She’s Willing to Walk, Not Run, for Good Health

Kathleen Burke likes to talk about the virtues of power walking and the sense of achievement and personal satisfaction it provides.

But for Burke, any walk she takes might be a cakewalk, since she has run in 10 marathons and 13 triathlons, including the biggest one of them all, the Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii.

“And I finished it,” she bragged.

However, she points out that “walking has a new image these days, and lots of people are coming out of the closet and admitting they are walkers. Before, many of them would walk at 6 a.m., when no one would see them.”

Since walking no longer is considered an “old folks” exercise, Burke has developed power walking classes in Tustin, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach and Brea.

“We’re living in an era now where achievement in sports of any kind provides us with a sense of self-esteem,” said Burke, 36, an Irvine resident who works as a sports promoter, many times producing her own running and bicycling events.

“I still have the love for running, but I don’t have the time for it or even for my meditation,” she said, although she sees walking as an escape hatch from the fast pace of living. “You can’t answer the telephone when you’re running or walking.”

Burke said she started a walking regimen 8 years ago, after a near disastrous fall from a bicycle left her in a coma for nearly 3 weeks. Following her recovery from the head injury, “the doctors told me running would jar my head and they suggested I walk,” she said. “Actually, I really learned to enjoy walking,” said Burke, who regularly tallies up 8 miles a day. “The slower you go, the more you become aware of the total environment and your neighborhood.”

She tells the walkers who pay $10 for a 1-day walking class, “When you finish, there’s a sense of pride and accomplishment.”

She notes, too, that they can forget about the oft-quoted statement that “no pain, no gain” is the right way to exercise. “Toss that into the garbage,” she says.

Burke admonishes her walkers to consider that quality, not quantity, is the way to walk for good health. “There’s a technique in walking to get you there more efficiently by using arms, torso, legs, feet, posture and learning to breathe properly,” she said. “Oxygen is free.”

And it makes more sense, she adds, to eat basic foods. “We shouldn’t eat fatty foods or drink lots of beer. It’s just common sense.”

Burke also conducts other walking classes that cost $35. “I don’t know what it is, but the more I charge for a class, the more people I get,” she said.

SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams are no-fooling groups of law enforcement officers. Now in Irvine comes SWAT, or Seniors With Amazing Talent, a consulting firm for and by senior executives.

The group, formed by Irvine resident J. Bud Morris, 64, aims to get senior executives back to work.

“The name represents the ability of our people,” Morris said. “Just like the other group.”