Today is officially the start of Year 6 of the Dog Walk Challenge!

For those of you who don’t know the story, all of this started because of Choppy (hence the name “Dog Walk Challenge”). The vet suggested she lose a little weight, so when my friend Carl at The Old Fellow Goes Running mentioned his niece doing a challenge where she ran a mile a day for a month, I figured it would be a good way for me to get Choppy exercising. Except, I am not a runner, so I decided we would walk a mile a day for a month. We already walked two short walks a day, so I figured it wouldn’t be too bad.

I remember thinking on those first few days that a mile was a lot longer than I thought it was. I had to find 20+ minutes to walk (it’s not fast walking with a dog who wants to smell all sorts of things). But after a couple weeks, it wasn’t bad.

At the end of the month, I decided to keep going with the challenge.

As of yesterday, I have taken a walk of at least one mile for 1,827 days in a row (though starting in Year 2, I also decided I wanted to average at least two miles a day – it doesn’t mean I always walk two miles a day, I just have to walk at least one mile each day and average two miles a day over the course of a year).

Now, here I am, five full years later. Choppy was on the first couple walks of Year 5 before she died, but now the “dog walk” part of the challenge continues with Flapjack.

On a walk in Arkansas – Flapjack is officially a road tripper!

As for Year 5, it involved the most miles yet. For the first time ever, we walked over 1,000 miles – the grand total was 1,136.4 miles, for an average of 3.1 miles each day. That’s a lot of walking (/that’s what happens when you have an energetic puppy in the house who needs a lot of exercise)!

Now, on to Year 6!