A creative (wo)man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others. Any Rand

I am being brave here and taking a stand on something I might not accomplish.  I want to be in the Bay to Breakers race this year.

I have wanted to do this on a conceptual level for many years, but never had the means to make it happen.  After spending last year on establishing healthy habits, I have a solid foundation on which to build the stamina necessary for the race.  I'm walking, not running, but completing the course is my goal.  No, I don't know what I'm going to dress up as yet, that will come later in the stages were I'm walking 8-9 miles each weekend and I need something encouraging to think about.

So last year I got a pedometer for a fitness challenge at work and set my goal at 1500 steps a day.  I made it most days and was thrilled when I got over 2000 a few times.  You have to understand that I was coming from total couch potato status. (A mile is about 2000 steps).

I put the pedometer back on last month and at the end of the month got serious.  I've improved my stamina and my goal is 4000 steps a day.  For the month of January, I am adding walks on the weekends, which were typically sedentary for me, and work on taking some sustained walks.  I can walk to work easily now (it's 3-1/2 blocks).  Don't laugh, when the company moved there in July, it seemed like a really long way, so this is progress!  So anyway, I want to do some more sustained walking so that by the end of the month I can walk for one or two miles at a continuous stretch.

I figure that this will give me a solid foundation on which to move forward to increase the walking steadily over the next 4 months to the 9 miles I will need to be able to walk for the race.  I know, I know, Hayes Street Hill is a factor, so some of the prep will have to include the hill stuff.  I'm hoping that I'll be back home by then and will be able to practice the hard parts of the route in person.

In the past, I've pushed myself too hard too fast and have not succeeded.  I'm going by the bunny's motto (you know, slow and steady....)

I am already winning -- over the last two weeks of pedometer tracking, I've logged over 6000 steps 3 times, and over 5000 steps 3 times.