From Fat to 42k in 5 months: Day 6/140: 6 Mile Walk

I wasn't too worried about walking the 6 miles today...well maybe slllllightly but I was more worried about the weather holding out. We left the house about 10am, ran a quick errand, then made it to McKinley Park around 11. It was overcast and cool, but still pretty nice. Our plan was to start the Runkeeper app as we started and then walk the trail until we had gone 3 miles, and then turn around and go back. 6 mile round trip. Good plan right? So we get started and the first mile is always the hardest. Muscles still getting warmed up, respiratory system getting geared up, Joanna and I were taking turns pushing Ava every 1/2 mile or so. Then I about a mile or so into our walk I thought I heard thunder off in the distance. I checked out the radar map on Weathbug and sure enough there was a storm headed right for us. We decided to go ahead and turn around. I glanced at Runkeeper and it said we had gone 1.7 miles. I figured I if we made it back to the van and it was still holding out, we could go ahead and walk the remaining 2.5 miles. We didn't get so lucky. About 5 minutes after we turned and headed back for McKinley Park it started to rain. Not hard, just a steady drizzle. I'm still optimistic we can make it back to the van before it really hits. Then as I'm pushing Ava's wheelchair I get this crazy Charlie-horse type thing behind my right knee. I'm trying to walk and shake it out. Finally it eased up. About 1 mile before the van the rain hit with a vengeance. Hahahahaha. It was quite comical actually. I had laid an oversized blue jacket over Ava to keep her warm, but she did not want her face covered because she wanted to see. When the rain hit I had no choice but to cover her completely with the jacket. So here are Joanna and I, taking turns pushing Ava, and trying to keep her equipment dry. The closer we got to the van, the more intense the thunder became. I saw a few lightening flashes off in the distance but the storm held off for the most part. As we arrived back at McKinley Park and Ava realized we were done walking, she started arching and throwing a fit. I think she was enjoying being outside, raining or not! So we finished 3.5 miles according to Runkeeper, and averaged a 21min/mile. Not too awful for day 6 AND pushing a wheelchair AND walking in pouring down rain. We decided we are either going to finish the other 2.5 miles on the treadmill, or take a nice long walk tomorrow after Mother's Day festivities.

Here are a few pics I took from today...

Everything is packed. Getting ready to leave!