We did it today!
The good news is, we made it 7.2 miles. The bad news is, my parents called, said the girls were so sick/obnoxious/cranky for them to watch anymore. The last 5.3 miles had to be called off on account of my bebes.
We had originally planned to start off at 9AM, grab breakfast as we passed through town, sit at the nature preserve for lunch, and stop at our leisure. It was going to be an all day expedition.
Welll....the weather's been a little funky here in cow-land northern Illinois. It had been raining for 10 days straight (the reason we didn't have our little journey last Saturday). And AMAZINGLY, the rain let up today. Strike while the iron's hot, right? We turned into a shorter (hours wise) expedition in the evening. We left our house at 5:00PM. We got to the Subway for 'dinner' (carbs and protein) 15 minutes later, and left 'civilization' about 15 minutes after that.
From 5:30 to 8:30, we walked the first 'half' of the journey. It's 7.2 of the 12.5 (official count) miles from our house to my parents' house. We stopped and took a few pictures of a cow that was particularly interested in us (it mooed repeatedly as we walked by). We also stopped to have a snack/talk to the llamas a nearby farmer owns. By mile 6, my feet were KILLING ME because had worn down the cushion on the socks. So, we stopped, and I changed them (because I brought an extra pair
). Hubby was also kind enough to carry my pack back for me so we could pick up the pace as it was starting to get dark.
The sun went down at 8:15, and at 8:20 we hit the 'half way' point. It's only 'half' because the walk is 7 miles on one road, then 5 miles on another. So, we sat down under the street light (the only one for about another 2 miles) so hubby could rest his feet and I could get over my incredible fear of walking in the middle of nowhere - in the dark. Just as we were getting up, the phone rings, and my father insists that the girls are too sick for them to keep any longer (the validity of this claim has yet to be seen - but that's another issue, and a longstanding one between me and my mother, at that). So, at this point, my dad drove out and picked us up. March OVER.
It was incredibly fun, though. We noticed all sorts of cool things we'd never seen before. I've been living in this area for 19 years now, and it was amazing to think there was so much that was still unknown. We had a few odd encounters with drivers (one guy thought I was his girlfriend, lol, and others kept yelling 'Why are you walking?!?!'), and a lot of farm animals took a really odd interest in us
.
The worst things were 1) the mosquitoes - all the rain has left tons of standing water, and tons of the little buggers, and 2) my feet. I didn't get tired, or winded, or even worn down. My feet though....oh man...they still hurt like a
. My one big regret is that I didn't get to take the photo I REALLY wanted to. There's one farm, about 10 miles into the walk, that is just 60-80 acres of rolling field, the typical red barn, and meticulous lawn. I wanted to get a snap shot of that at sunset/early evening.
We're planning on doing it again sometime, probably next Spring. The ability to do it again this year is pretty much nil. But it will be really interesting to see how we fair when hubby isn't burned out from school/work and I'm in better shape.
My Own Personal Fat March : Results
