In the beginning......

Well it is really not the beginning - sort of like the beginning of a continuation.  Let me explain.  In March of 2010, I attempted walking the Camino alone.  The traditional path is from St Jean Pied De Port in Southern France, over the Pyrenees Mountains, a climb of about 2 and a half times the height of the CN Tower in Toronto, or 25 times the height of Niagara Falls.  The distance from St Jean to Santiago, where the remains of St James are kept, is 800 kms.  I only made it about 10 kms and then turned around, climbed down from the mountain, and went home.

So here I am again.  A 're-do'.

What have I done since then.  I walked a lot in 2010 and planned on re-attempting this journey in September 2011 - that way I would of had the entire Spring and Summer to do long practice walks.  But as I got into the winter of 2010 and into 2011, my right heel got sorer and sorer.  I thought it was a bruised heel and I kept buying different shoes with thick heel padding, different insoles, and even started stuffing big pieces of car sponge in my shoe to try to cushion the heel.  Andrea from New Zealand, a veteran Camino walker, even sent me a big pack of sheep's wool to shove into my shoe.  Nothing worked.  The heel got worst and worst so in April of 2011 I just stopped walking, or limping.  Turns out that I had 'plantar fasciiti' which is a tear in the tendon that goes around your heel  (See http://www.drpribut.com/sports/heelhtm.htm for more than you ever wanted to know on this topic).  So as I said, I just shut down all walking in April and was not going to attempt to work out again until September.

But I was on vacation in mid-July and thought I would try it.  So I gingerly tried walking 3 miles and there was no pain.  Tried the next day, and the next, and the next - pain was gone.  So I have been walking ever since.  Not working out though for almost 4 months meant that my weight shot up to 305 lbs.  On the Camino Forum, I am known as Tim-the-fat-Canadian (see http://www.caminodesantiago.me/board) and I sure was living up to that.  In September I joined the Niagara Bruce Trail hiking club and since then, I have been walking at lunch on work days and on weekends with the club.  Most walks with the club have been 1.5 hours to 3 hours in lenght, with the longest one being 4 and a half hours in the Hamilton area climbing up and down the Niagara Escarpment.  I had lost 31 lbs prior to Christmas and since then have put 5 of those pounds back on but I have already served notice to them that they are not welcome.

My current plan is to walk the entire 800 km Camino de Santiago in September 2012.  My boss has approved my time off of work, my training is going well, and most importantly, my wife said I could go :) 
Between now and then I plan on checking in once in a while and updating how things are going, and look forward to any comments which you might have.