This morning I woke up with the urge to spend hours enjoying the outdoors. Although it’s technically spring in Winnipeg, the weather has been alternating between parka cold and spring puddles, sometimes in the space of an afternoon. Today though, it looked to be a relatively nice day. So I decided to go for a walk… a really long walk, maybe even an epic walk (at least for me). For the Winnipeger’s reading this, I decided to walk from The Forks to Charleswood.
I wasn’t sure how many miles I’d be walking, but decided to hop a bus downtown and bring enough bus fare to get home again if I got tired. The distance is an enjoyable bike ride or a good run (although not a distance that I can run). However I figured I could wander through the city, taking breaks along the way if needed.
It turned out to be a lot of fun — just for the challenge of it. It reminded me of being on vacation in other cities, which I most like to explore by walking long distances from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. It’s certainly not a distance that I’ve ever attempted in Winnipeg though. I thought I would take more breaks and I thought I would walk at a wandering pace, but on average, I ended up keeping a brisk 20 minute mile pace the whole way.
All told, I walked 7.28 miles in 2.27 hours. I took a break about 3/4’s of the way home and soaked in some greenery at the Assiniboine Park conservatory. Including the time to bus downtown, buy a cookie at the bakery, stop to take photos all along the way and lounge under the palm trees, the whole adventure lasted four hours. The bottom of my feet are a touch raw, but all is well. It was a great way to get a bunch of exercise while soaking in the fresh air… and I’ll definitely do it again (somewhere different next time).
