Inspiration
I went for a run with my friend Fried around Central Park, and she asked me whether or not I am a competitive person. Mulling it over a bit, while trying to keep up, I eventually responded that while I am a competitive person, I am competitive at “events” in which people generally don’t think to compete. For example, I enjoy race-walking against strangers on the street, unbeknownst to them, by optimizing my stride length and frequency to reach the nearest stoplight finish line. Or, I enjoy taking the stairs up to try to beat the elevator carrying someone else to the same floor. I also like to compete against myself through earning digital badges and awards; I am a real sucker for these trophies, and a Strava “10K badge” or the Fitbit 10,000 step-a-day challenge does more for my self-motivation than a personal trainer ever could. In particular, Fitbit has a panoply of achievement badges ranging from single-day marks of distance and elevation to cumulative marks of the same.
It was my goal to obtain the most coveted of all Fitbit badges, the “Olympian Sandals” badge, for walking 100,000 steps in a single day. Here’s how it went.
The Long Walk
Perhaps it’s a bit excessive to list all the different badges for the distances, but at the same time, it makes for a fun and colorful post!
I was wearing a Fitbit Charge 3 throughout the duration of the walk, and I took screenshots of my progress every 10,000 steps. I did little to prepare for this challenge other than to get a decent night’s sleep and plan out the route on Google Maps. Using previous data from the Fitbit, I estimated that it would take approximately 4 to 4.5 miles to reach 10,000 steps, and I simply multiplied this figure by 10 to reach the target figure. I then plotted out a path on the streets of New York until I reached this distance.
I woke up on July 27th, 2019, all pumped and ready to go, never mind the 4 hours and 47 minutes of time sleeping. The few days before the walk, I browsed the online Fitbit forums where people discussed how to walk 100k steps. The consensus – get started early!
I left the door right at 0530. It was supposed to be a warmish day, mid-70s to low 80s, with sun. A little warm to be out all day, but no turning back now!
Boat Shoes (5k) | Sneakers (10k)
0700:
The first 10,000 steps were very fun, as I trekked through Central park and spotted two raccoons next to a tree. The sun was also rising around this time, and I managed to snap a few beautiful images walking on the path alongside the Central Park Reservoir.
To keep myself company and wake myself up, I listened to a heavy metal playlist on Spotify.
Urban Boots (15k) | High Tops (20k)
0826:
I don’t frequent the west side of Manhattan much, so I enjoyed strolling past the Met Opera and viewing the impressive light displays on Broadway. My legs felt very strong, and at the 20k mark I was super confident that the rest of the walk would be cake.
Classics (25k) | Trail Shoes (30k)
0954:
After traversing down Broadway and through Chinatown, I made my way across the Manhattan Bridge and into Brooklyn Heights. I find this area of New York City to be so nice to stroll through on a weekend day, and for a moment I wanted to take a detour to explore the area more.
You can see me switching out earphones – I used two during the walk with a charger to make sure the juices continued to flow.
Hiking Boots (35k) | Cleats (40k)
1129:
By the time I claimed the Hiking Boots and Cleats badges, I knew I was walking towards somewhat uncharted territory. I had earned the Hiking Boots badge previously (during a hike, appropriately enough). However, thirteen or fourteen miles in, I started to realize that I had a long way to go, so I called a research colleague and my school roommate to keep my spirits up.
At the entrance of Prospect Park, there was a bustling farmer’s market. My stomach was grumbling, so I had my first nutritional intake of the day: a pint of chocolate raspberry ice cream and a breakfast taco. Highly recommend!
Snow Boots (45k) | Cowboy Boots (50k)
1302:
Even though the day was hot, sunny, and not conducive to walking a ton of miles, I did not mind the stroll down Ocean Avenue. There are some tranquil neighborhoods that way of town, and as I got closer to Brighton Beach and began to make out the sights and sounds of Coney Island, it made me feel like I was walking towards a seaside resort locale!
Along the way, I stopped by a grocery store and purchased two liter-sized bottles of water. I immediately downed one of them.
Platform Shoes (55k) | Blue Suede Shoes (60k)
1430:
60k in, and still on track with 90 minutes per 10k steps. By this time, my feet started to feel ginger and sore. On the way back, I veered off into some less-maintained areas of Brooklyn before deciding to make my way back on to the familiar Ocean Avenue. I was listening to audio throughout all of this walk, and I listened to a few episodes of the Everything is Alive podcast.
There are some amazing murals throughout all of the boroughs, and it may be worth a long walk simply to see some of them up close and in person!
Ruby Slippers (65k) | Spring Loaders (70k)
1611:
I made my way back to Prospect Park around 3 pm, approximately four-and-a-half hours after I left it for the first time. I wanted to take a slight detour as a means of a mental break, so I spent a brief twenty or so minutes walking through the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.
I did apply sunscreen throughout the duration of the day, which was probably one of the only good planning decisions I made.
Genie Shoes (75k) | Futuristic Kicks (80k)
1811:
In Williamsburg, around the 75k mark, was when I really began to feel the fatigue and leaden legs. This interval of walking took me two full hours and it was not very pretty. The only upside was that I passed by a street vendor from whom I bought a blue fedora and a pair of roller blades, both for a dollar. He even provided me with the bag with which to carry the skates – a bit extra weight for the last 25k steps, but also a much-needed excitement booster.
There were no good places to stop for food, either, as a large portion of the restaurants were closed (for Sabbath, I believe). I did find a convenience store where I rested my legs and popped a bunch of candy for the welcome sugar rush.
Rocket Boots (90k)
1946:
I don’t know if you can tell from the picture, but I was quite exhausted. I had been walking for 14+ hours at this point, and as the sun began to set as I crossed from Brooklyn into Queens, the end goal was in sight. Unlike the bridges connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn to Queens, the bridge connecting Brooklyn to Queens is rather unimpressive in comparison. Nevertheless, while crossing the small landmark, I experienced a much-needed energy boost to enter Queens at last!
Olympic Sandals (100k)
2130:
I had a mixed time walking to Flushing. While portion of the trip along Roosevelt Avenue is filled with noises and aroma from the many cultures of Queens, my feet were complaining with each and every step. I was tempted several times to stop and get food, and I finally ordered a smoothie from a street vendor.
Finally, just after 9 pm I arrived in Flushing, Queens. I still had one or two thousands steps to go to reach my goal… I hobbled back and forth between a few blocks until I hit the magic mark. I only hope that passersby did not think me crazy or anything!
After obtaining the Olympic Sandals badge, I went to the Chinatown food market and ordered two portions of bibimbap, my Korean guilty pleasure and the dinner of champions. I then took the train back all the way to Manhattan, hobbled a few more streets to reach my apartment building, then let exhaustion and sleep take over.
The Next Day
Needless to say, I slept well that night, and my legs were super sore the following day. A couple of my toes had unsightly blisters that swelled up with fluid. I have a picture of it but will spare you the sight.
Well, mission accomplished! It will be a while before I find the mettle or desire to tackle another 100k day, as the first one took 15 hours of walking across three boroughs. I’m quite sure that the calorie and stair counter of the Fitbit is all messed up, though the mileage and steps should be fairly accurate. For example, according to Fitbit, I burned negative two calories over the final 10,000 steps!! Below are a few graphs of my journey.
A few points about these graphs: the steps vs. distance graph [not shown] was uninteresting as it is a perfect correlation. For the Steps vs. Calories and Steps vs. Activity graphs, it seems like Fitbit broke after 90k steps. Whoops!
The most intriguing chart is that of Steps vs. Interval Time: the interval from 70 – 80k was a tricky mental challenge.
Lessons Learned & Improvements
There are a few aspects of the walk that I wish I recorded. For one, I did not have a Strava account at the time, so I wasn’t able to capture data of speed and precise distance for future reference. Moreover, I did not have Google Maps location tracking turned on – this made it somewhat tricky to trace out the exact pathway I took, though I am pretty confident in the map tracing I made a few days later, which can be seen below:
Here are several improvements for next time: 1. Wait until a cooler, overcast day for walking; 2. Wear more comfortable shoes and better backpack; 3. Supplement with snacks early and often, and perhaps carb-load the night before; 4. Eat more delicious ice cream and candy; 5. Pick out a great audiobook beforehand; 6. Watch out for those crazy good deals for roller blades and hats – roller blades are heavy to lug for four hours; 7. Put on a baseball cap when walking on hot days for protection from the sun.
Reflection
I completed the walk on July 27th, so while it may look somewhat random that I made this post in April, I actually started working on this post on the day my Step 1 score came back… ugh, what a wait! Maybe I have grown out of shape over the past few years, but it felt so much easier to do 100,000 steps two years ago than to take 1 Step two weeks ago! But as they say, the journey to becoming a physician begins with 1 Step, so maybe the next 99,999 Steps will be easier.