I was walking home this evening...

...when a young woman asked me which direction it was to Bathurst Street. I pointed west, and mentioned that it was rather a long way, asking if she was planning on walking it. When she replied in the affirmative, I told her it would probably take about half an hour to get there (over 2 km from where we were).

She then thanked me, and walked a respectable distance ahead, before breaking into a quick jog. Not the silly "it's for your own good" type jogging that I can sometimes muster on a treadmill, after a long sedentary day, but the pace of someone who has done some training, and takes it seriously. She even outran a bus which had stopped to let off passengers. Quite literally, she was out of sight and "gone in 60 seconds".

In my defence, I was carrying a backpack of sporting equipment, and two bags of groceries, but still, it was sub-zero temperatures. Even under ideal spring weather conditions, and in the best shape of my life (back in Grade 12), it would have taken me over ten minutes to travel that distance, and I'd be pretty drained at the end. I know I need to get more exercise...