Day 170: END. OF. THE. WALK

Today begins at dawn, as we did not sleep last night. We walked through the outskirts of Los Angeles as the sun rose. I (Sam) felt my drowsiness wear off as this happened, and I started to focus on the final stretch. Tomer and my mother continued following us as well. We continued walking until 7am, where we took a break to watch the Netherlands v. USA match. My mother rented a pickup truck, so I sat in the cabin while James sprawled out on the cargo bed. This break was much needed, as I took a 45 minute nap before tuning into the second half of the match. USA lost 3-1, which was actually to my excitement as I was still salty about their win over Iran. Ironic I suppose given what James and I have been doing for the last 5.5 months. It was quite difficult getting out of the truck after the match, so we laid around for about 10 minutes after the match before finally carrying on with the walk. About 5 miles before entering the downtown area, I received a much welcomed FaceTime call with a longtime mentor of mine. The only downside was that this caused me to take an alternative route to James (both were the same distance). This resulted in Tomer having a more difficult time tracking us down to film. I enjoyed walking through downtown Los Angeles. Some blocks were pretty vibrant, which was a reminder that we were close to the end. My energy increased increased with the city’s morning rush and by around 11am, I felt great. I passed by the Staple’s center, where there was some sort of comic convention going on, as it was extremely crowded and somewhat difficult to navigate around. It reminded me of walking through Time’s Square a little bit. To be honest, the last 10 miles or something of a blur. James’ good friend from Oberlin, Sam Topper, joined him for a few miles before the final stretch. I walked with Tomer for some of this portion and then decided to walk in solitude for the last hour (though James and I were still within 10 yards of each other). I tried to do a reflective voice memo for myself with about four miles left, but I was not really feeling any different than I would on a usual day. My mind was pretty blank, and everything felt routine. I did not experience any jitters and simply felt that I needed to walk to knock out the milage for the day. When Sam Topper left, James needed to take an emergency bathroom break. He marched into the first restaurant he could find, and went straight for the bathroom. Working with efficiency, he was out within 12 minutes. It was important for us to be reasonably quick with these detours in the end because we did not want Tomer filming us after sunset. The last three miles still felt quite normal, and I did not get a rush of any kind. I felt a sense of excitement when I saw the ocean, but it was still somewhat mild compared to what I was expecting. This was not disappointing in any way either, as I specifically wanted to have no expectations for my feelings at the end of the walk. Eventually, after walking down Pico Boulevard for ~8 miles, we reached the beach. We were about a quarter mile south of the Santa Monica Pier, and we entered the beach next to a nice hotel. There was also someone singing sentimental music for a standing public audience right next to the hotel, which was honestly quite fitting. I first pushed my stroller before deciding to drag it to the end. Still, I had no overwhelming sense of accomplishment or emotion. I was conducting business as usual. The beach was a bit longer than I was expecting, and James and I probably spent about 3 minutes just dragging our strollers to the water. I was a few feet ahead of James, and made sure to wait for him so that we could both touch the water with our strollers together. Once we did this, I simply walked into the ocean, and plopped myself into the water. It was absolutely freezing, but there was no way that I wouldn’t plunge myself into the water at the end. There was once again no overwhelming sense of accomplishment or happiness. Perhaps I just didn’t process what happened yet. I did, however, make sure to spend about 15-20 minutes either in the water or at the end of the beach because I knew that I would only be able to experience the end of the walk once. Sam Topper, my mother, and James’ father spectated us from afar all while Tomer was videotaping us. It is funny that I thought that Tomer’s camera being visible would cause me to not react naturally. Honestly I did not care at all. It did not make the slightest of difference. We all came together at the end, where James and I bid farewell with an embrace and shared our appreciation for those who came to the beach with us. I loaded my things into the back of my mothers truck, and we gave Tomer a ride back to his apartment before eventually going to my grandmothers place.

I cannot emphasize enough how mild the last day was. I was expecting to drop dead on the beach after walking 100 miles in the last 48 hours while potentially experiencing a surge of emotion. This was so far from what happened, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

12/3/22