Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

I walked 1,100 miles; that was about 65 days of walking.

I hurt a lot during those days.

About day 60 of walking I figured out what causes walking pain. I am not stupid; I can learn, maybe not fast, but I do learn.

My wife and I started walking in mid-September of 2008. I hurt from the start. I hurt really bad. Blisters on both feet, joint pain, muscle pain, pain on top of pain. We stopped walking on November 4th of 2008 to rush home and see our newborn grandson.

I started walking again late in September of 2009. I had to walk while pushing a bicycle and then ride the bicycle (see this link for the full explanation). The surprising thing was that I didn’t hurt. My feet didn’t have blisters and my joints didn’t ache. I had plenty of sore muscles in my legs, but really, I was walking 18 miles and then riding a bike 18 miles. Of course I had sore leg muscles.

Then the situation changed for the last two weeks of the walk. My older brother joined me. He drove, I left my bicycle at his house, and all I had to do was walk 18 or 20 miles a day. Another surprise – my body ached and I had blisters on my feet. I hurt and I was disappointed.

I pondered the situation. When you are walking five and six hours through rural Mississippi, you have plenty of time to ponder the situation. I finally understood it:

It is the walking surface that determines the blisters and pain.

In 2008, I walked mainly outside the edge of the roadway. I either walked on a steeply sloped shoulder or off the pavement in gravel or grass. The gravel and grass were rough, uneven, up and down a dozen times with each step.

In 2009, I started with the bicycle. I walked mainly inside the edge of the roadway. Pushing the bicycle through dirt, gravel, and grass was too much trouble. The cars could go around me because I was walking on the road.

The situation changed in 2009 when my brother joined me for the final seven or ten days. I no longer had the bicycle. I no longer put myself out on the road for cars to go around. I returned to walking on the shoulder. The blisters and the other pains returned.

It is the walking surface; that is the source of walking pain.

People ask me now and then if I  will do another walk. I would love to do another walk. One thing for sure though, as much as I can, I will walk on the road, not on the shoulder.