Pedometers and Overachievers

I ran into an old friend who was all excited about his new pedometer.

“Try it,” he said and handed it to me. I carried it in my pocket for the rest of the day, and I was hooked. On Buying-the-Bike-Day, Jennie and I first bought pedometers. Our model measures:
Number of steps per day.
Aerobic steps per day.
Calories burned per day.
Miles walked per day.

Jennie immediately turned it into a competition. “No fair,” I whined. “I’m 27 years older than you.”

“I’ll give you a handicap,” she offered. “I have to walk 50% more.”

Done.

And then her brother, Walt (29) arrived and had to have one, too. The competition escalated. That evening we had to walk to Lover’s Point and back after Jennie’s kids were in bed. (What? Oh, okay – that was my nightgown, with a T-shirt under it, but Jennie swore it looked like a summer dress.) I think we all logged over 10,000 steps that day.

Today on Facebook, Walt wrote to Jennie: “Total for Thursday: 16,602 / 7.33 miles. Total for Wednesday: 21,487 / 9.49 miles.”

Jennie countered: 13,150 Thursday. 12,738 Wednesday.

Wonder why they didn’t ask about me. Oh, that’s right – I’m the mom. For the record: 9,424 Thursday. 11,062 Wednesday. Not bad for an old broad who’s also trying to learn to ride a bike!