Walking Back to Saskatoon

Less than 2 months to go till I start off on this little adventure. Since I came up with the idea back in November, a lot of things have evolved. I feel like the journey is already well underway...

When I first came up with the idea, I did some basic research. Used the power of Google maps to get an idea of the distance, then walked home from work one day to see what my average walking pace might be. Calgary to Saskatoon is roughly 600 kilometers and I walk ~ 5 kms/hr. Simple math gives 120 hours of walking. At 59 years old, I suspected I'd need rest days so I built a "golf day" into the plan every 4-5 days. At 25 km/day, the trip should take about a month, barring injury.

Once I had the framework figured out, I approached my long suffering wife with the idea. She was very supportive - after 25 years, she realizes that I have a lot of ideas, some of them better than others. (Have you ever heard of "Cowboy Golf"? That was one of the "others"....)

I have a chronic hip/lower back problem that I felt I needed to understand. Many people have one leg longer than the other; I have one shorter than the other. So my pelvis is in a constant state of torsion. I had begun wearing a lift in my right shoe in September and my body was feeling very good, taller even! I was concerned that doing a walk of this length, day in and day out, might do some long term damage. I had an MRI done to see what condition my pelvis etc might be in. To my surprise, things are actually in pretty good shape - a little arthritis but nothing out of the ordinary for someone my age.

Armed with that information, I felt comfortable approaching the Ore Gangue Alumni about my idea. Gord Beach and his committee thought it was a great idea and offered to help any way they could. Elisa Renick at the Heart and Stroke Fund was equally supportive so I began to move forward in earnest. Unfortunately, my body had other plans.

While curling one evening, I could hardly shuffle along to sweep, the pain in the inside of my hip was so strong. What the ? I thought...My hip is supposed to be OK!!

I booked a massage with Ron Comeau at the Bow Valley Club and said "Ron, I don't know what's going on, but I need a seriously deep massage." He was great, got me back curling that night, pain-free. He suggested I try to see Dr. Kevin Aitken at Edge Chiropractic in downtown Calgary, who specializes in ART as well as chiropractic care. (Please see the link on my home page). Kevin has been terrific - we saw the problem the same way. After 59 years, my body had ingrained patterns that I was changing by the introduction of the lift. We now had to retrain the musculo-skeletal system in the new reality. I am now virtually pain free and confident that my hip will not prevent me from completing the walk.