You are listening to the Hiking Radio Network, where we talk the walk with shows by hikers

about hikers for everybody. Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis, joins Stephen his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine.

Hey guys, it's Thursday, and episode number 505 of Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail. It's good to be with you all again and I hope you've had a good week. Last, I'm feeling better. So I apologise if I've sounded a bit off recently because I have been. But all well now and as I've mentioned over the past few weeks, I'm getting closer to committing myself to another Appalachian Trail through hike next year. I've allocated the money I'll need and I'm putting together a training regimen to make sure that my notoriously lousy preparation from the past isn't going to afflict me this time. I'm even considering a personal trainer to keep my old ass into gear, so even if something happens to prevent me going, I'll be in good shape to take on whatever happens next. Anyway, I'm going to be giving you all occasional updates on my progress in this regard

just because I need to be held accountable, if only to myself. But as for the future,

today we have a very recently minted Appalachian Trail Through Hiker who finished less than

three weeks ago. What's pretty special about Roxanne Strine or idiot runner, great name,

is that she is 70 years young, so quite the achievement,

and I must admit she hardened my own resolve to go again as I was speaking with her.

She proved to be a real badass, not least because of something she revealed to me in her conversation.

But I'll let you find that out in your own time. Roxanne will be on shortly. With Dave now home, or maybe still on his way home, Beth and Andrew have moved into Maine and this week they hit them a mohousic notch. It's often called the toughest mile on the trail, but it really isn't. It's kind of challenging and it's certainly a lot of fun, but it definitely isn't the toughest mile. And of course, they managed it really well. We heard from the two of them after Roxanne. And just one little gripe this week.

I'll be getting served a bunch of ads recently on Facebook about hike balance shoes for hiking.

The ads are pretty good and the shoes seem to be quite innovative so when I saw a deal I decided to try them out. And as Dana's coming

with me to the Woods Hole weekend in about 10 days, I got her repair as well. They weren't expensive

so I thought, why not? Well, now I know why not. They turned up, shipped through Delaware from China,

and even though the sizes said size 14 for me and size 9 for Dana, it wasn't even close.

Neither of us could get them on. So I reached out to them to return them. They were slow in responding,

but somebody eventually asked me to send a few pictures,-di-da-di-da and three or four

emails later they said I could return them to China at my his beds what a load of nonsense I'll never

buy from them again so beware you may have had a wonderful experience with the shoes but I didn't

I thought you might like to know so let's get on and meet Roxanne Strion or

Idiot Runner. We've got a young lady on the podcast today. They're all younger than me and Roxanne

Strine or Idiot Runner is a mere 70 years young. Hey Roxanne, thanks for coming on the podcast.

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