This past week, I was over at The Old Fellow Goes Running and saw this post Carl (the “Old Fellow” of the blog’s name) did on his niece, Caron (on Instagram as @this.girl.runs). To summarize – even though you should totally head over there and see the post for yourself – Caron asked Carl to help her train for a half marathon, which he happily did. After their training sessions ended, Caron challenged herself to run at least a mile every day, no matter the weather and no matter how she felt.

For much of this past week, I thought about that post. I walk Choppy twice a day, but those are pretty short walks, except on the weekends. Thanks to Fitbit, I know I walk several miles every day, but that’s mostly done in short spurts. Choppy should get longer walks, but there is always an easily available excuse: it’s cold, I’m tired, I don’t want to wake up earlier. It’s so easy not to take the longer walk, I often find myself doing just that: not taking the longer walk, but settling for the short one. My thoughts kept turning to Caron’s challenge to herself to run a mile a day. A mile isn’t that long – I can walk a mile easily before work or in the evening (because, let’s be clear, neither Choppy nor I is about to become a runner). It’s good for Choppy to get out on a walk, and it’s good for me to do so as well.

Why not? I kept thinking. Why can’t I challenge myself to walk a mile every day with Choppy ? It’s just a little extra effort. Plus, I can blog about it!

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Any dog who sits this lazily is desperately in need of some exercise.

And so, it is born: The Dog Walk Challenge. For the month of May, I am going to walk Choppy a mile every day. There are a few caveats: I am going to be on the road a few days this month without Choppy, so I won’t be able to walk her. But I can still get out and walk myself a mile, so I will. Starting tomorrow, I’ll post a short bit about each of our walks a day or two after they happen: the location, who was on the walk, its length, etc. It’s not as much fun for everyone else as the costumes, but hopefully it will be the start to a sustained healthy habit that will keep Choppy around longer (for even more dress up going forward).