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Mile 542.  The tortoise is still walking.  After listening to Gayle Clegg, while climbing the Center Street hill pictured above, that is the message of the day.  She talks of a boy in her elementary school class who took years to finish a sixth grade story, because in his mind there was one more chapter to be written.  Then she continued with the account of one of her ancestors in the Willie Handcart Company that lost his wife to cholera, followed hours later by their baby child.  He himself had cholera, and there were 1,000 miles yet to walk.  He didn't have the heart to write in his journal for several weeks.  When he did resume writing, his first entry was simply:  "Still walking".  Lou feels a kinship to both of these gentlemen ...

Cheerio!

Today's walk was 3.71 miles, done in 1:01:38 hours at an average pace of 16:37 minutes per mile. This route had an average tortoise rating of 4.7, earned by climbing 263 feet in the 1.85 mile uphill portion.  Average elevation was 3236.

Here are the overall stats so far for 2016:

542.29 miles walked, compared with Lou's goal for this date of 528.66.

36,799 total feet climbed so far in 2016, compared to a year-to-date goal of 32,536.  Lou hopes to climb more than the 61,316 feet he climbed in 2015 -- but in less time each day than his 1:07:04 hour per day average in 2015.  So far in 2016, Tortoise's walks have averaged 57:57 minutes each.

His average pace so far in 2016 has been 17:44 minutes per mile, compared with his 18:25 minute per mile pace in 2015.

Lou has walked 367 consecutive non-Sundays since his 8 missed days May 2-11, 2015. Overall he has walked on 470 of the 479 non-Sundays in 2015-16, a 98.121% consistency rating.

And now for today's walking thought  ...

"What did we learn from this task?  The same lesson Henry Clegg Jr and Jimmy learned and the same thing all faithful modern-day pioneers are learning.  With the Lord, nothing is impossible (see Luke 1:37), but we each have to finish our own story.  He sends His Spirit, we call out encouragement to each other, but we have to keep writing, keep walking, keep serving, and accepting new challenges to the end of our own story.  'Still walking' is the fundamental requirement in the journey of life.  He wants us to finish well."

-- Gayle M. Clegg, "The Finished Story", LDS General Conference, April 20o4

The tortoise is smiling!