I just bought a new pair of walking shoe. It was written in an article of a local Chinese newspaper that one should change his shoes after walking for 800km. Since I had started my morning walk in the golf course of Segamat Country Club last December after returning from Medan, Indonesia, I suddenly realized that it’s time for me to change my shoes. The old pair, indeed, had already worn out.
There is a Chinese saying, “Walking up the hill is easy but walking down is difficult”. Well, I used to join the regular walkers, Dr. Lim & wife, Law Pak Yee and Tan Teck Pow, to walk up and down Tee No. 8 of the golf course. It’s good for the heart and after 2 rounds I started sweating. Initially, due to the pain in my right leg, I could not keep up the pace with them. So I used to trail behind them. At that time, I said to myself, “It’s ok. They have been walking for years and I just join them.”
Then I started counting my steps. I counted about 150 – 155 steps walking up but to my surprise, it took me about 170 -175 steps walking down the slope. In other words, my steps were shorter while walking down because of the whole body weight exerted on my knees. Automatically, I was walking on my heels as if I was holding back the brake to slow down avoiding a possible fall if I was not careful. No wonder walking up I could take bigger steps because there was no worry of a fall at all.
After walking for almost a year, I am able to walk together with them at the same pace. Normally, we walk up and down for half an hour, and then we will walk on the green, green grass along the fairway back to the parking lot of the club house. Of course, we will come back the following morning unless we go outstation or because of rain.
