I'm walking, yes indeed!

I've got a new little project for myself. I'm going to try to walk 100 miles in the next three months! Thankfully, I don't have to do it all at once (in case you were worried) and I won't be doing it entirely alone. Nashville's mayor, Karl Dean, launched a program to encourage Nashvillians to walk more and to use the greenways that have been built throughout our city and Davidson County. It's called the "Walk 100 Miles with the Mayor" (catchy, huh?) and you can read more about it and even sign up to track your miles here.

I love to walk outside when I can and enjoy walking in parks and on the greenways around town. Lots of times, I have to stay close to home in my neighborhood, due to time constraints, but the good thing is that I can count those walks in my 100 mile tally. I hope to get to some of the organized walks this spring, as my schedule allows, but my goal is to walk 8 miles a week (mostly 2 miles at a time) in order to reach the 100 mile mark.

I can remember when walking a few blocks to school was all that I thought I could do. The town I grew up in has a street that runs through it and it's three miles from one end to the other. There was a time when I was a kid that I thought I was going to die from walking not even the whole length of that street! My poor Girl Scout leaders probably wished they hadn't signed up for that job when they were walking with me down Ridgewood Avenue that day!

Then, in college, for one of my P.E. classes, I took a walking class. Yep, I got three hours credit for walking! We even had a textbook. I think that was when I first started enjoying the benefits of walking for exercise. My friends and I would get up early in the morning and go walk on the track together. After I graduated from Belmont and moved on to the "grown up" world, I continued to use walking as one of my main forms of exercise. I added aerobics classes in there, too, but walking is something I can do by myself, on my own time, as well as with friends. And, I have a "no excuses" place to walk right across the street from my house at the middle school track.

So, there you have it. I'm going to be walking, yes indeed, and will hopefully rack up 100 miles by July! Wish me luck . . . and come join me! It's more fun to walk with friends!