I walked 26.3 miles with my son

by Mary
(Nashville, TN, USA)

My son, Tom, and I created our own marathon walk. A few weeks ago we walked from his town of Herndon, VA into Washington DC. We started our walk at 5:45 in the morning (it was dark) and finished 7 hours and 12 minutes later at the Tidal Basin in downtown Washington, DC.

My hubby and my sweet daughter-in-love, Heidi, plus our 3 sweet grandchildren were our support team. They met us along the way bringing water, snacks and band-aids! They even created a race packet for us the evening before including official race numbers (#1 for me and #2 for Tom).

Tom and I were not walking for speed - but still I think we did alright. We talked the whole way and the time zoomed by.

Much of our walk was on a bicycle trail (Washington and Old Dominion) and then as we entered the city we crossed the Potomac River, walked through Georgetown and then into the sights of the Washington mall. We even walked up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

This day was a highlight of my life. I have always loved walking and getting to spend 26.3 miles with Tom was really awesome.

I did not train a lot for this marathon. In fact, just two training days. The first one was 14 miles and the second one was 16 miles. I am in pretty good shape and felt that I could do it. The only thing I "suffered", if you will was a blister on my left foot and a sore toe. Otherwise, I felt really great on the walk and kind of hated to see it end. It was a blast.

So, if you have the desire to walk a marathon, I'd encourage you to give it a try. Not so sure I'd recommend my training plan (or lack thereof), but it sure worked fine for me. I suppose I'm a little wild and crazy, too. I like the idea that it was just the two of us and not an organized race. But it was officially 26.3 miles (we went an extra tenth) as Tom wore his GPS.

Oh my age? Ok, I am 57 :-)