I've been doing really well on the walking/hiking front so I wanted to test/push myself. I also had a candy bar to walk off because I went over my points last night. So, I was going to walk five miles. I didn't want to go the old route. crossing four lanes of 55 MPH traffic isn't exactly my cup of tea and that was is only 2.5 miles and I didn't want to lap the block, so I figured I'd walk on the quieter side of our neighborhood. I went to Google Maps and measured how far five miles would be to walk. I had my plan, so I put on my, sunglasses, ball cap, sneakers and Ipod and headed out.
I live near one of those three digit state routes. Probably the most well known one in the Capital Region is 146 in Clifton Park. That's exit 9 off 87 where The Crossing, the newly re-named Northern Lights and Clifton Park Center all are as well as lots of restaurants.The three digit state route near my house has some nice wide shoulders so I should have no problems walking on them, right? Well, those nice wide shoulders end less than a 1/4 from where my road meets the state route, and there's no sidewalk. Oh wait. There is a sidewalk. It looks more like a ditch because it's curved inward in the middle. I didn't want to twist an ankle so I stayed on the road. I was actually walking on the sold white line rather than walk on the "sidewalk".. Also the "sidewalk" is only about 1/8 of a mile if you're lucky. It's also not well maintained. In addition to all of that, there's a few pretty scary curves, even when you're driving, on that road where I had to practically walk in the road. I kept scouting out the other side for the walk back and saw little to no shoulder. So, needless to say I turned around.
I considered going my old route, but walked right past it. I got home to discover that I had walked a little less than my regular 2.5. I did 2.2. However, I'm pretty sure my heart rate was pretty high when those cars came whizzing by when I was walking with little or no shoulder so I should get some kind of bonus! Nonetheless, at least I accomplished something I set out to do. I walked off that candy bar I finished off last night that put me over points. So at least some good came out of it. Not that I'm complaining.
As always, thanks for reading