RICHMOND, Va. β Growing up in Michigan, Mary DeCair was anything but an athlete.
To this day she gets subtle and not so subtle reminders of her less than sporting history.
"A former classmate had contacted me now that I've done the 26.2 miles, and I said she wouldn't talk to me in high school because she was a cheerleader and I wasn't athletic. She said, 'Well, you used to be a nerd and now you're a jock,'" DeCair said.
The notoriety comes from what this octogenarian recently accomplished. DeCair has walked her entire life and been more adamant about it in her later years. It's also brought out her competitive side.
When a friend logged 20 miles in one day, DeCair equaled the mileage and was then nudged a little further.
"This other friend said, 'Well, if you can do 20 you can do a marathon," DeCair said."He was right. If I could do 20, I could do 26.2. That's where that came from."
On Labor Day, DeCair finished her marathon, the latest in a string of accomplishments that grew out of an original goal of walking across the entire United States.
"It was a very serious goal," she said. "I got rid of that plan. It was insane. Why does it have to be the way I had originally planned it? That's the first really important lesson that I learned from this journey is that it's okay to modify your dream."
So in 2003, DeCair altered her plans and set out to walk 100 miles in each of the 50 states, a total of 5,000 miles.
She has experienced parts of this country most of us only read about or see in pictures.
"Every state of something, you know, the Glens in New York, for example, the mountains out west. I just came back from my visit to Nevada, and was in Zion National Park with the rock formations and all so many things," she said.
But she also discovered something else about our nation people might not see as much anymore.
"I was amazed at the kindness of strangers. I mean, that was just so overwhelming. The people who were wonderful," she said.
But even with that kindness comes a safety message about which she feels strongly.
DeCair is never without pepper spray and her walking stick carved by her niece out of cactus wood.
Both covered all those tens of thousands of miles with her on a journey that started very differently than it finished.
"It wasn't the mileage, it was understanding that every single thing that I did was wonderful, and it wasn't about feeling pride, it was about the experience. And wow, that's big," she said. "Keep in mind these three things. One, it can be done. Two, I can do it. Three, Do it now. I encourage them. Don't wait whether they're 15 or 80. Don't wait if you have a dream, then get at it, pursue it, and if that doesn't, if that's not feasible, as mine certainly wasn't, then revise it."
DeCair wrote a book about her journey. She said writing "The Next Step: Walk Across America: 50 States - 5,000 Miles" was much harder than then actually walking.
She will be holding a book signing and discussion on November 15th from 10:30-1pm at the North Courthouse Road library in Chesterfield County.
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