Here I am, now on my seventh of eleven planned laps around the auditorium, talking with Mike whose longer stride is keeping me stretching! Happy National Heart Health Month. We’re celebrating it in many ways around campus, but one of my favorites is our “walk-in Wednesday” project. Walking “in” means using an indoor venue in deference to February’s inclement weather. We’ve “converted” the auditorium to house an indoor walking track. Well, actually, all we’ve really done is to clear the side aisles. Walk eleven laps and the wonderful person who took the trouble to measure it will claim you’ve walked a half-mile. Record it on a little stub of paper, and you’ll be eligible for a drawing for a “fit bit”. I still have the free red shoe laces from the first walk of the month, and the small red lapel pin from last year’s walk.
Mike and I have just come from the wonderful monthly “mens breakfast” (that’s a subject for different note) and are happily swapping notes on what we’ve learned, this month, about the history of the Statue of Liberty from a gifted and enthusiastic New Yorker. As we walk we pass Betsy, our energetic and capable residents association president, out here walking with “her people”. No better way to stay in touch, so we, too, swap a few quick updates.
We’re all walking clockwise around the auditorium. Mike speculates that if we do so too much our left legs might grow shorter, like those cows always standing facing East on the alpine slopes.
We walk past our delightful UNC Exercise and Sport student who is serving as an intern in our Wellness program and monitoring walk-in Wednesday today. She is much too pleasant to be actually counting our laps. Long live the honor system.
On display is the ad for the upcoming Chatham County “senior games”. Carolina Meadows is an enthusiastic community partner. We’ll really miss John, a multi-year winner, whom we lost last month. We reflect fondly on our departed friend.
On the other side of the “track” is the team working with “Fleet Feet”, a community sport shoe company offering free foot assessments and fittings. What a nice example of mutual benefit!
On the screen the image is great, thanks to the recently upgraded AV system in the auditorium. And so we walk to the pace of the Olympic Cross Country Ski Team on the screen. They’re almost as fast as Mike!
And in the background, the music is playing. Walking music of course. First Johnny Cash “I’ll walk the line”. But now, happily, it’s Fats Domino, reminding us: “I’m Walkin’, yes indeed…”