wotw

A few days ago, naiad1 and I set out to complete the Great Saunter --- ordinarily a 32 mile walk around the perimeter of Manhattan Island, but 34.2 miles this year because of detours. Neither of us had much expectation that we'd make it all the way. But pretty much everything that could have gone wrong went right, and we made it. We even made it feeling pretty good, and took another longish walk the next day.

We first heard about the Saunter (an annual event) in the fall of 2019 and resolved to attempt it in May, 2020. Like most events in May 2020, it never happened. It didn't happen again in 2021. In 2022, we were all set to go but were deterred by the (entirely accurate) forecast of torrential rains and high winds for the entire day, which convinced us we'd be better off watching television. (We have never regretted this choice.) We finally made it in 2023.

Some notes:

Shoes. Pretty much the only shoes I ever wear are Keen sandals (always with socks!). In 2019, when we first thought we were going to do the Saunter, I went to an upscale athletic shoestore where they scanned my feet, analyzed my gait, and sold me a pair of closed-in shoes that they assured me were just what I needed. Those shoes sat in a closet until I pulled them out last month for a trial walk. After about six miles, my feet hurt so much that I couldn't go another step. Fortunately, we were passing my parked car at the time, so I was able to swap out the fancy shoes for a pair of Keens, and then we walked another six miles or so. Good thing I tried those shoes out in advance of the Saunter.

But as the Saunter drew closer, I started to think that maybe I really did need good closed-in shoes after all --- just different closed-in shoes. I visited two more fancy shoe stores, talked to apparently very knowledgeable people in both places, and got the same answer twice: If your sandals are working for you, stick with the sandals.

Yes, I said --- the sandals are working for me, but I've never walked more than sixteen miles before, and I'm thinking maybe thirty-two miles calls for a very different kind of shoe. Against their own interests, both of the shoe people said: Just stick with what's working. And I did, and they worked.

I did stick some inserts in them as an experiment, and did some practice walks (eight or ten miles) with those inserts, and was unable to tell whether they made a difference. On the Saunter, unlike the practice walks, the right insert kept emerging from the back of my sandal, though I never noticed it until naiad1 pointed it out, at which point it was sticking out by about half a shoe-length. Each time I pushed it back in, noticed no difference, and kept walking until naiad1 told me it was happening again.

Clothes. We expected cold weather at the 7AM start time, and warmer weather (about 70 degrees and sunny) for most of the day. Unlike most people I am often VERY uncomfortably hot at that temperature even if I'm not doing anything strenuous, so I knew I wanted to wear shorts. On the other hand, I thought that maybe it was more important to be comfortable at the very start when I was still getting used to the idea that I was really going to do this, so I wavered between shorts and very lightweight long pants.

But on Thursday night --- the night before we flew to New York for this event --- I got the idea that I could wear a cheap pair of long pants over shorts and then just discard those long pants when I started getting hot. Some quick trips to Marshalls, TJMaxx and Target failed to turn up a pair of long pants I was happy with, so we left for NYC with me still undecided about how I would dress.

We arrived in NYC Friday evening, took the subway into the city, and while walking to our hotel passed a TJMaxx, which unlike our hometown TJMaxx had the perfect pants for this plan. I bought them, I followed through, and it was indeed absolutely perfect. I was comfortable in the pants for a couple hours, then took them off as the day (and I) warmed up. I hated to throw away these perfectly good brand new pants, so folded them up and left them on a park bench where I hope that someone has been happy to find them.

I also decided to wear a flannel overshirt for the cool of the morning, planning to take it off and tie it around my waist at about the same time I took the pants off. I knew from much past experience that I quite dislike having a shirt flopping around my waist, but decided it was the best of the bad alternatives. However, I discovered something on this walk that will serve me in good stead for the rest of my life, namely: I do not mind at all carrying my flannel shirt in my hand all day, which is what I did.

Food and Sleep. We had the sense to eat lightly the day before, and to eat very near our hotel rather than go traipsing around the city exploring our options. We were in bed by 8:30PM, set an alarm for 6AM (the event started at 7AM, one block from our hotel), and, to our surprise, woke up only a few minutes before the alarm went off. I am certain (based on my experience with our practice walks) that the full night's sleep was critical for success.

Snacks. I carried too many snacks in my little pack (as did naiad1) but it was nice to have some variety. Over the course of the day, I ate one RX protein bar and one Lara bar (about 200 calories each), two packs of Lance Toasty vending-machine-style crackers with cheese, and a few handfuls of granola, but didn't touch the enormous stash of trail mix I'd packed, and left several other bars untouched as well. I think that eating very lightly, and just having a few bites whenever I felt like I needed it was a really key ingredient in getting me through this.

Chronology. We started at Fraunces Tavern, at the southern tip of the island, and headed up the west side. Even in my shorts, I was getting pretty hot by the time we approached the George Washington Bridge (at about the 12 mile mark) and was starting to think that the bridge might be a good place to quit. I was pretty close to mentioning this when naiad1 announced that her goal was the halfway point in Inwood Hill Park (about 16 miles). So I decided not to say anything!

That 16-mile goalpost of naiad's was at the far end of the park, which meant that we first had to walk through the park, which in turn meant a lot of steep hills. By the time we reached the goal, I was definitely the most miserable I've ever been on a walk. I sat down on the first bench I saw and wondered whether I'd ever want to get up again. But I made good use of the portable fan I'd bought from Amazon just in the nick of time (it was delivered the day before we left for New York), and within just a few minutes, felt ready to go again. And naiad1, who had already said repeatedly that she thought the halfway point would be the perfect ending spot for us, announced that she too felt refreshed and ready to continue. So we started down the East Side.

Somewhere around the 22 mile mark (roughly 115th street), we both needed another rest and sat down on a bench for a few minutes. We checked the paper map provided by the organizers, and saw that it promised "restrooms at Target" in just another few blocks. We didn't need the restrooms, but thought it might nice to duck into the air conditioning for a few minutes. I also took the opportunity to throw away my water bottle, thinking I'd buy a new one at Target.

I don't know what would have happened if we'd found the Target. There's at least a fair chance we'd have found an air conditioned cafe area, sat down for "just a few minutes" and never gotten up. So maybe it's a good thing that we somehow never saw it. Though before long, I sure missed that water bottle.

Immediately after the invisible Target came the entry to Thomas Jefferson Park, so there were not going to be any more commercial establishments (or water bottles) for a long time. At 88th street, one exits that park and enters another. I texted my friend Jim, who is temporarily living very near that point and arranged for him to meet us at 88th and walk with us a little. Somehow we missed each other, but he caught up with us about 84th street.

Jim was indispensable for two reasons. First of all, he chatted with us about things that were not how our legs and feet felt. The distraction perked us up a lot. Second of all, he agreed with my overly optimistic assessment of how far we had left to go, and we both convinced naiad1 that we were so heartbreakingly close to the finish line that quitting was now unthinkable.

You see, Jim left us about 57th street, which he and I both realized is only about two and half miles from Houston Street. And Houston Street is already downtown. And downtown is tiny, so once you're downtown, you're practically back at the starting point. So call it maybe three and a half miles total.

This was wrong for multiple reasons: First of all, walking along the river from 57th to Houston is not the same as walking down First Avenue from 57th to Houston; it entails a substantial swing out to the east. Second, the organizers really wanted to keep us on the river as much as possible, but that's not always possible, so there were multiple zigs and zags back and forth between the river and the city streets. And most importantly, it was wrong because it's a lot farther from Houston Street to the Seaport than either Jim or I was imagining.

So instead of being three and half miles short of the end, we were probably about six and a half miles, and we were not terribly speedy at that point, so we had something like another three hours ahead of us.

Not that I realized this, because when I spotted the Williamsburg Bridge, I misidentified it as the Brooklyn Bridge (I know, this makes no sense) and told naiad1 we were all but home.

My friend Gordon says that when you're dating someone new, it's very important to contrive to run out of gas, not for the cliche reason, but to find out whether your date handles adversity in good humor. Maybe it works equally well to tell them you're practically home when you've still got hours to go. I've known naiad1 too long to have to put her to any tests, but she passed with flying colors.

For the most part, we ignored the maps and followed others wearing the distinctive Saunter bibs. By the very end, the crowd had thinned out enough that there was only one small party to follow, and they turned off early because they were passing their apartment building and calling it quits. We were very confused, but they spotted our confusion and pointed us back onto the route.

We got back to Fraunces Tavern a little after 9PM, collected our certificates, declined the photo-taking because we thought we were going to prioritize sleep, but then went out for ice cream.

We followed the route quite closely, which means that we walked 34.2 miles altogether. According to Lisa's watch, it was 31.5. According to my phone, it was 40.1.

We fell asleep early, got up early the next day (Sunday), visited friends in Brooklyn, then took an extended walk around Brooklyn and the Seaport. naiad1's watch says we walked a total of 9.7 miles that day and my phone says 13.0.

Monday morning we strolled around Battery Park and ubered to the airport because I didn't want to lug my suitcase to the subway in the heat. We both agreed that we're very glad we finished.