training walk 2b: portland to coast
So, one of my co-workers ropes me into joining one of the company teams on the Portland to Coast relay walk….
Training walk 2b: 6.8 miles + 4.15 miles
Race walking is a funny thing. To get anywhere quickly, you have to adopt this really funny gait that keeps your arms pumping and the front leg stiff, just like (God bless ‘em) some of the ladies in the neighborhood where I grew up. When you learn to do that, though, and when your shins get used to flexing so much on every step, you can kinda cruise.
And cruise we did: we the Trekking Tekkies finished second in our division!
It was a blast: seeing our vans decorated with giant oscilloscopes, shouting encouragement out the window to teammates, waiting nervously for my turn, blasting down the road, and getting cheers and water from the team.
And a little friendly competition from a cute, highly aerobic walker— the only one who passed me the whole weekend—dropped my mile time from 10:52 on the first stage to 10:19 on the second!