10 facts about walking

Its only 247 days until National Walking Day (April 2nd, 2018), so to celebrate here are ten walking related facts!

These shoes were made for walking.
Or specifically, hiking.
But that's basically the same thing, more or less.
Editor's note: Hiking is a specific form of walking,
generally in natural surroundings.

1) The world is 24,900 miles in circumference and the average walking pace is 3 miles per hour. It would therefore take a person walking nonstop approximately 346 days to walk around the world.


2) However, to do so they would have to be able to walk on water because they would come across numerous oceans on their travels!


3) The longest walk around the world (not literally obviously, because he couldn't walk on water) was completed by Jean Beliveau who walked a massive 46,600 miles around 64 countries in 11 years.


4) To burn off the calories from a single M&M, a person would have to walk the length of a football pitch.


5) To burn off the calories from a 540 calorie Big Mac, the average person would have to walk for 1 hour and 43 minutes.


6) Walking at a pace of 3 mph, it would take approximately 225 million years to walk one light year! It only takes light one year to travel the same distance! (Hence the name 'light year'.)


7) The average American walks 5,117 steps per day.
The average Japanese walks 7,168 steps per day.
The average Swiss walks 9,650 steps per day.
The average Australian walks 9,695 steps per day.

It's not just humans who enjoy walking.
Geese enjoy walking too!

8) 'Experts' suggest walking 6,000 steps a day for health benefits, and 10,000 steps a day to lose weight.


9) The best way to lose weight by walking is to go for longer walks at a moderate speed. Shorter faster walks are better for conditioning the heart and lungs.


10) My latest short story 'Walk Again' features very little walking.

Bonus tip: Feet swell during the day, so bear this in mind when buying walking shoes at various times of the day.

Additional bonus tip: Ignore the previous bonus tip if buying walking shoes on the internet, as you won't be able to try them on anyway, and thus the time of purchase will be irrelevant.

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On the theme of walking, my latest short story 'Walk Again' is available for kindle from Amazon.

Here's a short blurb:

"Jasper Blenkinsop wakes up hand-cuffed in a windowless cell-like room. His last memory is of being grabbed from behind and a cloth placed over his mouth. Jasper's trepidation increases when a man wearing dark robes and a strange beaked mask arrives..."

Cautionary note: My previous short stories have generally been light-hearted and silly. However, this week's offering is a lot more disturbing, and some readers may find it unsettling.