Urban Walker

When Bine and Lisa post their blogs, they include pictures of serene, woodland trails, or grand California vistas.  My exercise environment is vastly different.  For the next month or so, until it gets warmer, the mornings I devote to jogging take place downstairs on the treadmill in front of the morning news anchors, and then, if I'm a good girl, a downtown walk during the lunch hour on the city streets of downtown Canton, Ohio.  It's far from a solitary experience.  I share the sidewalk with the office workers from Nationwide Insurance, the staff from the Marriott waiting for the bus, and many of my clients.  I find it strange and oddly disturbing that while I walk because the doctor tells me I spend too much time being sedentary, all my clients walk because they cannot afford to get around any other way.  Even the bus is beyond their reach.  Unless of course, they have managed to score a bus pass from one of the many social agencies scattered about.  I only walk when the weather is nice, or when I'm feeling energetic.  They walk no matter what. 

The historic Palace Theater in downtown Canton.

Some of  them walk for miles and miles.  Many of them are already browned by this year's early sun.  They walk and walk.  Our Drop-In Center is a popular stop.  They are welcome to just sit, have a free cup of coffee, read the paper or one of the many outdated magazines that get donated.  In the cold and rainy weather it becomes a very important place, for the men especially.  The two men's shelters make everyone get up and out by 6:30 in the morning and they cannot come back until 6 at night.  There is always a line of men waithing for us as we come in. 

The front of my office building. 

 Notice the "No Loitering" sign which is universally ignored.

My clients seem very amused coming across me as I stride down the street, my headphones plugged in.  It didn't take long for them to realize that I wouldn't stop and chat:  I'm a woman on a mission.  But they all make sure to let me know later when they have made a "Judith spotting".  I don't know if the irony of the situation hits them the way it hits me, but they are very supportive, never-the-less.

It's a very different experience, this lunch time urban walk.  The scenery is not nearly as relaxing, but it makes for a great break in the day.