walk a mile in my shoes/ Has started.

And that is exactly what I did yesterday, plus seven more. A good friend, Christy G., told me when I was back in Iowa recently that she walked the number of her birth years the week of her birthday in April. I thought that was a cool idea so that is what I am planning on doing. I walk every other day trying to get into shape for the big week. Just in case you don't know it will be 59 miles that week. Yesterday Phil and I did eight miles. My blisters now have blisters. Today I tried my hiking boots and that seems to be a better choice, although it was a short walk. I am including a picture of the mountains at the midway point when we stopped at a park for water. I also wanted to let you all know there is an app for your phone called "map my walk."  And it is free. Can't get better than FREE. Since I am still learning my way around it is great. You just start your app, head out the door and it keeps track of the route, miles and speed. You can also save your workouts if you so desire. Well, wish me luck.
 Love and miss you all.


Well, I was at the Santa Fe High School track with lori and phil helping lori prepare for the fbi fitness test when it dawned on me that I had not begun my birthday challenge. So I walked three miles and thought that was a good start.

Since then I walked 4 mi saturday afternoon and 4 mi saturday eveing. Sunday I walked 4 miles at high noon and 3 more in the evening.  Then Monday I realized I better step up my game if I was going to make 59 by Friday.

Since I am not a morning person my walks start between 11-12. It has been in the 90's all week.  In the shade and with the breeze it is okay. the problem lies that there isn't much shade. If I do find a block with shade I go back and forth like one of those bears at the shooting booth in a carnival.
I have decided to include some pictures during the walk to make it more interesting.

This floppy hat was given to me to wear during my high noon walks to keep the sun off. Carole is a really cool gal so I am surprised she owns something like this. All I could think of was Peg and Terri and how put together they always are and I can't believe I left the house in this. I must say there are many interesting people in Santa Fe and this probably wasnt the big deal I thought it was.

On my five mile walk I came across this lost little soul. He was making funny noises and wandering aroung the school yard. I think he was lost.

This picture is a little difficult to read. All around santa fe there are these stenciled sayings. Must have been some hippie dippies. This one says Love Is The Anwser.  Who knew?????

These black birds are everywhere here. I was trying to show how big they are but this pic doesn't do it justice. Anyway I was taking this pic and this lady comes running out of her house. So I explained why I was just taking a pic of the bird.  She said she thinks he is wounded and she has been feeding him chicken and he seems better. She put orange traffic cones in front of her house so no one could park there because it was his space. She has also named him inky. She said it was a Raven. Then she ran over to the post woman to tell her the story.

This is just a picture of a yard where the flowers were so pretty. I was kind of stalking the neighborhood just to get my miles in. 5 that morning. In the evening we went back to the track to help Lori again. Afterwards we decided to walk home. I was getting alittle crabby and hungry so we stopped at Maria's . I had a grand margarita which helped my foot pain and we shared a tamale plate. Terri you would really like their tamales, veggie and pork. It was just what I needed to make it home about 9:00 and it was much cooler. It has been like 95 at 5p.m. still.

Today I had the brilliant idea. Why don't I go to an indoor track where it is cool and just get my 10 miles done all at one time. Really, I say Really. What was I thinking. I forgot what air conditioning was like. I thought this will be a piece of cake with the blisters on my toes popped, layers of new skin not to mention antibiotic cream with pain killers in it and bandaides. Not so, I have been rotating shoes and nothing helps. My hammer toes will probably have to be amputated after the next two days. Oh and I got a mild case of shin splits after doing 10 in a row. Now here are the photos.

I saw this piece of pizza dancing and waving on the street corner. Full sun and that costume. He actually posed for this photo. Please notice how incedibly blue the sky is.

This was the view from inside the Chavez Center. It was a beautiful facilty with tons of activites. They had a day camp on the basketball court below. The little kids were so cute. Game for kids Robin. Put a much of tennis balls on a racquet, turn around and toss the balls in the air over your head and let the kids pick them up. Seems like everyone was having fun.

More weight, really? Isn't it hard enough already. This guy was walking and running. He didn't outlast me though. It took me forever and the last 2 1/2 miles were agony with my feet and shins.
I really think the whole Gerrad, the Subway boy, was a big scam. He was so much heavier than me and he walked 10 miles everyday. I don't think so!!!!!

Now finally the last picture of me finishing my last lap. This was so sad. You could see every vein in her body not to mention all the bones. I thought I will take my fat any day over that and what she struggles with. 

Two more days, not sure how my little hammer toes will make it. Think I will break it up again into two parts. Love to all and the moral of this story is "don't do what I do." Actually, I will be pretty proud and I owe it all to Christy.  To be continued....................