After too long of a sabbatical from taking really long walks (almost 7 months!), I started out small this past Thursday morning by taking a walk to my doctor appointment.

It’s amazing how quickly one’s body can get out of shape when a routine is broken. I’ve walked this route from Downtown to St. Luke’s (about 33 blocks as the crow flies) many times and it usually takes about an hour. This time it took me an hour and 20 minutes.

It didn’t start out slow. I left my gym near 10th & Walnut around 8:50am and by 9:15 I was at Union Station, waiting for a long procession of police (motorcycles and cars, nut sure what was up) to pass. By 9:20 I was on the platform at Liberty Memorial, roughly the halfway point between the Downtown Loop and Westport.

View from Liberty Memorial

This is where I ran into trouble. By the time I reached the top of the 180+ stairs my heart was racing and I had to rest a few minutes. But tht wasn’t the end of it. As I headed south on Wyandotte I passed the construction of the stage for this weekends RockFest and, at approximately where 30th Street would pass if it went through, I crested one of the highest points in KC. I had to rest for a moment again. :)

At least from there it was pretty much downhill the rest of the way, though now I was behind schedule and didn’t quite regain my original pace. My usual 15 minute mile walking pace ended up averaging out to a 20 minute mile this time around. So I’ve got work to do!

On the plus side, once I get going it gets easier, so I have to make sure I take awalk of 4-5 miles or more at least once a week so that I can get back in shape for some more 20+ mile walks later this year.