JFK's 50-Mile Hike Challenge

[MineralMan]

In 1963, a friend of mine and I did a 50-mile hike, based on JFK's call for better physical fitness. We were high school seniors. I had worked as a volunteer during the Kennedy campaign in 1960. So, my friend's parents drove us exactly 50 miles away from our little home town, to a spot near Santa Barbara, CA. Early in the morning.

My friend and I started walking at a fast pace. About 9 hours later, we arrived in our home town. Nobody but the two of us knew we were doing that walk except our parents, and we never really made a big deal of it. It was just something we decided to do on a whim. We both had some blisters on our feet, but not too bad. The next morning at 5 AM, I was out delivering milk for the local dairy as usual.

Such was the charisma of JFK. I miss that now, very much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_march

[gab13by13]

1. I think back when JFK said,

"it's gonna get worse before it gets betta.

[Emile]

2. Wow that would have been hard to do even as

a young man. I bet you did have blisters.

[MineralMan]

4. It wasn't really that bad.

That milk delivery route I worked on had me running for three hours every morning for six days a week. I rode in a delivery truck, and then ran from the truck to people's houses and back the whole time. My friend was a cross-country runner. After the 50 miles, we were tired for sure, and had some minor blisters on our feet, but we were OK. We were young and in great shape, I guess.

[bluestarone]

3. Great story. (never knew JFK said this) I was a sophmore in high school.

Would be nice if a bunch of us today, would put that type of enthusiasm toward our votes, from this day on! GOTV! now and forever!

[Achilleaze]

5. "Ask what you can grift for yourself, not for others" - Ooops, wait a minute

that's not JFK. That's the Inner Thought Form of the KGOP XristoBorg, Inc.

Here's what JFK actually said. He was a real war hero, and leading light for democratic ideals. Until he was stopped.

[MineralMan]

6. Well, my friend and I weren't doing that "for the country."

We just said to each other, "We could walk 50 miles." So we did. What was interesting was that his parents and mine weren't worried about it at all. His folks dropped us off 50 miles from home, and expected us to be back in about 10 hours. We beat that time. Nobody followed us. Nobody came to check on our progress. They just let us do it for ourselves. No cell phones, either. I suppose if we had needed to, we could have found a payphone somewhere to call for help. But, we were confident and we were right. We did it, but just to prove it to ourselves.

We were, however, inspired by JFK's challenge. He was an inspiring guy.

[pidge]

10. That is no longer the case...these days it seems that wanting something

from the country is what people want.

[moonscape]

7. You walked at over 5 mph for 9 hours? Whoa!

[MineralMan]

8. Yup. We were moving on with the walk.

We were both 17, in good shape, and just walked on. We also encouraged each other, and we were both a little competitive, so that helped.

[Emile]

9. That would have been tough. I bet he couldn't

do it today, but maybe he can.

[MineralMan]

12. Oh, no, not now.

I was 17 then. I'll be 77 in a couple of months. I still walk a lot, but nothing like that. The dogs keep me walking, though.

[MineralMan]

14. Actually, we had a pattern for it.

We talked about how we'd go. What we did was walk with a somewhat extended stride and a little faster pace than normal walking for about 10 minute, and then jog easily for a couple of minutes. We repeated that, just to break up the pace as we went. After the jogging, the walking pace gave us a break and let us get our breathing back to normal, before the short jog.

My friend and I hiked a lot around the hilly countryside near our small town, and had done so for several years. We were used to covering ground pretty quickly, although not for that distance. We were tired at the end, but were also excited as we got closer to achieving the goal.

[calguy]

11. I remember wanting to do that so bad

I was thirteen at the time, and inspired by my president. I begged my parents to let me do the hike with a group of my friends. They never let me do it, nor did any of my friends' parents give them permission either.

[MineralMan]

13. I think being 17 is different from being 13. Parents are more cautious

when it comes to 13 year olds. Our parents were used to us doing things independently, so they weren't particularly worried about us, I guess.

[calguy]

15. At those early ages, four years is a monumental difference in maturity.

[MineralMan]

16. Yes. A huge difference.

[panader0]

17. Downhill, right?

Just kidding, I was in good shape back then too.

[MineralMan]

18. LOL! No, actually. We started at sea level,

and ended up about 900' above sea level in my home town. I'm good for a couple of miles these days, but that's about it. Fortunately, our dogs are old, so they don't want to go any farther than I do.

[Boomerproud]

19. It doesn't matter what flaws JFK had he led a very purposeful life

and brought out the best in most people.

[Zeitghost]

20. 11 minute miles for 9 hours straight is impressive.

Thats a decent double-marathon pace.

[MineralMan]

21. See my number 14.

We were both in terrific shape.

[Zeitghost]

23. I'm not questioning your claim

Just noting how impressive it was for two HS kids with no formal training to put that kind of pace together for so long. People train hard to put up those kind of numbers.

[MineralMan]

25. I know. Like I said, my friend and I were in great shape.

He was a cross-country athlete and I ran 3 hours a day delivering milk to customers. We figured out a strategy for the 50 and did that. It worked. We didn't know what we were doing, but we had a goal and a plan. When you're 17, you can overdo things once in a while and survive just fine. We didn't know we shouldn't have done it in that time. So, we did.

Fun times. Couldn't do anything like that now, though.

[LeftInTX]

22. Sounds like a "walk-run"..LOL

I've gone 10 miles or so in a day, but didn't do it all at once.

I used to live 5 miles from high school, so when I walked one way, it was 5.

However, I never knew this until recently! I always thought it was a 2 mile walk! (My dad had the five mile bragging rights and we sure didn't have google back then!)

I can't remember how long it took either.

I'm thinking about 1& 1/2 hours. It beat taking the "late bus"
I only walked about once every two weeks or so.

I was young!

BTW How much water did you bring???
A few years ago, I somehow managed a 10 mile walk. However, there was a water fountains available every 2 miles or so. I kept filling my bottle up.

[MineralMan]

26. How much water? Not enough. We had canteens. We'd refill them from faucets when we saw one.

[sl8]

24. www.jfk50mile.org

https://www.jfk50mile.org