As much as I’ve been increasing my walking distances, the one thing I never even really attempted to do was to try walking all the way from work to home. That’s a good 15 kilometre trek. Usually, I start heading that way and 1 or 2 hours in fatigue would kick in and I’d head underground to the subway to just ride in the rest of the way. Well, after a frustrating day at work (yeah, another one; go figure) I decided to just try for it. On Google Maps it stated that it would take 3 hours to walk home, but I knew that I’d have to tack on another half hour to that. If figured that, as usual, if I got tired I’d just take the subway.

The first hour and a half was just fine. After all, I was used to being out there for that long on my really long walks. I passed through some really interesting areas. I was mildly uncomfortable in some neighbourhoods, but overall I knew that I was safe. The route I took was almost completely new to me. I saw parts of the city that I had only ever heard about. For example, I have friends that used to go to Riverdale Collegiate. I was a bit surprised to find myself walking through that neighbourhood. Farther north, I was just focusing on my breathing when I looked left and surprised myself: I found myself across from the Toronto Jail. I started wondering what kinds of criminals were housed within.

At around the halfway point I decided to duck into McDonalds and get a small order of fries to replenish some energy. In the end, that was a good idea because the whole trek really wore me out. Instead of following along the subway route I decided to head further north and take a parallel road. In doing so I was really committing myself to walking the whole way. I mean, sure, I could have just gone back south to a subway station, but there was enough distance to make it a less desirable option. At worst, I knew that the road I was on had a bus route that I could ride if I wanted to bail out. The sun quickly set and I found myself trying to make sense of where I was in the evening light. While walking through Old East York, I remember thinking how it seemed safe, but kind of boring. I saw a large amount of senior citizens milling about.

I was into my fourth hour of walking when I really felt the darkness setting in. My levels of fatigue were really high. I was really tempted to just take the bus for the remainder of the trip, but I knew I was close and that I’d regret it if I gave up. The final two or three kilometres was really hilly. I was trying to use the walk to boost my mood, and it did for a while, but at this point I was pretty miserable. I just wanted the damn walk to end. Eventually, I did make it to the subway station close to my place, after which I just slowed things down (even more) and eased myself up to my building. The total time: 3 hours, 35 minutes. And I did all this carrying my messenger bag, and in my day-to-day work shoes. I just really too tired to my useful at the moment.

You know, I always knew that Toronto is a damn huge city. Still, it’s hard to really imagine what “huge” means. Most of the time I’m either travelling my car or by subway, and neither really helps to give an appreciation for distance, you know? It really take a good walk to make the city’s size clear. Heck, it’s not even like I crossed the whole width of the place. Now that I’ve made this trek, I feel like I have a decent grasp of how big this place is. Aaaah, and now that I’ve done it once, I never have to do it again. Seriously. If I ever talk about doing this walk again, just punch me…or something.