This post is intended as a palate cleanser after that last post on luxury gyms in L.A. and NYC, where only "cool" people can join. Kraemer epitomizes uncoolness — walking outside in a midsize city in the Midwest, paying only for a Fitbit, shoes, and (maybe) audiobooks — but coolness is always a matter of interpretation, and I was never willing to accept that the luxury gyms are cool. Your mileage may vary, and as you journey on your way through the world, it's up to you to decide what counts as cool and what constitutes walking around the world.
Makes me think of this song, which will always be cool to me.
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We recently downsized to a sketch part of town and I'm contemplating whether to go walking out there or not...oh the compromises we make.
I guess I could drive to walk but it seems to defeat the simplicity of just walking.
350,000 miles on a bicycle goes around Jupiter.
Ever since I had to stop running this spring because of a knee injury I've been rowing on a Concept2 ERG machine. I'm currently about halfway through my circumnavigation of Ireland in my mind. Rowing on the ERG was a pure torture session at first and I'd still vastly prefer to be out on the roads running, but it is easy on the joints and builds good leg, back, shoulder and core strength. Now I want an expedition rowboat when I move back to Ireland so I can actually do the circumnavigation. I'll probably drown. Maybe it would be smarter to stick to the Shannon river for a bit.
I live in rural Arizona, so I'd like to think that I am even less cool than this fellow in Wisconsin.
Ha walked the same miles perhaps, but the only equivalent to walking around the world is walking around the world. Of course there isn't a land route to do so.
Is he also a shrimp boat captain?
Now I have Proclaimer's song "I'm gonna be" stuck in my head.
"I got my walkin’ shoes
An’ I ain’t a-gonna lose
I believe I got the walkin’ blues
Well, I’m walkin’ down the line
I’m walkin’ down the line
An’ I’m walkin’ down the line
My feet’ll be a-flyin’
To tell about my troubled mind"
One of the great songs from one of the purest voices of our generation. Thank you for that.
Impressive...
Fitbit once sent me the 'Length of Japan' badge (self explanatory).
I never bothered to figure out what the time frame was, but I was walking about 5-12 miles almost every day in Tokyo.
A very walkable place...
P.S.
Shouldn't the song be 'Walking Man'?
Feets, don't fail me now.
My wife is always telling me about her new walking milestones as chronicled by her Fitbit and other devices. I'm sure she's been around the world already, and I encourage her to keep walking and listening to her audiobooks.
She wants me to get one too, or wear hers on my solo walks, but I'm not about to. I did do my first mile in my Jimmy Buffett (he's no Sweet Baby James) Margaritaville moccs just now, so there is that.
Over 7 miles a day.
Would be interested to know what shoes he buys. Replacing them twice a year sounds low to me.
Kraemer epitomizes uncoolness — walking outside in a midsize city in the Midwest, paying only for a Fitbit, shoes, and (maybe) audiobooks
Uncool? Cool? Seems sort of beyond those distinctions.
Henry David Thoreau. John Muir. Cool? Uncool? They didn't care.
But don't carry anything more than your Fitbit and (maybe) audiobooks, or your joints won't hold out for 24,901 miles.
I was a regular runner, 3-4 times a week from age 26 to 47 and probably averaged 7 miles/run- good enough for about once around the world, too.
Yes, but there's a significant difference between someone who walks around the world and someone who walks the same distance as that around the world. One is an adventurer and a legend. The other is a hamster.
Not James Taylor's Walking Man?
Just spoke with our mail carrier, Jeff — 12 miles/day 250 days/year 17 years. That should be good for at least 2 trips around the planet, while carrying a bag loaded with snail mail, always friendly and courteous in the the 14 years I’ve known him (plus a fount of Wisconsin sports info and wisdom.)
re Pete said...
"I got my walkin’ shoes
An’ I ain’t a-gonna lose
I believe I got the walkin’ blues
Well, I’m walkin’ down the line
I’m walkin’ down the line
An’ I’m walkin’ down the line
My feet’ll be a-flyin’
To tell about my troubled mind"
“How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?“
This is the Whitest thing you have ever blogged.
Grats.
This is the Whitest thing you have ever blogged.
Grats.
Thank you, Althouse, for posting that video of JT—probably his most lovely song among many beauties.
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