It may be the only exercise you need. We might be in the perfect place for it | Strange

May, I recently learned, is National Walking Month. What a grand part of the world we live in to celebrate it.

Walking, said the classic Greek physician Hippocrates, is man’s best medicine.

Some 2,000 years later, American humorist Mark Twain said walking is the only exercise you don’t have to be good at to enjoy.

And a century after Twain, the movie character Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) in “Midnight Cowboy” is crossing a New York street when a car encroaches into the crosswalk. “Hey,’’ yells Ratso, banging on the hood, “I’m walkin’ here! I’m walkin’ here!’’

We’re walkin’ here in East Tennessee.

We walk on the greenways. We walk at Ramsey’s Cascade and Trillium Gap. We walk at Frozen Head and Norris Dam and Cumberland Gap.

Full disclosure, if you see me walking these days, it probably means my bicycle had a flat tire. But in my youth, I used to hoof it.

My Boy Scout troop back in the day was all about hiking. I enjoyed collecting the medals and patches, but not so much the unintended souvenirs − surgeries to repair ingrown toenails on both feet.

Now, I’m content to hear about my friends walking and seeing their photos online from Mt. LeConte or Gregory’s Bald. Or Colorado or Mount Kilimanjaro.

The great walking story in my family was of my great-great-great-grandfather, a Union soldier in the Civil War. Captured by Confederates, he served time in Andersonville prison in Georgia. Somehow, he survived and walked home to Kentucky.

Walking takes many forms. Consider this quick survey:

Jean Beliveau

A Canadian, Beliveau spent 11 years (2000-11) walking around the world. He crossed 64 countries and covered 46,000 miles.

Find his route online. He didn’t take any shortcuts.

The AT

The Appalachian Trail, one of the world’s most popular walks, runs right through our backyard on its 2,189-mile route from Georgia to Maine.

The average time for a thru-hiker is five to seven months. A handful of folks have done it in less than 50 days.

Camino de Santiago

This holy pilgrimage leads to the purported burial site of St. James in the northwest corner of Spain. More than 400,000 pilgrims finished the trek in 2022.

The roughly 500-mile journey can take a month or longer. If you want to cover it in two hours, watch the 2010 movie “The Way,’’ starring Martin Sheen.

The Vol Walk

The football team’s walk to Neyland Stadium was a terrific addition to the game-day experience. The first Vol Walk took place on Oct. 20, 1990, prior to the Alabama game. Yes, that Alabama game, the 9-6 blocked-field-goal fiasco.

One small step

Before Michael Jackson moonwalked, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did the real thing. On July 20, 1969, they became the first humans to set foot on the moon.

One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind, Armstrong famously said. Armstrong covered 196 feet of lunar surface before returning to the landing pod.

Selma

The 1965 march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery is a watershed moment in civil rights history. The march covered 54 miles, with marchers chaperoned by the FBI, Alabama National Guard, and federal marshals.

Trail of Tears

Some walks aren’t voluntary. The 1838 forced relocation of the Cherokee nation from Appalachia involved a brutal 1,200-mile trek to Oklahoma. Approximately 4,000 Cherokee died en route.

Ninety feet

Ending on a lighter note (unless you’re a Mets fan), some of the best walks are short.

In the 1999 National League playoffs, Andruw Jones drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 11th inning, forcing in the run to give the Atlanta Braves a 10-9 win over the Mets and a trip to the World Series.

Mike Strange is a former writer for the News Sentinel. He currently writes a weekly sports column for Shopper News.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: National Walking Month: The perfect exercise for East Tennessee