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After only a few steps, my bottom-to-top education in negotiating a 100-foot-tall wall of sand had begun. As anyone who has run on the beach can tell you, it’s slow-going if you’re not on the hardened wet stuff next to the surf. You’re exerting what seems like twice the effort to go half as far as you would on a flat, solid surface. Any thoughts I had of smoothly gliding over the sand were immediately shot.
Standing still is also not an option -- unless you want to trudge over the same real estate twice. Because of the dune’s relatively steep incline and its easily shifting sand, attempts at stopping to catch your breath -- a frequent temptation -- usually mean sliding backward. Thus, dune dynamics almost force exercisers to forge ahead, no matter how tired they may be.
Actual movement is a struggle, and not because you’re out of breath. It’s just hard to get up a sand dune. Your feet are constantly searching for pockets of stability where they can get enough resistance to push off for a strong step forward. Sometimes, the search was fruitful, and you advanced a full step, sometimes not. Half the time, my progress was so awkward it felt like I was wearing snowshoes.
On my way up, I noticed that many of the dune walkers weren’t wearing shoes at all. I didn’t pay much attention until I got about three-fourths of the way up on my first trip and realized I was carrying a handful of sand in each shoe. I kept my shoes on, but I had to shake them out after reaching the summit each time.
Of course, if you’re interested in getting a good workout, all these special characteristics of sand are a definite plus. And for a guy like me, with tender knees, the slow, deliberate movement -- combined with the give and take of the sand -- was especially easy on the joints.
In all, it took me about 35 minutes to travel up and down five times. Each time I reached the top, I walked around a bit to catch my breath before heading back down. Typically, my heart rate was in the 170s near the crest of the dune, but it had eased back to the 120 range by the time I reached bottom.
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