10,000 and Counting
The Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery and the Kennedy Center.
As someone blessed to have lived most of my life in a suburb of Washington, D.C., I'm used to seeing our national monuments. By car, that is. I recently got a fresh perspective on the beauty that had become a blur by slowing down—to 12 minutes a mile.
On a recent cool Sunday morning, I joined 7,452 other folks to weave a 10-mile course through the marble treasures, while marveling at the cherry blossoms of early spring.
The Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run was my first race. And if you, like me until very recently, don't know much about running, my time was both amazing and unamazing.
My time put me a bit behind the winner—Kenyan John Korir, who flew in at 46 minutes and 55 seconds. And behind 3,397 women, including an 85-year-old Virginia dynamo who was 33 seconds faster. But my 2 hours and 3 minutes was 9 fabulous minutes faster than my best time in months of training.
Back in August, when I first put my new running shoes onto a treadmill, I was red-faced and out of air before reaching one mile. So in seven months, running three times a week, I discovered my body is a remarkable machine, not just a handy vehicle for transporting my brain from place to place.
My interest in running came after I lost 50 pounds last year. I did that without fad diets or costly gym memberships. I bought a food scale and a book that lists calories—total cost about $15—and limited my daily intake to 1,500 calories. I ate lots of salmon, vegetables and fruit, and brought my breakfast (yogurt, one banana) and lunch to work. I weighed every Saturday.
When fall approached and leaves started covering my beloved tennis courts, I wanted to make sure I kept the weight off. So I decided to try running as a wintertime sport. I ran —switching to walking when I'd get pooped —in snow, rain and 'wintery mix.' My partner, Joyce, gave me a Sony Walkman.
At 45, I've fallen in love with running, which burns up an astounding 650 calories an hour at my modest pace. It offers the best of what I've liked about tennis: It's cheap and a terrific way to feel connected to a city you're visiting. Joyce and I never travel without our rackets. (We've even played in Jerusalem.) Now I throw in my running shoes, too.
I share this ongoing effort to take better care of myself because it's been easy, fun and virtually free. And if you, like me and most other American adults, have woken up to discover that you've become sedentary and overweight, my sport might be worth adopting.
'Our mistake in America is that we've made fitness a fad rather than a way of life,' notes Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. 'We need to stop the guilt-ridden lectures and start showing people the enjoyable and doable steps they can take.'
The upbeat Thompson recently showed me the pedometer he wears on his belt to make sure he walks at least 10,000 steps a day. He's given away 500 pedometers, urging folks to walk 10,000 steps a day, which translates into about 3 miles.
Joyce is a whirlwind of activity on vacation. But when I took a cue from Thompson and gave her a special step-counting pedometer, we were shocked to learn that her desk job meant she was walking as little as 3,987 steps a day.
Now, tapping into her competitive streak, she's walking at lunch and before or after work in daily pursuit of her goal. She's also started running/walking one full hour on Saturdays at the local high school track.
Spring is here. Walk outside, and count your 10,000 blessings.
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