Last summer, I decided to sponsor myself to walk One Million steps in 4 weeks for the Festival. I was already doing 5-600 000 steps a month walking my dog Maisie so I didn’t envisage it to be that hard a target to reach.
I had done about 800.000 steps and was at home this particular day when my doorbell rang. I was upstairs and as usual, Maisie insisted on getting to the door before me. Unfortunately, on this occasion, her haste to beat me to the door got the better of her and as she catapulted herself down the stairs, she collided with my leg and I twisted my knee.
A visit to my Doctor didn’t go as planned – when I exercised the bragging rights to the 800,000 steps the Doctor was unimpressed and said ” We give new knees to old people to help them get up and down stairs without pain, you have had two new knees”
I was referred to Wrightington Hospital where the knee replacement surgery had taken place some years earlier. Expecting to attract more disapproval for doing too much walking I was very pleased when the Doctor said the new knees were to give a person a better quality of life and basically to have another go at the million steps at a later date.
Sadly, I had to have Maisie put down in May this year. I tried walking on my own but it didn’t feel right so I basically packed in the exercise.
My doldrums were brought to an end when my granddaughter’s football club decided to do a virtual walk to Sydney Australia (10565 miles as the crow flies) to raise funds for new kit. Before I could think of an excuse not to take part in the enterprise, my daughter handed me her husband’s Fitbit and installed an ‘app’ on my phone which basically spied on me.
I decided I would attempt the elusive 1 Million steps in 4 weeks again. Little did I realise how hard it would be. By the end of the third week, I was walking so slowly I was almost going backwards. Even young school kids asked me if I was ok and could they see me home!
Despite everything, I finished a million steps – which according to the Fitbit and the maths meant I had walked 379 miles (which is just shy of Taunton and back) and burnt 112,000 calories. Strange that I only lost 1 pound in weight during the 4 weeks – perhaps the poor weight loss is something to do with the locality of Greenhalghs’ pie shop on the route and the number of sausage rolls I consumed on.
So, the Mark Festival will benefit from my walk, but thank goodness the Festival only comes round every 42 years.
Thomas Stewart mills 4th January 2021
Well done Peter. You are an inspiration to us all
Peter Lambert 4th January 2021
Thx Stewart.
Pete
Graham Mangham 2nd January 2021
Hi Peter,
Happy New Year and well done.
I know you sponsored yourself, is it possible for me to sponsorship you as well for the Festival.
Take care of those knees, by the sound of it they are not going to give you another set 🤣😁😂
Graham
Peter Lambert 4th January 2021
Thx Graham, I will ring you tomorrow for a catch up.
Pete
Peter Lambert 2nd January 2021
Thank you for your kind remarks.
Peter
Chris Daniels 9th January 2021
Fantastic! Well Done Pete. Sorry to hear about Maisie.
Tom Wilson 2nd January 2021
Hi Peter,
Very well done, didn’t know about your new knees, great achievement. Thank you for your listening and helpful advice last year. Hopefully see you and the other brethren on the other side of the vaccines.
Tom Wilson, Northumberland and also Durham Provinces.
Christopher Bolton 2nd January 2021
Congratulations Peter, a superb effort and a great advert for knee replacements.
alex mclaren 2nd January 2021
Well done Peter. I was not aware of your challenge but congratulations on completing it. Thank you for your continued support of the Festival.
alex