Tag Archives: exercise

The “Walking Date” Guy

Guy I've Actually Dated,

I love hiking and jogging and speed walking.  I would walk often around a lake after work–just to get a few miles in and listen to some music.  The guy I was dating knew this.  One day I said I was planning on going on a walk after work a few times that week–he then asked if I’d want to go on a walk with him that weekend.  There was a lagoon around where he lived.  Sure! I thought that sounded great–I am always looking to change it up and find interesting and safe places to do a jog or a speed walk and it’s fun to do it with someone.

So that weekend I showed up at his place all prepared–yoga pants, running shoes, sunscreen, water bottle–everything for my usual jogging, speed walking or hiking endeavor.  I was confused since he was in flip flops, nice pants and a button down collared shirt.  I asked him if he was going to change, and he said no–he had just put that on in preparation for our walking date.  I have never seen anyone exercise in flip flops and a button down collared shirt.

We got to the lagoon and I was ready to take off, but he started walking really slow and wanting to have a leisurely conversation. I told him when he asked if I wanted to “walk” around the lagoon, right after I mentioned speed walking or jogging after work, I assumed that’s what he had in mind.  He said that the walk he had in mind was just a leisurely, romantic stroll date.  Um…that would have been nice if that were better communicated to me.  I would have at least showed up in something cute and not make-up less in yoga pants.

The “Hiking” Guy

Guy I've Actually Dated,

Hiking on a first date? Always say NO–you have been warned.  I am not the most athletic person and he wanted to go to these waterfalls that was about an hour drive away from the town we were in. (reminder that this is a first date).

These are verbatim reviews from the hike online:                                                                             “This was the hardest hike I’ve ever done. I literally felt like i I was going to die on certain parts.”                                                                                                                                                                               “Try to avoid poison oak…also the trails are unmarked, and there are no switchbacks. You literally have to crawl up or even rock climb some parts.”                                                                         “It seriously was like playing hot lava trying to avoid the poison oak.”                                    THERE IS NO MARKED TRAIL. We spent 95% of the time praying we were in the right area.      “Everyone here seems to think that the potential of falling to your death if you take a wrong step or fall is laughable. It is extremely challenging and dangerous.”

Um….so I asked him if he’d ever done this hike before and he said No, but that he had heard that it is awesome.  Long story short, I ended up agreeing to go and it was one of the worst experiences of my life.  He picked me up super early, we drove there, did the hike–I forced myself to have a good attitude and complete it–and he was actually super impressed with me.  He didn’t realize it was going to be so difficult (even though a quick google search would have made it obvious). He said he knows some grown men who would have turned around, but I totally powered through.  It took us HOURS, it was insanely hot, and I swear there was a point where I honestly thought I would need to be airlifted out of there.  Because the trails are totally unmarked, we hiked a mile in the wrong direction before we realized we were totally lost and would probably need a search party to come get us.  So we (smartly) hiked back the entire mile to find the trail again.
It took us about 7 hours and he dropped me back off at my house when it was dark.  Then I never heard from him again and basically couldn’t walk for a week.