Feet First's Second Annual Stairway Walks Day

Last year I missed out on the First Annual Stairway Walks Day, but I did put it on calendar to make sure I'd be in town to participate this year. On February 8th, at 10:00 a.m. there will be 18 different stairway walks throughout the greater Seattle area, including Burien, and Bellevue. 

In the 15 years that I've lived in Seattle, I've never actually explored the Arboretum. I'm going to take this opportunity to participate in the Olmstead Vision walk.

In the early 20th century, Seattle commissioned the Olmstead Brothers firm to design a park system for the city. This trio of splendid parks: Washington Park Arboretum, Interlaken Park, and Volunteer Park are a formative part of the legacy they left behind. We'll also see vibrant residential architecture that was built for a newly prospering middle class of this era.

Space is limited to 25 people per walk, so to secure a place. Follow the link below to find a walk in your neighborhood, or join me on the Olmstead Vision walk, but register ASAP to secure your spot.

Feet First's Second Annual Stairway Walks Day

For more great Seattle stairway walks, visit http://www.seattlestairwaywalks.com/

High School Walking Club

This is a great story, and also what I want Sole of Seattle to be able to grow into. Franklin Community High School (in Franklin, Indiana), with the help of teacher and students, created a walking group with the soul purpose of helping a student who was emotionally struggling from the loss of his father, and physically struggling with his weight.

This is the truest sense of building community through walking. What started as an effort to help one young man, is now growing within the Franklin high school to help others as well. I hope you'll take the time to read this article, and maybe it can inspire all of us to create something similar that will work to promote health, confidence, camaraderie, and friendships in our own communities.

Effort to help student blossoms into walking club

29 Miles

A man walked 29 miles from a shelter in Atlanta to Lilbum, GA to be on time for a court appearance over a traffic infraction. According to the article the temperature was 6 degrees, and minus 10 with windchill. The man left at 1 a.m. with no other means for making his court date other than walking.

Georgia cops buy taxi fare for man who walked 29 miles to court on frigid day

It takes a real fortitude, and commitment to obligation to take a walk like that. I don't even think a single person I know who would have made that walk. Had the man froze to death, I might be writing a very different post, but he didn't, and I can only express my admiration for that kind of effort to try and do the right thing, without excuses.

Whenever I make a plan to meet someone, and I know I'm going to walk, I take the time to reverse engineer my route, so I no exactly when to leave so as not be late. The easy/accurate way to figure something like that out is to use Google maps. I put my starting and end point into Google maps, and select the walk function. Google maps is generally pretty accurate for predicting how long it will to take me to walk. Otherwise, if I already know the distance and I know that I walk a mile in 20 minutes, then I can figure out the rest. 

It's relatively important for me to not waste anyone's time when we've scheduled to meet. I go out of my way to make sure that I won't be late, and I never want anyone to feel like I don't respect their time. I can't say that I'm the kind of guy who would walk 29 miles in negative 10 weather, but I want to be.

When Walking Hurts

Plantar Fasciitis is a condition of heel pain that can make walking unbearably painful. It tends to be a slow healing injury, and because of that it takes a strong attitude towards healing, and consistent therapy to correct the issue. The video below is by Kelly Starrett, a mobility guru who really understands the biomechanics of the human body, and has a ton of great videos on different issues of mobility that can be found online. If you believe you are suffering from plantar fasciitis, I would highly recommend watching this video. Being unable to walk because of heel pain not only decreases our ability to freely navigate the world, but I believe it also significantly degrades our quality of life in the process. Grocery shopping, dog walking, and recreational strolls around the neighborhood shouldn't hurt.  It's very important to maintain good foot health. Treat your feet well so they will last a lifetime.