The clock had not yet struck 2 p.m. in Harlem, and my daily step count was higher than it’d been in months. My eyelids were heavy, my hips were creaking in protest, and my legs were no longer useful. And there were still ten miles to go.
Just a few hours ago, I was giddy at the prospect of walking the entire 32-mile perimeter of Manhattan in one day via The Great Saunter route. (Shorewalkers, a local non-profit, hosts the Saunter on the first Saturday of May each year to raise money for promoting and preserving the city’s waterfront.)
Though I’d missed the registration deadline, the opportunity to spend the entire day outside exploring new parts of my city was too tempting to pass up. So, I decided to follow the route on my own schedule and rope a friend into doing it with me. We chose a mutually convenient place to meet up—a Starbucks near the southern tip of the island—and took our first steps into the dewy spring morning.
We were both feeling confident about our fitness levels heading into the walkabout. My friend was fresh off thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, and I’d been running…
