Rob's story · Why Walk Year exists

I said yes on January 1. Then I said yes again.

I did not get my health back because I walked 300 days in a row. I got it back one mile at a time, every day, based on what my body could do. This is how one walk became a year, and how a year became Walk Year.

303days into my Walk Year
664miles walked toward 750
45pounds down, nearly

Rob · Surf City, North Carolina · Walk Year

Rob in a black cap on a boardwalk through coastal marsh grass

Before2025

The most I'd ever weighed

At the end of 2025, I weighed the most I'd ever weighed in my life and was pretty miserable in my body. Through high school and college I was a multi-sport athlete and loved competition. Then I got married and we started building our family. Instead of staying focused on my health, poor eating habits, stressful work, and not working out led me to a spot where my body started breaking down.

In 2019 I ended up lying on the floor for a week, waiting for back surgery after I blew out a disc. The recovery was slow and long. I did get back to moving and living life, but the habits did not leave, and I struggled with my health until 2025.

That is when I decided I needed to do something, and the idea of a Walk Year hit me. I'd tried lifting hard. I'd tried going from the couch to a 10K. This time I took a step back and realized I needed two things: a daily habit of movement, and to go slow.

So I set the goal of walking, on purpose, one mile a day, every day, for all of 2026. On top of the daily goal I set a mileage goal of 750 miles for the year, which meant averaging about two miles a day.

Month1

Sore, but still moving

I started slow, and while I hate to admit this, walking every day, even just one mile, left me sore, especially my lower back. I didn't stop. I started stretching and kept moving. Around the end of month one, the stiffness in my lower back started to go away. Most of my walking was in my neighborhood and around the beautiful town we live in, Surf City.

Most of those walks were on my own, and I often had praise and worship music in my ears. I began to look forward to them, and I noticed the stress of the day would shrink somewhere along the route. Those quiet miles became some of the best time with God I have had in years.

Sunrise over the Intracoastal Waterway from the Surf City bridge, power lines silhouetted against orange sky — Sunrise from the Surf City bridge. Most of year one looked like this.

Month2

Walking alone, on purpose

One month turned into two, and my kids started paying attention to the habit. My wife, Lindsay, kept encouraging me. She couldn't walk alongside me because she was dealing with a significant ankle and foot injury, and that was tough, because she has always been my walking partner.

Looking back, though, there was something about so many solo walks that helped me work through the thoughts in my head. Walking became a healthy reset for me, more than just physically.

Month3

Stronger. Faster. Longer.

By month three, my body was getting stronger. I could walk faster and I could walk longer. My weight started to drop, and the habit was quickly becoming something I looked forward to every day.

Rob smiling in a grey cap beside the water on a clear morning — Walk first. Then the donut. The order matters.

Rob holding up a half-eaten cinnamon donut in a brick-walled bakery — Walk first. Then the donut. The order matters.

Month5

Adventure came back

Then around month five, something changed. I felt strong again. And with that, my sense of adventure started to come back. I had always loved the outdoors, but I had gotten so out of shape that I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of the kids. I would hold back on hikes, or not even suggest we go.

Now I started dreaming about what it would look like to get back out there: longer walks, real hikes, getting back to adventure.

Rob on a sandy trail through tall longleaf pines at golden hour — Back on the trails. Longleaf pines, Pender County.

Month9

The Chin, Vermont

In September I had a chance to visit my oldest son, Brayden, in Stowe, Vermont. My second oldest, Langston, came too. Langston has been on his own journey this year, down nearly 30 pounds through clean eating and working out six days a week.

The three of us took the gondola up Mt. Mansfield and decided to walk around a bit. We noticed a trail heading up to The Chin, Vermont's highest point, and we took it. Nine months into my Walk Year, I felt confident in my legs and my stamina. We climbed nearly 800 feet in just over an hour, with some fairly steep stretches.

At one point we stopped, and I told Langston that one year earlier I would never have attempted that trail. I would have passed on the moment. Instead, in a few short minutes we would be standing at the highest spot in Vermont. I would have missed the moment. I would have missed the memory. And a thought that had been with me for nine months hit me again.

I did not get here because I walked 200 days in a row. I got here because I said yes on January 1. Then I said yes again the next day. Every day I simply showed up.

The Chin · Mt. Mansfield · September 2026

Day 303

That is what Walk Year is about.

It is the daily habit of moving, on purpose, based on what your body can do. A couple of weeks after Vermont, I walked part of the Appalachian Trail at Harpers Ferry and played at Great Falls Park in Virginia.

And I would not have been standing on that summit alone. What started as a solo habit in January became the thing that got me back on the trail with my boys. That is the part I did not see coming, and it is the part I want most for other people.

As I write this, I am 303 days in. I have walked 664 miles toward the 750, I am down nearly 45 pounds, and the mile that used to leave my back sore is now my warm-up. I'm not sharing those numbers to impress anyone. Every one of them started as a single mile I almost didn't take.

Year one built the foundation. Year two is for using it, and this time Lindsay is walking too: a 25K walk in March and a 50K in September, long training walks on Saturdays, and as many new trails along the way as I can find. If you had told me on January 1 that I'd be writing that sentence, I would not have believed you.

Rob and Lindsay smiling on a dock at sunrise in Hampstead, NC — Lindsay and me on the dock at sunrise. She has always been my walking partner, and after a year off her feet she is walking again. Year two, we walk together.

Railroad tracks curving past the historic Harpers Ferry station toward a tunnel in the cliffs

A green covered wagon under a tree in front of the railroad trestle at Harpers Ferry

The Potomac River churning white through rocks at Great Falls Park

Rob in a red hoodie smiling above the rapids at Great Falls

October: the Appalachian Trail through Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, then Great Falls Park, Virginia. A year ago I would have stayed in the car.

What a Walk Year is

Your year. Your mile.

A Walk Year is any 365 days where you commit to two things: a daily minimum you can keep no matter what, and a yearly goal that stretches you. You pick both. Mine was one mile a day and 750 miles for the year. Yours might be the mailbox and back. It might be a 50K.

Daily minimumSomething you can keepEven on the bad days. Mine was one mile.
Yearly goalSomething that stretches youMine was 750 miles. Yours is yours.
Start dayAny day you choose365 days from there. January is not required.

Some of you may struggle to get off the couch, and walking to the mailbox may seem nearly impossible. Others are avid walkers already with a big, audacious goal in mind. I'm here to cheer both of you on. Comparison is the thief of joy, so the only walker you are measuring against is the one you were yesterday.

My family kept asking what happens when my Walk Year ends. The truth is I had already started building the answer without quite meaning to: a simple app to track my walks, a free Walk Year Club on Strava, daily walks posted with #walkyear, share cards for the milestones. Every one of those started as a way to keep myself going. Somewhere around day 300, I realized they could help someone else get started too.

It all starts with one walk.

Walk Year launches for everyone in January 2027, but you can start yours today. Join free and get your first nudge this week.

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Pick your mile. Then say yes again tomorrow.