Those of us planning to do the Parkersburg Half Marathon this month did a 10-mile training walk yesterday. The weather was perfect! The temps were mild (slightly chilly) when we started at 6:45 and the morning was sunny and beautiful. We started at the Park of Roses in Whetstone Park and headed north toward Worthington Hills.

Because it was our long slow distance day, we had anticipated walking between 14:30 and 15 min per mile. I like to check every mile to be sure we are on track.

We started between mile markers. The first mile we could measure we were slower than we had planned at 15:09. The next couple were 14:55 and then 15:12. From this point out, I had trouble finding mile markers. I’m not sure if they were missing or if I just didn’t see them.

In the event we couldn’t find mile markers, we had planned to walk for 2 1/2 hours — so after about 77 min, we turned around. As we got closer to our starting point, we started running into members of the Buckeye Striders Walking Club. Peggy was walking a little faster than us, so I tried to pick up the pace to walk with her.

When Peggy joined us, I pushed myself as she simply “strolled” beside me. The pace had to be good (for me), because by the time we returned to the starting point, I had walked for 2 hours and 27 min! 77 min out, yet a total of 2:27!

I felt great at the finish and only coughed when Deb made me laugh during our walk. Because I had not walked as much as my training schedule called for during the past week, I was thrilled to feel so good after walking 10 miles. However, driving home I started getting a headache which got progressively worse and lasted for hours! Not sure how it is related — might not be at all.

My guess is that we walked somewhat close to 10 miles since we walked longer than 75 min out.
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I’m pretty sure I need new shoes. I really hate buying new shoes! I hate trying to figure what I need and whether the shoes on my feet will feel good after 13 miles.

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