Mile 29 through 34, Egypt Hollow

I walked extra again today because I couldn't walk yesterday.  What everyone found out today is that I had a surprise up my sleeve; my husband came up to visit the family, too, and his family had not known he was coming.  It was a monumental surprise!  So, I had a good reason to not be walking; I had to go pick up my husband at the airport.

I decided that today, instead of walking double, I would walk today's steps plus half of yesterday's.  Tomorrow I will do the same thing.  In other words, I walked 6 miles today, and tomorrow I will also walk 6 miles.  Wow.

I started today by going to the Curves Gym, the real impetus for all of this walking that I'm undertaking.  I'm starting to work out on those machines and looking at my arms and legs and barely recognizing them as belonging to me.  Those little calves are mine?  That kind of thing.  What a great feeling.

After working out at the gym, we went and surprised my husband's parents, visited his brother and family and then went out to lunch.  Right after lunch, we headed back to his parents' house, and then I headed out for my walk immediately.  Again, knowing myself, I knew that if I went in to sit or visit at all first, the likelihood of my getting out to walk 6 miles as I had planned would be vastly diminished.

Earlier today, my husband had driven me to determine the location of 3 miles out from his parents' house.  Once again, up a very long hill, Egypt Hollow Road.  The route was, for the most part, entirely uphill.  I walked to the end of the 3 mile mark and then walked back.  My goal was to do that in 90 minutes.  I ended up missing that goal by about 10 minutes, but I was pretty pleased regardless.

This creek runs along most of this road.  

 

This road is just plain going UP.  It's really hard to tell in the picture, but it's just brutal.  People seeing me out walking must have through I was nuts.

A view from climbing to the top.

I saw a doe in the woods, and when she saw me, she ran into the woods, but then she stopped.  She just stood there, and it was long enough for me to get a picture.  See her standing right in the middle of the picture?

The last part of my walk was very rewarding.  Here I am at the end of 6 miles, and I decided to run!  Not just little piddly jogging but all-out running!  (I was really trying to make it back to the house inside of 90 minutes.)  I'm just so overjoyed that I could do that.  Because of my history of knee and feet problems, it was really incredible to be running.

I have some new challenges I have to consider for tomorrow.  One, I have a blister or something on the back of my right ankle, and two, I've decided that I need to buy new sneakers, so that'll be on my plate for tomorrow perhaps.  Plus, tomorrow we have a canoe trip planned, so I haven't figured out where or when I'll be getting my walk done.

Total steps today: 16,473