Just walk. One step at a time.

I’ve somehow managed to walk 172km in October. One step at a time.

I set the target to walk five kilometres a day, every day, as part of a charity drive by the local radio station. Along with 1500 other walkers, we’ve raised over £216,000 for local kids who need that little bit more support this winter. I’m proud as punch, even if five kilometres is really nothing in the grand scheme of the marathon training my running friends do every day.

At the moment, a lot of the people I work with are realising they’re in a ‘marathon, not a sprint’. But if you told me I had to train for a marathon that was already underway, I’d have given up already. Tell me to walk just a kilometre further than feels comfortable today, within weeks I’m seeking out more.

Somehow, in the end, I surpassed the #5kaday target through the little twists and turns, the new routes I’ve discovered, the detours to the amazing bakeries or cheese shops of Edinburgh. The detours are, of course, walk make a walk a walk, and not a slow run.

A walk can be purposeful, with an objective, and aimless at the same time.

Because the walk is only 5k or so, the chances of straying irreparably from the right path are slim. When you slice up 172km into small chunks, you are unlikely to meet the same predicament as Ellen Degeneres’ grandmother:

So while you may well feel the realisation that our way of living is not a sprint, but a very long marathon, don’t try to take it all on at once. Think in sprints nonetheless, and encourage your team to walk a little, often.

I discovered early on that five kilometres was just about one kilometre further than I wanted to go. By the end of the first week, though, not only was I seeking new views, but I also wanted to stretch my legs further. Seven kilometres one day. Ten a few days later.

Now, five kilometres is not a long way at all. My parents, in their seventies, can rack up 10km a day with comparative ease, in the confines of beautiful Argyllshire. Even when confined to the expansive Cowal countryside, hills and waterside walks, I notice that, like me, they always take the same routes. We carve out our trusted paths, so that even a minor deviation, down a sodden muddy path, for example, feels like an adventure (and I always save up those detours for the days when one of my daughters joins me, of course).

And so, as well as working in manageable sprints, where home (and, as you’ll remember during lockdown, a toilet you’re allowed to use!) are never too far, you might also consider how you encourage your team to explore the silver lined paths they’ve discovered in this hardest of years. Let’s see what adventures they can find down there.

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