Adventures in Walking From the Couch to 5K - Chapter 3

Finally, the first evening of training has arrived. AJ, all dressed in one of her new purple outfits, yells upstairs to the boys “Time to go!” The boys come bounding down the stairs and run over to put on their coats and shoes. AJ picks up her gym bag, and they all head to the garage, get into the truck and drive over to their dad’s.

Carson says, “I can’t wait to get to dad’s!”

“Me, too!” adds Cooper.

AJ drops off the boys with her ex, Michael, and then heads to Lutheran High Northwest’s gym.

On her way, she thinks about Ann Marie, her best friend and Michael's younger sister, and how things were when they were younger and before the huge weight gain. She wishes that she could have helped her more. Her mind switches back to today’s training, and she smiles thinking about how she is changing her life and her boys’ lives for the better with this small change.

The drive to Lutheran High Northwest is smooth and quick She pulls into parking lot and finds a spot. AJ gets out of her truck and heads into the gym. There are a lot of people there already. She enters in the gym and follows the signs to where the check-in table is located.

The gal at the table greets her, “My name is Anne.”

“I am Andrea Jo Walker, but everyone calls me AJ.”

Anne checks her name off the list, hands her a bag of goodies and says, “at the next table you will pick up your t-shirt.”

At the next table she is greeted by another friendly person who introduces himself, “Hi! I am Jim. What’s your name?”

“Andrea Jo Walker, but you can call me AJ,” she replies.

He checks her name on the list and hands her a t-shirt. He informs her, “You can walk around the vendor tables until it’s time to get started.”

AJ walks over to the vendor area. The first table that she stops at is a table with headbands. The gal at the headband table says, “Hi! I am Mary. Let me know if you need any assistance.” Mary has all kinds of headbands with various fun phrases about running and walking. She buys a purple one that says, “I don’t sweat, I sparkle.”

She continues on to the next table where a local race is being promoted and she puts an information/application flier in her bag. She observes all the tables and their offerings. There’s one from a chiropractic office, a running store, and a gal with a protein drink. AJ decides to go over to the bleachers and sit down until the next part of the program starts.

A few minutes later Anne gets up in front of the bleachers at the microphone and says, “Welcome to the Oakland Training Program! I am so glad that everyone could make it and for those that haven’t made it to their seats yet, please make your way there quickly. We are going to be getting started in a couple minutes, giving people a chance to get to their seats.”

Vicki and Kim walk up, and Vicki says, “Hi AJ! This is Kim. Kim, I met AJ at Mark’s Running & Walking Shop. She is in the 5K walking program.”

“Hi AJ! Glad to have you a part of the program.” Kim says. “Denese will be joining us shortly.”

AJ replies, “Nice to meet you Kim. I am looking forward to walking.”

Denese walks up, “Hi, I am Denese.”

“Hi Denese, I am AJ. Glad to meet you.”

A short while later Anne gets back to the microphone and says, “Welcome to the Oakland Training Program! We are going to get started. I’d like to welcome all of our first time participants. Would all of our first time participants please stand up!” AJ stands up along with a bunch of others. “Welcome! Congratulations on joining us! You can have a seat.

What we are going to do tonight is head out to the track and have everyone walk the track for one lap. Please do this at a pace you are comfortable with. You do NOT want to go too fast. We are determining which group to put you in and it’s better to be in a slower group than a group that is too fast for you. At the end of your lap you will receive a popsicle stick with a number on it. You will bring that stick back to the table that is right inside the door. Give them the stick, tell them whether you are walking or running and your name. This will put you into groups. We will then meet back here in the bleachers when everyone is done. So, go ahead and head out to the track.”

AJ, Vicki, Kim and Denese all head to the track together. They are joined by a bunch of other walkers and runners on the track. The gentleman that is already at the track instructs them, “All right everyone, gather behind the line. I need one group of eight on the track at the line and then when that group is done another group of 8 will go until we are all done.”

He then counts down and has them head off on the track. AJ thinks to herself: I like this. Walking feels good, new friends and the sun is shining!

It didn’t take long, and they found themselves at the finish line grabbing the popsicle sticks. They then leave the track and head back to the gym to turn in their popsicle sticks. There were two lines, one for runners and one for walkers. They all lined up in the walker line, gave them their popsicle stick, confirmed they were walkers and gave their name. Once all of them are done they walk over to the bleachers where they sit down and continue to chat while everyone files in from the track.

Anne walks up to the microphone again and says, “Welcome back everyone! We will take a few more minutes while the groups get divided up amongst our leaders and then you will get with your group and go out for a short walk.” She then walks over to the table that has all the sheets with the groups on. She grabs the sheets that are ready and walks back over to the microphone.

“Ok, I have some of the group sheets already available and we’ll get those groups started off. Our first group is for group leader Angela Green. Angela, please come up here. Now I will call off the names of the group members. They can join Angela up here and then head out for their walk. Those trainees are AJ Walker, Vicki Haus, Kim Gross, Karin Tallasman, Denese Wilcox, Doree Lakeland, and Sharon East. Come on down and join Angela! Happy walking!”

They all join Angela on the gym floor. Angela says, “let’s go outside, we’ll talk a bit and get walking.” They all follow Angela outside. “Welcome! I am so glad to have you ladies as my group of trainees. We are going to start out slow so that we can figure out where everyone is at, pace wise. Each week we will go at the pace of the slowest walker that evening. There will be evenings that everyone is at the back of the pack. This is normal. No one is at their best every single week. You will have “off” weeks and that’s OK. The object of this training program is to get you walking and finish the race. Let’s walk over to my car and we can drop our bags in the back of my car so your hands are free while walking.” Everyone walks over to Angela’s 2009 black Chevrolet HHR and puts their bags in the back end. “Alright, let’s get walking!” Angela says.

“Now the first thing we will cover is walking etiquette. We will walk 2 by 2. So, no more than 2 people wide. This will help us immensely on the trails. When a car comes up from behind the person at the back will shout out “Car Back.” When a car comes towards us the person in front shouts out “Car Up.” When we have another group that comes up behind us and is going to pass us the person in the back shouts out “runners or walkers back” and then the whole group moves into a single file line to allow the other group to pass by. If there is a bicycle that comes up behind us the person at the back also shouts, “bike back” and if they know how many they shout “2 bikes back” if there are two bikes coming. Sometimes you will know and other times the bikes will come up very quickly and you will only have time to say, “bikes back.” No worries, it’s only a warning. The person in the front will shout “runners or walkers up” when a group is approaching. Our group will go into a single file line and then it’s always a great thing to give the passing group a high five. They will also shout “bike or bikes up” when there are oncoming bikes. We will get over to a single file line if the path is too narrow for the bikes to safely pass us. Another thing that the front person will shout out is if there is a problem with the path, such as hole in the path or low branches or something similar. When we are on sidewalks this will be more common with uneven sidewalks. Does anyone have any questions?” Everyone shakes their head no.

“I will also give directions of which way we are going, such as left or right or straight across depending on what the direction will be. I will have the map printed out ahead of time and we can look at it before we head out next time. Also, expect a weekly email from me with where we will be meeting, possibly a map of what our next route will be, what our distance and time was on the previous walk, what our homework is and who is responsible for snacks. When we get back to my car I have a list of weeks and everyone can sign up for a week that is good for them to bring a snack. Snacks that are typically brought are raisins, grapes, strawberries, oranges, fruit snacks, granola bars and such. Also water is good for after our walk.”

“Ok, we are almost back to the parking lot. We will head over to my car.” They walk through the parking lot to Angela’s car. “How was the pace for everyone?” Everyone replies that it was a good pace. Angela passes around the snack chart. AJ picks week 4 to bring a snack. “OK, I will see everyone next week at 6:00 in the north parking lot of Oakland High School that faces University Dr.” Everyone says, “See you next week!” AJ grabs her bag and walks to her truck. Time to go get the boys from their dad’s.

A few minutes later she pulls up in her ex’s driveway. She goes up and rings the doorbell. Cooper runs to the door and opens it yelling, “MOM’S HERE!!!” Carson comes running also, and they both get their coats and shoes on. Their dad gives them both a hug and kiss goodbye. Then the boys and AJ go to the truck and drive home.

It was a busy evening. As soon as they get in the door to the townhouse they take their shoes off and the boys head upstairs to get put on their pajamas. They brush their teeth and say good night.

AJ sits down on the couch for a few minutes to relax in the silence then heads upstairs to go to sleep herself.

Continue reading - Chapter 4