On 6 October we participated in the American Heart Association’s Walk for the Heart.
Like with any families with younger kids, our day started with running bare feet across the kitchen tiles, shouts to get breakfast, panic finding shoes and the ever struggle as to how much clothing to wear.
The smaller members of the family tend to think that when the sun is out, it equals shorts and t-shirts. And of course, flip flops are ideal walking shoes !!
You got look cool when you are out in public!
I wasn’t too sure how many people would actually show up, and the donations to my wife’s fundraiser were pretty abysmal, to be honest. You can still donate to AHA.
Nevertheless, we marched on a drove 45 minutes to get to the venue, which turned out to be a giant corporate complex. They had opened up their business park to allow all these strangers to walk around and had volunteered staff to assist too. Pretty cool
Big thanks to Express Scripts 🙂
One parking lot had been turned into an event spot, where there were stands with various promotions and healthy snacks … all for free. You could tell that the organizers were aware of the participants’ dietary needs. There was even a DJ blasting the area with dance tunes. It was awesome!
There were first responders, police and fire trucks at the location. We even had OEM volunteers on the routes to ensure it all went well. This made it safe and we knew that if any walker experienced any problems, they would get good care.
We had the option of 1 mile or 3 miles, so we opted for a longer distance to get some steps recording on the Apple Watch and Fitbit. Although the kids strongly objected and wanted the shorter route.
Honestly, walking 3 miles was not hard and we felt good afterward. Plenty of water stations around the route and everyone was in a fantastic and optimistic mood. It was an excellent atmosphere.
All in all, there were a couple hundred walkers, with a mix of heart victims and plenty of friends, relatives or just volunteers.
I think that actually I know that, we will return to more of these events. We had a fun family day out, and I love hanging out with my family.
Keep your eyes on this site as I’ve signed up for the Polar Plunge in February 2020 🙂
