Training Starts

I officially started training for the walk today. Many of my training walks during the week will be done in my neighborhood. So I set out for a short walk with a training partner. Lucy has been a walking partner for almost 4 years now. She never fails to keep me entertained on walks. She is either chasing leafs blowing around or relentlessly searching for anything that resembles food. So naturally she joined me for this first training walk. We headed out to find a chilly cloudy morning. This was a good reminder that I need to be prepared for whatever mother nature brings for the actual event. Eight years ago when I did the walk for the first time I was unaware that the weather was suppose to be unseasonably cold. Needless to say

I was unprepared and practically frozen after the first night of camping. Luckily I was better prepared for my chilly walk this morning. Our pace was pretty slow because we had to make a number of pit stops for potty breaks and sniffing. This was almost like the real walk because there are pit stops every couple of miles with porta-potties, food and water. I headed back to the house for a partner switch. Lucy and I finished up 2.2 miles in 50 minutes. I switched Lucy out for Pip. Pip and I took off and I was confident that we would make better time. He tends to sniff and explore less than Lucy. But not so today. He had to sniff everything. We were lucky to have a few fans cheering us on along the way (barking dogs running fence lines and scarecrows). Only in Texas do the scarecrows wear sports logo gear. Too funny. These fans energized us and we kept moving. Fans at cheering stations during the event weekend are so important in helping us feel motivated. So VA/DC peeps please come out and cheer us on during the event. We finished up our walk with another 2 miles in 50 more minutes. Glad to have my first training walk under my belt. Good start at 4.2 miles. Many more to come.