The trail seemed to move forever along the mountainside, stretching into the rising sun.
The path beckoned. I felt I could disappear into the light. I stared ahead in awe.
These past few months, I’ve had several such moments to inhale the sun around me, and to appreciate nature’s heaven here on earth.
In May, a group of friends and I enrolled in a national exercise program called the WOMAN Challenge, where we were encouraged to walk 10,000 steps a day for eight weeks. Actually, any amount of steps would do. The trick was to do it daily.
Our team, the Native Griz, chose a virtual walking course leading from Alaska to Hawaii. Progress was logged on a virtual map. The rules wouldn’t allow a team to advance on the map unless all members met daily and minimum goals.
It proved to be a tough mandate with an 18-member team. At our halfway point in the challenge, our team never got off the starting point. As team captain, I asked walkers to “please remove yourself from the team” if you can’t meet the minimum standards.
Finally, we inched off the starting point but never out of Alaska.
But another map also charted individual progress. And several team members did make it to Hawaii, including me.
Our Montana team joined the challenge after learning of the Manuelito sisters, a Navajo family mostly living in Arizona and New Mexico. They created the Sister Girls team and completed a virtual walk from Montana to New Mexico three days ahead of schedule last year.
I checked in with Brenda Manuelito this week to see how her team fared this year.
“I wasn’t as happy this year as last year,” said Manuelito, who moved from Tucson, Ariz., to Seattle over the summer. “It got to be too much recording and rules.”
The challenge rules and Web site had changed significantly since 2006, and Web site managers were slow to respond to questions this year.
“Maybe next year they’ll get some feedback and make it more user friendly,” Manuelito said.
On the up side, the challenge ultimately motivated all of our team members to increase their activity level. As it goes in life, there are always a few standouts, such as Amy Sings In the Timber. She worked full time, traveled frequently and still logged 875,000 steps, or 437 miles.
“I plan to stick with the increased activity and healthier eating habits,” she said. “I have more energy during the day and feel better all around. All in all, this was a fun experience.”
For others, the eight-week walk proved enlightening.
“The challenge for me was to begin thinking less in terms of losing weight and more about walking longer at a steady pace, breathing better, improving my posture and taking care of my health,” Linda Osler said. “Somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day felt very good. All in all, the WOMAN Challenge taught me that I could expect much more from my body than I thought possible.”
And, once again, Carol Manuelito, the 75-year-old mother of the Sister Girls, pulled out all the stops.
The 75-year-old Navajo elder from Naschitti, N.M., logged a million steps n a repeat performance.
“My mom and brother kept it up,” said her daughter, Brenda. “They were our first-place finishers.”
It was Carol’s story that inspired me and other Native Griz members to participate in the challenge. I’ve no reason not to be active. As a member of Army and Air National Guard units for some 20 years, I regularly met military standards for a two-mile run, push-ups and sit-ups. But a recent break in service left me with an excuse. I didn’t have a reason to see how fast I could run two miles.
The lack of activity is my sure path to join members of a diabetes-prone family.
The challenge led me to log 497,638 steps, or the equivalent of 248 miles, in eight weeks. Thanks to Carol, I’ve picked up the steps. And even though the challenge ended in July, I’m joining other Native Griz walkers in continuing the journey.
Jodi Rave covers Native issues for the Missoulian and other Lee Enterprises newspapers. She can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at jodi.rave@lee.net
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