A group of breast cancer survivours in the Ottawa area wanted to join in 
this walk last year. They were not permitted to do so as they did not 
have the $2,000 initiation fee.

Sandi

http://torontosun.com/Lifestyle/2006/03/19/1495419-sun.html
Walk along with me
By MARILYN LINTON, TORONTO SUN

It was just about a year ago that together with my page-mate and friend, 
Fran Berkoff, I decided to commit to a two-day 60 km walk in aid of 
breast cancer. The walk, held last September, raised millions for 
Princess Margaret Hospital and it was exhausting and exhilarating. But 
best of all it turned me into an athlete of sorts. Up until then, I 
considered myself second-class to runners.

Having walked a few half-marathons where the majority of participants 
had been runners, I'd been yelled at, even pushed aside, by aggressive 
runners who seemed to think that the route belonged to them alone, that 
walkers were pretenders.

Walking in last year's Weekend to End Breast Cancer (see endcancer.ca 
for news on this fall's event) with thousands of others convinced me 
that walking is not second-class, that it's a terrific path to fitness.

Now, a recent report in the Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter 
underlines the benefits of walking: Data on 5,200 study participants age 
50 and older showed that men and women who engaged in moderate physical 
activity such as walking 30 minutes five days per week lived 1.3 years 
or more years longer and had less heart disease.

Virtually anyone who is able to can walk. It is cheap and it can be done 
anywhere and anytime. It's a sport that's low-risk injury-wise, yet 
tones your muscles, helps with weight loss, reduces stress, improves 
sleep, and is heart-healthy. Age is no barrier. Nor is gender, location 
or fitness level. Nor apparently body size.

Like thousands of others, I've been following Steve Vaught on his 
journey to walk across America. He started last April in California, 
weighing 410 lbs. Today, somewhere in Ohio, he's whittled himself down 
to 300 lbs. en route to New York City.

Last spring, he was obese and unhappy -- so fat that his thighs bled 
from rubbing against one another as he walked those first steps. Today, 
less than 1,000 km from his goal, he has decreased his health risks, 
signed a cushy book deal, and has a film in the works and a popular 
website (theFatManWalking.com).

TIPS ON SHOES

You don't need to learn to walk, but if you want to train for a longer 
distance you can do so through the Running Room. This retailer, with its 
many locations cross-Canada, offers weekly walking clinics and has 
partnerships with organizations such as The Canadian Breast Cancer 
Foundation and Chatelaine magazine. The former (cbcf.org) offers a 
friendly fall goal in its Run for the Cure event, an annual 10 km walk 
or run that takes place in several cities in the fall. Chatelaine 
magazine's Walking Club (chatelaine.com) is an online free service that 
has information geared to women walkers, including tips on shoes, and a 
"step diet."

If you have as your goal one of the many half-marathons or charity walks 
that fill most weekends beginning soon and throughout the summer and 
fall, you might even find that walking can help you to see the world. 
For instance, Calgary's HSBC marathon, July 9, welcomes walkers in its 
half marathon and 10 km events; kids can even enter the Timbits 
Marathon, a progressive program where they begin walking or running 1 km 
at a time on May 29 and complete 41 km by July 9, the date of the actual 
marathon. (For details, visit calgarymarathon.com.)

You can fundraise, help a great cause, get fit, and travel with Team in 
Training, an organization that coaches you to fitness while raising 
funds for research into leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and 
myeloma; see leukemia.ca. Upon reaching a fundraising target, you travel 
free to join events in places as diverse as Anchorage, Alaska (the 
Midnight Sun half-marathon) and San Diego where participants walk a 
marathon to the tune of 40 live rock and roll bands.

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