Sporting Life 10k in Toronto - May 2026

Eleven Toronto Power Walkers plus HS who walked as 'back of the pack' walked 10k down Yonge Street, and east on Front Street to Corktown Commons. Congrats to CM for completing her first race. Good time was had by all! (Apologies if I didnt post photos of everyone!)

Spring 10k in Florence, Italy

Spring 2026 launched with an excellent and challenging 10k race in Florence, Italy with road trips to Naples and the Amalfi coast by 4 Toronto Power Walkers.

Toronto Power Walker site is getting an update....stay tuned! 

It sure feels good to write "February" and say goodbye to a long, cold, windy January!  But that nasty weather (except when the sun came out and the winds died down) did not stop our intrepid walkers, even if we had to add many layers to our clothing, and convince ourselves we were not cold!

This blog is taking a bit of a hiatus. We will be back later in the year.  However, the Toronto Power Walkers website is still available at  https://www.torontopowerwalkers.ca/

This provides general information about TPW along with contact details for anyone inquiring about our group.  It also includes schedule and details of regular walking sessions. 

Many thanks to our TPW bloggers as well as our blog coordinator, who stepped in for 2 years, that somehow became 4 years...

Please be patient as we update our site!

Winter (BY PHILIPPA)

At minus 20 degrees on Saturday morning, a group of us defiantly walked around the cemetery, under a clear blue sky, a shining sun and no wind. Now I wouldn’t say it was “balmy’ but it really wasn’t intolerable at all and in fact was quite beautiful. The air was clear and crisp, the snow was glittering under the bright sun, the trees and bushes were draped in white snowdrifts and the cemetery roadway was clean and dry. We feared not as made our way around, we are Canadians after all and can do this. At the same time, I couldn’t help but think about the people in Ukraine who are without electricity, heat or water during a bitter winter cold snap. How on earth are they managing? And yet they still seem to be defiant in the face of terrible adversity. We really don’t know what we are capable of until we are tested and as the world changes rapidly around us at an extraordinary and unsettling pace, it seems that tests will be coming our way both personally and as a country. And so we must dig deep and find the resources within to withstand, be it a walk on a very cold winter’s day or political turmoil. As my daughter once told me (to my absolute shock!): “Suck it up, buttercup!” And so I did. And we TPW’s do too and are proud of it.

Ruminations on Aging (BY MARY)

 

On Tuesday of this week - yes, that day of ice pellets and freezing rain, I kissed the pavement while stepping out of my son's car.  An embarrassing moment for sure, when one's dignity is tossed out the window.  With a minor scrape on the forehead, I felt happy in the ensuing days to escape any obvious bruising.  Four days later as I headed out to join our trusty walkers, I noticed some dark blue, golden yellow and even pale green tinges to my skin developing on one side of my forehead and towards one eye.  Hmmmm - not so lucky after all.  I am lucky in that there was no serious damage, other than to my own vanity, but it led me to think about how we "seniors" perceive ourselves, more specifically how invincible we sometimes feel.  ChatGpt tells me that aging is often described as a slow accumulation of losses: strength fades, memory falters, balance becomes unreliable. Yet this framing misses a deeper truth. For most seniors, the real challenge is not decline itself, but the emotional and psychological work of adjusting to it - of redefining identity when abilities that once felt permanent quietly slip away.

My experience this week has reminded me that I ought to pay a little more attention to my real age, as opposed to my "imaginary age".  I saw a birthday card recently that said "I don't know how to act my age because I have never been this old before!".  Seniors are fitter now than they have ever been apparently, so we should celebrate that fact while being mindful of the pitfalls (literally, in my case!) that may lie ahead.  Now I will step off my soapbox (carefully...).