Walk Thoughts #186: Day 15, Leg 13 assessment

With three challenging days coming up, we need to talk shop about my pain levels. Today turned out to be a great experimental day for exploring just that issue. Conclusion: I might just be able to hack my schedule as originally planned.

I walked nearly twenty-one miles today, and while my feet are screaming as I type this post on my phone, things really aren't as bad as all that. My very worst day is going to be over twenty-three miles, but that's going to be followed by a two-night motel stay. In theory, given what I now know from today's performance, I think I'll be able to recover quickly enough to need only a single night of rest from those twenty-plus-mile days before moving on.

I had anticipated arriving at Chilgok, today's destination, at around 5PM. When I made that calculation, it was morning, and the whole day was ahead of me. I assumed a 4 kph walking speed and several breaks. In the end, though, I seem to have walked faster than 4 kph, and I took only two major breaks plus a short break. I ended up arriving here at 3:30PM, much earlier than expected.

So I walked faster and more strongly than I thought possible. I may be toughening up. At this point, most of my aches and pains are familiar companions; I have a good idea when to expect which kind of discomfort throughout the day. And when I finally stopped walking and lay down on this motel's bed to write this blog entry, my feet began screaming, but the screaming died down quickly.

Pedometer stats:
2.8 mph (about 4.52 kph)
491 minutes' walking
49,345 steps
23 miles exactly
3850 calories burned (2950 net)

I've been lucky thus far. It rained yesterday evening, long after I had arrived at the strangely named but very swank Libertar Pension. The rain stopped during the night, and while today's walk began with a gray, overcast sky, the day eventually turned gorgeous yet again. If the forecast holds true, I'll be walking in rain on May 9, but that leg is a relatively short walk, and I still won't be camping. The camping doesn't start until May 10, at which point it'll be for four days straight. I'll finally get to see how well my camp stove works. 

If the rest of the Nakdong River walk is like today's leg, I'll be a very happy camper (no camping puns intended). Today was amazing.