Cindi Leeman in a burgundy jacket at the start of the Columbus 10K

You Know You’re a Walker When…

After years of walking races, logging miles, and proudly announcing I’m walking (not running) the race, I’ve noticed a few things we walkers have in common. See how many of these sound familiar.

  • You refuse to run across the street when the light turns yellow because that would be cheating.
  • You have to wash your walking clothes on Friday night so your favorite socks, shorts, and top are clean for your Sunday long slow distance.
  • Your coworkers move out of the way for you in the halls because they know they’ll get run over if they don’t.
  • You proudly announce you are walking the half marathon, not you’re “just walking” the half marathon.
  • You might say you are walking JUST the half marathon.
  • You race every moving sidewalk in every airport. And you win.
  • You signed up for a race just because it had a great medal.
  • You know exactly how many steps it is from your car to your office.
  • You own more pairs of walking shoes than other shoes. And you can explain why each pair is necessary.
  • You’ve calculated the walking distance between two cities just out of curiosity.
  • You judge hotels by whether they’re in a walkable neighborhood.
  • You count the number of runners you pass in a race.
  • You have opinions about socks. Strong opinions.
  • Taper week makes you genuinely grumpy.
  • You’ve eaten toast with peanut butter before more walks than you can count.
  • Your Garmin has more steps logged than your car has miles.
  • You automatically scout walking routes whenever you visit a new city.
  • You wake up at 4:00 am on a Saturday for a 5K race.

How many do you relate to? Share this with your walking friends and see how they score — and tell me in the comments what I missed

(62)

Comments

Gary
March 1, 2026 at 6:50 pm

When you tell your friends you’re “going for a walk” and they ask to join you but you leave them far behind after merely 30 seconds.





Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.