Cathy Benson | The Botetourt View

Carlton Moses on his daily trek at the Botetourt Sports Complex track — look at that scenery! Photo taken from the playground next to the track.

Carlton Moses walked 250 miles in eight weeks and he never left Botetourt County. Matter of fact, he walked all of those miles at the paved track around the Botetourt Sports Complex. Every day the Fincastle resident puts on his walking shoes and goes to the Greenfield Park to the Sports Complex. " There is no more beautiful place in Botetourt County to walk," said Moses, who added, "I just want people to be aware of how nice this is and maybe more folks will start using the track."

Jim Farmer who manages the complex for Parks and Recreation, said, "Every day many walkers, some with children who play at the play ground while parents and grandparents walk, come to the sports complex. We probably have more than a hundred people per week."

The trip around the track is a measured half mile. The paved area looks like a road that circles the four ball fields. Farmer has measured it with a device so he knows that number is correct. On his 250-mile jaunt, Moses had figured the math using the distance between chain length fence panels, an estimate of the width increase between the field and the track and plain old-fashioned arithmetic! "Math was always one of my favorite subjects in school," laughed the retired Yokohama employee and part owner of Floyd Ward dance studios when he got the confirmation from Farmer.

Though he had plenty to do at home and with the studio, Moses, who is a diabetic, saw his sugar climb as well as his blood pressure and his weight too. So after a wake-up call to the doctor early in the summer, he began to walk the track.

"I checked into the BAC and well the expense was higher than just walking outdoors. This is a terrific place to walk. Twelve trips around the track and I am done." That of course is six miles. He had to work up to that much, but now he zings around the track.

He is correct -- the place is surrounded by Tinker Mountain vistas, green fields -- no pun intended -- and a pond below the area has loads of wildlife including the random flights in and out of Canada geese. "In a few weeks when the colors turn the leaves, this will be spectacular!" he said.

Not unexpectedly he is feeling better. The blood sugar is down, the blood pressure is down and he is 17 pounds lighter. His goals are to get to 175 pounds in weight, walk 40 miles per week, get his diabetic AIC to a 7.0 and his blood pressure to 130/70. He is anticipating better news when he sees the doctor at the end of the month. "This has been a big benefit, the people who work here at the complex are nice and friendly and I just want the people of Botetourt County to know what we have here and maybe some of them will come out and use it, too.