Wednesday, April 7, 2021

C is for Camino de Santiago

 A to Z(ed) Blogging Challenge - (my) Life in the time of CoVid-19

C is for Camino de Santiago

It has been a dream of mine to one day walk the Camino de Santiago.  I had thought it would be a good goal to do it the year I turned sixty-five. 

Guess who turned sixty-five in 2020? 

So that plan was kiboshed as all travel came to a halt in March 2020. 

Serendipity played a part when an advertisement came across my facebook feed for My Virtual Mission and the opportunity to walk the Camino, well, virtually.

I didn't take too long to decide to go for it and signed up and started walking on May 27, 2020.  Due to on-going hip problems, and heart issues which were (and still are) being investigated I logged any steps I took in a day whether inside the house, or outside for short walks.  I started walking outside with nordic poles to give myself confidence in case I got dizzy while walking, which happened quite often in the beginning.  

Although the app will keep track of the miles, and did, I also felt compelled to track them all manually in my logbook.  


I plugged away through the summer, and on into the fall.  In total I filled seven pages tracking my miles.  The pages weren't sequential as other things were interspersed like notes from doctor phone calls, to-do lists, knitting instructions, spinning projects and even the notes from a self-publishing workshop I attended via zoom.  (Some, or all of these things may become a post for this challenge at a later letter/date).


Originally I had planned to finish the 480.9 miles by the end of the year.  However in the beginning I was averaging two to three miles a day, so I changed my goal to finish on my sixty-fifth birthday. - October 17th.  It was a lofty goal and seemed so perfect.   I could do it if I continued to log two and a half miles a day.  Life intervened and some days all I could manage was a half a mile.  The black dog had reared its head - partly because of the pandemic going on and on, partly because I was overwhelmed with all the medical tests, but mostly because I reacted badly to a heart medication I was on. I gave myself permission to change the goal once again to the end of the year. 

I stopped the medication (with the doctor's okay), and I contacted my naturopath.  She started me on a big regime of vitamins and by the end of October I was starting to feel better.  There was a hiccup at the end of November when a broncoscopy left me with a bad cough for a week but I wasn't giving up.  

December 3, 2020 I finished!  

I even got a medal a few weeks later:

One day I will do the walk in person.  That is a promise to myself. 

I walked 2.4 miles the day I finished.  I only needed 2 miles to finish.  So guess what I did?

I started a virtual walk around Iceland with the extra .4 of a mile.  I even talked three friends into joining me so we can cheer each other on.  I have completed 517.7 km of the total 1332.5 km. I hope to finish by December 31, 2021.  This time I feel well enough to only log the miles I walk outside. 

And then?  

Then I am going to virtually walk around Kruger Park in Africa.  

There is no stopping me now. 



7 comments:

  1. This is so inspiring! I want to start this immediately...well, as soon as my ACL is repaired anyway. I miss walking! Thank you for sharing. Joining you from the A-Z Challenge!

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  2. I love these posts and look forward to reading D to Z.

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  3. This is a superb idea. We do the best we can. Here's to looking forward to you doing these walks for real and to achieving more of your dreams! Until then, keep rocking and walking! Super inspirational.

    Is there someplace where they post these walks? Where can I find some?

    http://deepa-duraisamy.blogspot.com/

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    1. If you click on the phrase My Virtual Mission at the top of this post you will be taken to the info page for the app I use.

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  5. I found My Virtual Mission this year and signed up for the same. I am using it as a way to log treadmill and outdoors only walks. I hope that I can do it in real (vs. virtual) life.

    And the medal - is it hanging in a nice spot?

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I look forward to reading the comments. It makes me feel like I am not just posting into the void.