Yep I not only walked the 12K as planned last week, I actually walked 13.2K.  I was so very happy and exhilarated after like you wouldn't believe. As my friend and fellow walker said to me, that's a little over 1/4 of a marathon. So this means I am 1/4 of my journey.

Will I be able to keep at it? I truly don't know but promise to keep trying. It was tough going for me. The first 4K was very hard as I was feeling tired from the side effects of some medication I am on. So going forward I won't take them until after I am finish walking. I guess you could say it's just one more thing I have learned. So far each week I am learning what I should and shouldn't do.

Aside from my training, I celebrate a birthday this past Monday and I am mentioning it only because I got a great gift from my friend and trainer. I got a nice red top and black bottom to walk in. In addition to that I got several other items in the gift bag...an energy bar, Vaseline, Moleskins, Jelly Beans.

The Jelly beans and energy bar is for me to try. If I like them I will buy them for my walking pouch. The Moleskin is for my feet in the event of blisters and the Vaseline is to protect me from the very cold wind. Of course will let you know if I like the bar or the jelly beans. I also got M&Ms in the gift bag but that was as a result of a Maxine joke I had send her :)

This Saturday our official training begins and I will walk 13K. Mid-week training is also starting next week. Not sure if I will start with them as yet. I don't like the dark evening especially since I have to travel home late. Who knows I may change my mind.

Well folks that's all for now....in the mean time have a wonderful weekend and walk good.

Last Saturday (Jan 17th) I did my second power walk training with the group. Once group did 6K and another did 9K. We were suppose to do 12K but given the deep freeze no one wanted to.

Given that it was so cold (about -22C with the wind chill) I was bundled up in my heavy brown coat with the hood. In no time though I was warm to the point of hot. Even my fingers were very warm due to the fact that a friend had loan me a pair of heavy duty mittens. Plus I was wearing a light pair of gloves inside the mittens. Eventually I had to take of the mittens and at one point I wasn't wearing either gloves or mittens.

After I walked about 6K I started lagging behind a bit because I was feeling weak. Silly me didn't eat anything. Well the truth is sometimes I find it hard to eat that early in the morning. However, the mistake I made was not having something to snack on as I walk. I was feeling so bad that I thought I was going to puke.

Lucky for me I was able to continue to the end. I was glad we didn't do the 12K after all. Well they do say you live and you learn. I definitely won't be making that mistake this week or going forward. It does take a while to learn the ropes of training for a marathon so I am sure I will make more mistakes along the way.

Tomorrow we are definitely hoping to walk the 12K but we are headed for another period of deep freeze again so I am not 100% sure we will. Of course you will hear whether or not I walk the 12K in my next blog.

Before I sign off here is some exciting news, at least for me anyway...I signed up today for the 8K Harry's Spring Run Off. I did the 5K last year so I am looking forward to doing the 8K this year. I must say one of the things I like about these runs or marathons is that they always support some charity and the Harry's Spring Run Off supports Prostate Cancer.

This is in April so it gives me more than enough time to prepare. I am looking forward to it. After that my next meet will be in May or rather I am hoping to do another in May. Will tell you about it when I sign up. 

Mostly my blog is about my fish family or my plants and the occasional rant about something that occurred. Now I am taking my blog in a slightly different direction and hopefully in the weeks and months to come my blog will include more on the subject of Marathon Walking.

As of today I have started training for Marathon Walking...yep believe it. Will I keep it up? Who knows, but for now the most important thing is that I actually started.

Just to tell you a bit about how I got started...I have been doing the odd 5 km races but without the training and I usually run, walk.  I have a colleague who is a marathon walker, not just here in Canada but she travels to the USA quite often for races.

She has been at me for a long time now to get going and last week she found the perfect thing to get me interested....the Florida Disney Marathon. This marathon is held every January and you can do either a 5 km, a 1/2 marathon or the full marathon.

Doing both the 1/2 and the full marathon is called the Goofy. To accomplish this you do the 1/2 on the Saturday and the full marathon the Sunday. Since I am not Goofy...well not just yet, my goal is the full marathon in 2010. In the mean time I am hoping to do my fist 1/2 marathon later this year and  I also plan to do some shorter distance before that.

Today was the start of my training. I did my first walk this morning...9 km and yep I survived it, despite the -13C weather and it being slippery as heck. Lucky for me I am a cold weather person so it works perfectly. We started at 8:30 am...well I started a little bit later because I got there about 5 minutes late. I was able to catch up with some of the members of the group.

So how was my first walk this morning? I have to say it was really great. First...I have a great coach and the other walkers in the group seems to be really great individuals. After the walk we went for breakfast and so I was able to spend some time getting to know a few of the members. Some were telling me a bit about what to expect and what I need to do and basically just being very encouraging.

Given that it was my first morning the one thing I realized is that there is a lot that I have to learn, especially when walking in this type of weather. I knew I had to dress properly and for the most part I was. However, the one thing I didn't do was take my mittens with. I was wearing leather gloves and believe me in this weather they don't work really well. So that is one mistake I won't be making going forward.

The other thing is I knew attempting to do a marathon wasn't going to be easy...but I am now only realizing the effort it will take. To be able to walk the distance and maintain a certain speed will require lots of training, mental stamina and most importantly, discipline.

The good thing about it though is that it is a goal to work towards and since I have always liked to be challenged I am looking forward to it.  So for now this is what I will be doing and you will hear more as my journey continues.

Ciao for now...