Building the Loop Around the Slowest Walker
You already know I walk like I'm late. So here's the fix — and here's the surprising part: it's barely about me slowing down at all. It's about a question worth asking of any group. Who sets the pace in the first place?
The whole loop should be built around the slowest walker in the group. Not the average. Not the fittest person having a good day. The slowest one. That's not charity, and it's not just being nice — it's the actual design principle. Build the pace around the strong walkers and the slower ones quietly stop coming, and then you don't have a group, you have three fast people who happen to walk together. I've watched that happen elsewhere. I don't want it here.
What this looks like in practice
If you're walking with even one other person, here's how to find the real pace:
Ask, don't guess. At the start, ask straight out: how are you feeling today, do you want the long way or the short way. People will often undersell what they need. Ask again if the answer sounds too quick.
Watch the back of the group, not the front. If you're walking with three or four people, the front will always feel fine. The front doesn't tell you anything. Check on whoever's furthest behind. If a gap's opening up, that's your actual pace, whether anyone's said so out loud.
Regroup at natural stopping points, not as a performance. A bench, a corner, a spot where the trail bends. Stop there, let everyone catch up, then start again together. Don't make it a big visible thing where the fast people stand around looking at their watches. Just stop like you meant to stop there anyway.
If you're the strong walker, this is on you more than anyone. Slowing down doesn't come naturally to some of us. I'm the worst example I've got. If you're the one who could walk faster, your job is to not. That's the whole job.
My first patient-turned-walker, and why this matters
I mentioned once that I built the whole loop — the actual route — around one woman's comfort rather than my own fitness. She's the reason this rule exists at all. She could flat-out outpace me on level ground, no contest, but any incline and she'd stop dead. So the route we walk isn't the route I'd pick for myself. It avoids two hills I like. That's not an accident. That's the point.
She still shows up. That tells me the rule works.
An opinion, stated plainly
I've said this before and I'll say it again, because it matters here specifically: slow is the point of this group. Not a workout, not a burn, not a number. If you want intensity, there are other things to do with your legs. This group exists so people who need company and accountability get it, at a pace that doesn't leave anyone behind. I mean that. If building the loop around the slowest walker means some mornings we're basically shuffling, fine. That counts.
The morning I walked it three times
I've told a few of you about a stretch where I was working through something — some question about faith I couldn't set down — and I ended up walking the loop three times in a row by myself trying to think it through. A regular found me partway into the third lap and asked if I was okay. I said I was thinking. She didn't ask what about. She just fell in and walked the fourth lap with me, quiet the whole way.
I think about that a lot when I talk about pace. She didn't try to speed me up or slow me down. She just matched whatever I was doing, without making it a thing. That's the instinct I want more of in this group. Not fixing the pace — just joining it.
A real caution, not a lecture
If someone in your walking pair or group is noticeably slower than usual, a step off from their normal self, don't just chalk it up to an off day and adjust the pace and move on. Ask if something's wrong. Sometimes slow is just tired. Sometimes it's a knee that's been quietly getting worse for two months. I'd rather you ask an awkward question than assume.
Before next time
Next time you walk with someone else, notice who's setting the pace without anyone deciding it. See whether it's the person who needs the slowest one.