Channahon senior couple walk 2,021 miles each in 2021

Ron and Gloria Viano of Channahon take the recommendation to walk 10,000 steps a day very seriously – and typically hit their goal, as measured by their Fitbits.

“We try to stay healthy and active,” Gloria, age 67, said. “He’s a diabetic and I’m a lifetime Weight Watchers member.”

Gloria joined the Weight Watchers program in the 1980s and lost 76 pounds, she said.

But they upped the challenge for 2021: to walk a combined total of 2,021 miles between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, 2021, as part of the “Run the Year” challenge that Gloria said she heard about through the “Weight Watchers grapevine.”

However, the couple reached that goal by June. So they changed the goal for each of them to walk 2,021 miles by the end of the year. Ron’s already reached it and Gloria has 52.91 miles to go, she said on Sunday.

Ron, 76, said 2,021 miles sounds daunting at the top of it. But some of his jobs when he worked in management appeared overwhelming at first, too.

“I learned not to look at the whole picture, to just look at the close things in front of you,” Ron said. “You don’t get a massive project done right now. It’s just like laying brick on brick. You don’t look at the whole house. You just look at the next brick at a time and it will get done. That’s how I approached this.”

Ron used the method 12 years ago when he decided to walk five miles a day. He broke his walks into several smaller walks each day. To achieve the goal of 2,021 miles in a year, Ron only needed to walk six or seven miles a day, very do-able, he said.

However, the beginning wasn’t as simple as it appeared. January first brought bad weather and the couple did head outside with flashlights, Gloria said. Since then, the couple has walked in rain, sleet and snow, Ron said.

“We get beeped at, honked at, waved at and cheered at,” Ron said. “But we’re out there every day, no matter the weather.”

Ron said he also began taking in the garbage cans of everyone on his route. He also did a fair amount of snow shoveling, too, as part of being a good neighbor. Both Gloria and Ron said they’ve made a lot of new friends in 2021.

Now Ron racked up his steps faster than Gloria because Gloria was also dealing with a knee issue and received periodic “knee injections” to help control the pain. Before the injections, Gloria could not walk as far, she said.

“I’d get four houses down the road and I’d go home crying all the way because it hurt that bad,” Gloria said.

Because the first steps happened in bad weather, Ron wanted to finish his challenge in the field house. He told Gloria, “Get ready to take my picture when I step over the [finish] line.”

And Gloria did.

For information on Run the Year, visit runtheedge.com/pages/run-the-year.