Under Seventeen

As I mentioned in one of yesterday's posts, rather than run the risk of the iPhone stopwatch resetting itself while I walked - as it had done twice before - I used the stopwatch on a 2nd mobile phone that I left behind as I walked to the highway. It turned out to not be needed today. The iPhone stopwatch did it's job this morning without a hitch.

When I stepped out of the complex, I saw a fellow expatriate walking in the direction I was going; he was walking to Dumaguete. Having no other form of transportation, he does that every day. I told him I was timing my walk and I decided to keep up with his much faster pace.

Walking everywhere he goes, he's no slouch in that department. I had to push it to keep up. When we reached the Cangmating Basketball court, about a half mile from the apartment, my walking companion said he would stay behind to look for aluminum cans for a child's school project.

I make the choice to keep this faster pace on my walk to the highway. I checked my time upon reaching the highway - 16:41 at 3.78 MPH. That's the fastest time since I've been timing my morning walk. I reset the stopwatch and headed back, coming upon the expat again along the way.

My legs were hurting a little, and I knew my time on the return would be somewhat slower than the first 1.05 mile. The return time clocked at 16:56 - 3.72 MPH. 15 seconds slower than the walk to the highway, but still the 2nd fastest time since I've started.

I said yesterday that my getting the time under 17 minutes was a reasonable goal. I was right. I did it coming and going today.