Walking, walking differently....

The following piece was written in January 1998 for a Writing Club assignment. Zach would have been in the 6th grade and he was being home-educated.

Every day, well almost every day, we work out on the treadmill in our home gym. There are a lot of things to do on the gym equipment, but the treadmill isn't the most fun thing to do. While I was running on the treadmill once, I was trying to think what would make it more interesting. Something, uh, different. Then it hit me, not an idea, the light fixture above my head! Oh, well, I got my mile in; maybe, I'll think of something to make running on the treadmill fun tomorrow.

The next day: I think I got it; I decided to take my time doing my mile walking, walking backwards! I know what you may be thinking, "What kind of stupid, retarded, idiot without-any-brains-person would do that?" That is exactly what my sister thought. I soon found out that walking backwards was more difficult than I thought; the backs of my legs were soon aching. My sister said that I could never do it and that it was the most outrageous thing I had ever tried. Well, not the most because there was the time my friend and I rolled a 500-lb haybale down a steep hill, through a fence, and onto a road and got in serious trouble with the farmer who'd baled the hay, but that was a few years back and has nothing to do with this writing assignment. When I got off the treadmill, I thought about where and when I could walk backwards next.

The real challenge is walking backwards in a room where you can trip over things or run into people, etc. When walking backwards on the treadmill, you don't have to worry about running into things and it's safer than walking outside too where the ground can be uneven. I experimented in these situations. Outside, I found it is better to take long strides, keeping your feet just above the ground. If the ground is bumpy this will help. One thing long strides don't help with though is preventing you from falling into the huge holes left on our property, which was originally a nursery, where shrubs were dug out and sold to someone. You could actually break a leg falling into one of them. You can just imagine that, right? For indoors backwards walking, you need to lean the upper part of your body forward so that the balls of your feet steady you even if your heels touch something unforeseen on the floor.

At first I thought that walking a mile backwards was difficult; but now, I can walk backwards at about 3.4 miles per hour while also chewing gum, laughing at jokes, telling my sister to be quiet, studying the "Snakes of Pennsylvania" wall chart, and wondering when my Dad will get home. I'm thinking about starting a "Backwards Walkers of America" club. No one in my family has taken me seriously yet and if they don't come around soon, I may try walking sideways or maybe while spinning in circles. Blah.

Note: You may have wondered why that "blah" is stuck at the end of my paper. I was one word short of 470 words so I added "blah," but now I have 517 words so there was absolutely no point in putting that "blah" there afterall.