A 6 hour ordeal page 2

[magnus84]

Holy crap! I did 4.5 miles today for an hour and a half... and I feel like death. I am extremely impressed with your feat! (no pun intended)

I'm pretty hungry too... not as hungry as you but I can definitely see why you reacted the way you did!

Mentally, that first hour is the easiest but physically, it's as hard as the last hour. On my next go I intend to focus more on the time than the speed. Part of my problem is that the distance I walk to my campus (I don't know what it is) takes me nearly an hour and a half, but I'm usually walking briskly hoping to make it to class (I leave as late as possible to avoid the worst of the sun). So my first mistake was walking to maintain that time. Next time it will be a lot more leisurely. I think if I'm walking for 6 hours walking slowly, say at 2.5 or 3 miles an hour would be a fair trade right?

I should note though that despite my initial speed, toward the end I was probably moving at just 1 mile per hour. I was completely spent.

[magnus84]

I did about 1/4 of it barefoot and the other 3/4 in my Five Fingers. One funny thing was walking barefoot through a park and walking by an older lady walking a small dog, who gave me a puzzled look - then later on (about 4km away) walking into a Starbucks for an espresso and seeing her in there, too. She definitely raised an eyebrow and looked at my feet. The Vibrams were back on by that point. Heh.

Ah, one of the things I missed out on by walking in the dark. I love getting the look. It's funny that a grown man in an urbanscape gets more of a funny look from the VFFs than from the being fully barefoot. One of my neighbors thinks I go about barefoot because it makes me feel closer to home (Africa... a place where I never once went barefoot to the best of my memory). I indulge his fantasy so that I don't have to answer too many questions.

[scubasam]

Ah, one of the things I missed out on by walking in the dark. I love getting the look. It's funny that a grown man in an urbanscape gets more of a funny look from the VFFs than from the being fully barefoot. One of my neighbors thinks I go about barefoot because it makes me feel closer to home (Africa... a place where I never once went barefoot to the best of my memory). I indulge his fantasy so that I don't have to answer too many questions.

Where in Africa are you from? I am from South Africa. Great job on the walking.

[magnus84]

Where in Africa are you from? I am from South Africa. Great job on the walking.

I was born in Nigeria but left when I was 3. I spent the larger part of my life first in Zimbabwe, before that mad man turned it from paradise - the breadbasket of Africa - into hell. And then in Gaborone, Botswana. Most of my childhood memories are from Botswana. I went to boarding school (high school) in South Africa though and still have family in Durban and Jozi. I sort of consider myself more British and American now though. The UK and the US were always sort of in the backdrop, no matter where I was.

What part of SA are you from?

[scubasam]

I was born in Joburg and lived there and in Durbs for a few years too. I left in 96 and moved to Israel, and then in 2001 I moved to the US with my family.