Walking a Mile in their shoes

One Sunday morning at church back in February an announcement was made about the church’s Lent focus/activity. It was to support Oasis Community Housing. I have written a bit about this here. There was an opportunity to support their work by signing up for their Lent challenge to Walk a Mile in their Shoes. It seemed like something that was made for me. Walking after all is my ‘thing’ and I needed to focus on preparing for my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. I thought about it and a mile a day was not going to be long enough to make much a difference to my fitness to walk the 800km (500 miles) to complete it. In the end I decided on at least 7km (4.5 miles) a day. This while essentially abitrary is the distance to Aldi at Wrekenton and back using my preferred route through Windy Nook and Whitehills nature parks.

Whilst most walks were local, around the nature parks and trips to Aldi and Lidl I did mix it up with longer walks, (up to 29km) carrrying a loaded backpack. The weather has been very variable from snow and ice to heavy rain, from fog and cloud to bright spring sunshine. There were times when it was an effort to get up and go out for my walk but the discipline of commitment won every time.

Fundraising ended up being a more difficult challenge than the walking, certainly to start with. I hate asking people for money. It was part of the challenge so I ended up setting up a JustGiving page and with some trepidation picked the suggested fund raising goal of £160. I really didn’t know whether I would reach that target and I didn’t like the idea of asking. But people are so generous and I have ended up raising £175! I also resurrected my Facebook Account and have posted the details of each days walk together with the picture of the daily reflection. I could have posted them on here, maybe I will too, but I wanted them to be more public for those who gave or might give.

Just doing a quick total – over Lent I walked about 425km! I have walked half a Camino! I am not sure if it will make the real thing any easier but I do think my fitness is improving. I am conscious however that I feel I am still meandering in the foothills of peak fitness.