Oh, what do you know? I seem to have walked 26.2 miles yesterday. Or, to be more accurate, I half-walked, half-hiked it. I also ran some intervals for a little while. Yeah, that's a marathon. Yes, it took forever. (Actually, I stumbled across a really good sale partway through, so I had to slow down for a bit and acquire cheap stuff!)
By the end, my ankles were killing me and I was very, very tired. But overall, it was pretty great. The best part about walking 26.2 miles? Burning nearly 5000 calories. Being able to eat almost 3000 calories and STILL having a 2000 calorie deficit! (That's pretty much my new rule. You walk/hike 26.2 miles in a day, and you get to eat whatever you want.)
It really did help me readjust my feelings about food some. Sure, 1600 calories is a worthwhile goal to shoot for most of the time, but if I'm spending more and more time being more and more active, then yeah, I get to eat more food. I just need to always track both food and activity to keep it all in check.
Also, at some point during the walk, I think I hallucinated a car in the middle of the woods. And a little later I began thinking how much easier the walk would be if I had a pterodactyl to fly me around the park. But all in all, a totally worthwhile experience. I'm thinking I need at least one crazy challenge like this each month. I'm thinking next time I might go for like 300 flights of stairs (hiking, not actual stairs), or something crazy.
