Week Five 1510

Oh how I love Minnesota Summers!  Blue sky, green grass, birds chirping, and people out and about.  As a family, we enjoy camping, swimming, biking, and traveling during the summer months.  I have recently taken up walking as my form of exercise and stress relief.  I was an avid runner for almost 25 years, and about 2 years ago I started to feel my knees "give out" after a run.  So, in an effort to remain sane and healthy I began to walk; I feel great and there is no more pain in my knees.  And, walking is something that my husband and I can do together and actually hold a conversation!  He is 6'5" and I am 5'4" so any running we may have done in the past was a sprint for me and a jog for him.  So now, we walk together and soak in the great outdoors.

A few mornings ago, as we were beginning our walk, we noticed another couple beginning their walk about 6 blocks ahead of us.  (It is important to note that the path we walk is a basic rectangle.  I am a creature of habit and I have been running/walking this particular path for years.)  As we progressed down the first lag of the route, I started to hope that this couple would turn a different direction than the way we were going to be turning; at this point we had closed the gap to about 3 blocks.  (Please keep in mind that they have no idea we are behind them.)  They ended up turning the same direction that we would soon be going as well.  It was obvious that we were going to catch up to them!  My mind started to race as to how to pass two people that were walking when we too were walking!  It is one thing to pass a walker if you are biking or running, but walking?  How is this done?  When you pass do you yell "Coming up on your right!"  Or does one pick up the pace to the point of hyper extending your knees?  Call me crazy, but these are the things that swim through my mind when confronted with a pressure situation, such as the one we were about to encounter.

Pretty soon, I could hardly take the anxiety, we were right on top of them!  It was at that same moment that I remembered certain math formulas and how to pass these people without them knowing!  Just yards ahead of us was the high school athletic field; tennis courts, a soccer and football field, and a running track, and at the corner of that field, straight ahead, was the 2nd turn in the path.  As all of us approached the last intersection before the 2nd turn, we needed to make our move!  This was our opportunity to beat this couple by letting them go straight while we took an immediate right turn.  Now, I know that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, we however, had no straight line to walk.  Remember, there was an athletic field blocking the logical path to the opposite corner!  There was no way to cut through, this required speed and concentration!  The only way we were going to beat this other couple distance wise and end up ahead of them on the other side, was to pick up our speed; I mean drastically pick up our speed!

My husband thought  I had lost my mind, I was laughing and sweating profusely trying to beat this unsuspecting couple to the opposite side of this giant athletic field!  My husband kept saying, "You know, they have no idea that we were even behind them."  And I would reply, "Faster man!  We must beat them!"  (In hindsight, maybe the sun was starting to "get to me!")  Well, I am happy to report that our tenacity got us ahead of the other couple.  In fact, when we reached the opposite corner, they were almost a block behind us now!  This made me very happy and I laughed at how ridiculous and goofy I can be at certain times in my life.  But hey, I enjoy a challenge!

The path we walked is 2.7 miles in distance and we had completed it in 40 minutes.  This means that we walked at a pace of approximately 4 mph.  The pace we were walking at was 15 minutes/mile.  I used to run a 10 minutes mile, so this isn't too bad!  Remember, always keep your eyes open for living, breathing math situations and see how determination and a little fun can make a rather routine habit exhilarating!