, to clock up the miles for the walk a 1,000 miles challenge. In fact walking this unassuming route twice a day for 365 days would clock up no less than 1,168 miles.
That’s pretty impressive when you consider the last time I did the challenge in 2016 I clocked up a mere 1,145 miles, wearing a pedometer 24/7 counting every step took, from the car to the office, getting up to make the tea, going to the bathroom, etc. In 2014 I'd done the National Three Peaks Challenge, so I was feeling at the peak of my physical fitness. So much so that I decided to return to the Yorkshire Three Peaks in 2015 and set a new personal best.
Sadly that’s where things started to unravel, after passing the boardwalk over what we laughingly called the Dead Marshes (Lord of the Rings fans will get that one) on the approach to Ingleborough I collapsed pale and breathless with dangerously high blood pressure and shortly after suffered a minor TIA. I’ve since slayed that particular demon and completed it again vin 2017, although not with a personal best, havinf done walk a 1,000 miles in 2016.
But I can’t help thinking I’ve become way to cautious, I’ve let my walking and fitness slip, fearing to step off into the great unknown, explore and lose myself in the great outdoors once more. So this year I’ve decided to change all that. Once again I’m setting off to walk a thousand miles, but the pedometers gone. This year every last mile will be over and above my normal daily routine and while they won’t all be boots on miles out in the back of beyond, they will all be outdoors exploring once again.
So where have my explorations taken me this month and what have I learnt?
That one 1.6 miles is my magic number, not only is it the distance of the walk around my estate, but the distance there and back between the sites my work is currently split over (no more looking for a place to park), that our 14 year old cross-breed-cross rescue dog Elsa is already looking leaner and fitter, a compliment nobody’s paid me yet. That even the most urban of walks along a regular route often consisting of dark, dank pavements can do amazing things for mind and body.
In some small way I’ve reconnected with nature and myself, started to notice the subtle changes that occur day-to-day, and how the pace of life varies from moment to moment. The slow lengthening of the days; the subtle changes in the weather; the every changing texture and patterns of the clouds; the stark beauty of skeletal trees against the dying light; the mumeration of birds coming home to roost; I’ve become reacquainted with the moon and stars (light pollution permitting) Orion and his belt; beneath my feet the complex patterns of shadows cast by trees under harsh lamplight; and I can now pick out individual bird songs, traffic permitting, not bad for one month of largely urban walking, who knows where the remaining 11 will take me?