Adventures in Walking From the Couch to 5K - Chapter 9

It’s a cold and drizzly day. AJ thinks to herself that she does not want to go to training tonight, however, she is the one bringing the after walk treats. She has to go. AJ gets her Capri black running leggings on and a long sleeve tech shirt. It’s cooler tonight then it has been for the other nights plus it’s raining, she doesn’t want to get chilled.

The doorbell rings and it is Michael. He has come over to watch the boys while AJ is at training, because he’s very supportive of her new lifestyle.

Carson and Cooper come running to the door. “Dad!” they holler. Carson opens the door for his dad. Both of them give him a big hug as he tries coming inside. He is able to carry them inside as he goes sideways through the front door.

AJ comes downstairs and gets her shoes on. She gives both the boys a hug and kiss, tells Michael, “There’s lasagna in the oven that is only being kept warm, so you guys can eat anytime. Thanks for coming over to watch the boys,” AJ picks up her cooler of goodies, which are small juice boxes, boxes of raisins and fruit snacks, and leaves in her truck.

As she drives towards Oakland High School North along the road to her right is a deer that is standing there eating the grass, not paying attention to any of the traffic going by. AJ continues to the school and parks her truck next to Angela’s car.

AJ is the first one there besides Angela. Gradually everyone arrives and comes over to Angela’s car. “Hi everyone. Tonight’s walk will be a 30 minute walk. We will go on the path along Tienken over to Squirrel and a little bit up Squirrel and then back. You gals have been doing a great job of getting over for other groups and encouraging them. Plus I hope you all have been keeping up on your homework. It is so important for your progress. Let’s get moving!” Angela encourages everyone.

They head out on the path along the school. The route is along a two lane road, so there is some traffic but not like it was when they were along University. Angela hollers out “arms up” and “arms down” according to her fitness watch prompts.

They have been out for a few minutes or so and Angela says, “Let’s do something different with our arms up, this time we will go single file and the person at the back will walk as fast as they can to the front of the line, when they get to the front of the line they will say “Next” and then the next person at the back will go to the front of the line and follow suit until everyone has been able to go to the front of the group from the back of the group. I will start us off. Single file and arms up!”

Angela puts her arms up at the 90-degree angle and walks quickly to the front of the group and says, “Next!” which is AJ who walks quickly to the front of the group and says, “Next” and it continues with Vicki, Kim, Karin, Denese, Doree and finally Sharon get to the front of the group but says “Last one!” to indicate that she is the last of the group.

“How did you all like that game?” asks Angela.

“Loved it!” replied AJ, Karin and Vicki

“It was fun!” replied Denese, Doree, Kim and Sharon.

“Glad to hear it. We will do this to shake things up a bit when there’s room on the path or trail we are on. Ok, time to get back on track with arms down.” Angela tells the group.

Next they come alongside the gated community, pass by the gated entrance where there is a white guard house with white gate arms that are down blocking traffic. Inside the guard house is a little old man patiently waiting for people to come up to the gate.

After the gated community the group comes to the intersection of Tienken and Squirrel. The group goes to the right on Squirrel so they don’t have to worry about crossing the road. They only go up to the condo complex road to turn around. This time when they turn around they have the ones at the back of the group lead the group back to Tienken.

When they get to Tienken the group turns left and heads toward the school. Angela is at the front of the group and sees another group headed their way. “Runners Up! Single file!” she instructs the group. They meet up with the runners and give them a high five and encouraging words of “great job!” “keep it up” “lookin’ good!”

A few more minutes, and they are at Angela’s car and AJ gets her cooler out of her truck and places it in the back of Angela’s car. “I must say you ladies are doing a great job of walking and must all be doing your homework with how nice our pace is and we are staying close together. Tonight’s goodies are from AJ and she brought small juice boxes, boxes of raisins and fruit snacks. I want to remind everyone that the stretching exercises can actually be done every day if you like. This will really help with your muscles. Now next week we are going to be meeting back down at the library and parking in the same area we did last week. I will have a different route for us to take. Next week’s goodies will be brought by Karin. Does anyone have any questions or comments?” Angela asks. Everyone looks at each other and shakes their heads no. “Ok, I will see everyone next week then,” says Angela. “See you next week,” everyone replies.

AJ picks up her cooler and gets into her truck. She heads for home to see her boys. AJ thinks to herself I am really glad that the training program locations are so close to home.

She gets home, pulls into the garage and goes inside. As she opens the door AJ hollers in “Boys, I am home!” The boys come running to the door and give her a big hug.

Michael gets up off the couch and gets his shoes on. He says to the boys, “It’s been a fun evening and I’ll see you tomorrow. Get some sleep.” The boys both give him a hug goodbye. Michael leaves out the front door.

AJ takes her shoes off and says to the boys, “Time for bed boys, go upstairs and get ready.”

Cooper and Carson run upstairs and get ready for bed. AJ takes her cooler to the kitchen and then goes upstairs. The boys are all ready and get into their own beds. She goes in and gives them each a hug and kiss good night. She heads to her room and gets ready for bed, lays down and reads for a while before going to sleep.

Continue Reading - Chapter 10