Rob and I walked a 15k last weekend! That’s right, 9.32 miles. Neither of us think that we’ve ever walked that far consecutively in our entire lives. I may have while traveling, but I still think that mileage would have been broken up throughout the day.

Last week, I told you about the Walking Program I started to help strengthen my back post-surgery before I’m cleared to run again. Then I told you how I elevated that program by beginning the Get LOST in Running Race Series. {Only, I’m walking it, of course.}

The series includes six races based on Hurley’s winning lottery numbers that come up often during the TV series LOST:

I already completed Station 1 – the Arrow 4k and Station 2 – the Hydra 8k as mentioned here. Knowing that Station 3 – the Swan 15k would be challenging, Rob said he’d join me as we discovered more of the Chain of Lakes in Minneapolis.

We had just walked the Dog Day 5k the previous day, so we decided that we were going to take it easy and not concentrate on time. This was going to be about distance. We parked near Lake Calhoun but made our way immediately over to the Lake of the Isles. The previous week, when we completed our 8k around Calhoun and a portion of the Isles, the weather was beautiful and people were everywhere. We counted somewhere around 100 pooches on our one hour and eleven minute walk!

However, this Sunday was completely different. It was cloudy and slightly chilly. We both wore hats and I wore a thin, lightweight, breathable jacket. We started off slowly, making sure we didn’t push ourselves.

We walked leisurely…

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We sipped our coffees…

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and occasionally  stopped to smell the roses…

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And we learned that these poor geese don’t even get their own crossing! 😉

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The walk around the Lake of the Isles was much more peaceful than our walk around Lake Calhoun the previous week. Maybe it’s the fact that fewer people were out because it began to rain or maybe it was that we were in a more residential area. While there is something to be said about the bustling activity around Lake Calhoun, we decided we liked Lake of the Isles better.

I kept my Google Maps App available so I could find the path to follow to the the next lake in the Chain of Lakes – Cedar Lake. We didn’t want to get LOST like we did last time! And the map proved to be useful several times. We’d choose a path and find several steps later that we could have strayed miles off course!

After a while, it was no longer sprinkling, but really raining. However, we both felt great and something kicked in! {Maybe the coffee?!} We both picked up the pace. It was then that we discovered the wilderness and untouched beauty of Cedar Lake. Who knew this could exist right inside the metropolis of Minneapolis? We had the trails mostly to ourselves and it was refreshing!

Sometimes the dirt trails forked, but we tried to stay as close to the lake as possible, knowing that the goal was to go around the lakes. At one point, we heard a loud strange noise when the trails narrowed.

“It’s the Smoke Monster!” I yelled, laughing. Rob laughed, too… and when the loud noise ceased, we decided the monster had retreated and it was safe to venture on. 😉

Cedar Lake became our new favorite.

When we completed the tour of the lakes and returned to Lake Calhoun, we had one last kilometer to go, so we walked a half of a kilometer past our car, picking up the pace as fast as we could and then walked back. After the use of my RunKeeper, Camera and Google Maps Apps, we were lucky my phone still had some battery left to capture our results!

I couldn’t believe how good I felt and we weren’t really as tired as we had expected. At this point I was completely drenched from the rain. And guess how many dogs we counted this time? Eleven. Yes, that’s right. I guess most people don’t like to get out nor take their pooches for walks in such weather. 😉

Station 3 – Swan 15k?

DONE.

Next up – Station 4 – Flame 16k. We should have that one in the bag. Let’s do this!

What’s the furthest you’ve ever walked and when?

Cheers~

Carrie