Bro-Mance

It's become so commonplace you hardly even notice it anymore.
Two or three gals getting their exercise on with a brisk walk through the neighborhood, or as often is the case in my neck of the woods, around the track surrounding the park adjacent to the Layton Firestation.
I've seen them in the early morning, afternoon, early evening or even late at night. Group exercise walking is beneficial in so many ways. Not only does it address safety concerns, but it increases the obligation of both parties to participate in the exercise ritual, and provides company (which lessons the pain and boredom of repeated walks in an area providing no change in scenery). Without a doubt great conversation is also an essential ingredient to the successful group walk exercise and fitness program.
Years ago Jessica was involved in an early morning walking group. They successfully pounded the pavement of our subdivision and the Firestation track on many a very early morning (the early morning comment may come as a great shock to those of you who know my wife and her love for sleep.) Jessica would come home rejuvenated and no doubt filled with the latest information on who was doing what around our neighborhood.
Well times are changing.
Some neighborhood drivers have undoubtedly seen a different form of group exercise ritual emerging in these parts.
The benefits are all the same. Exercise. Obligation. Safety (well, not really). Pleasant conversation.
But the group composition is slightly different.
This pair doesn't just blend in due to commonality.
United with a desire to increase health and fitness, drop the poundage, and boost energy levels, two three-hundred-plus pound male fitness walkers have been hitting the pavement with semi-regularity.
There are definite differences from the typical walking pair.
1) We actually need the exercise.
3) We are bound by similar goals and limitations.
2) Due to our subpar fitness levels, walking actually constitutes exercise.
3) Conversation is often cut short due to brief periods of breathlessness.
4) When we can talk, we don't talk about other people, we talk about ourselves, our ideas, our goals, our common interests and challenges.
5) Cars have to swerve significantly in order to avoid hitting us.
6) We never have any pre-conceived route or distance. We prefer to meander through the neighborhood, take random turns and eventually end up somewhere close to where we started.
7) When we move to the sidewalk and try to walk side by side, we have to take turns being the one either slightly ahead, slightly behind, with one foot off the sidewalk, or dodging the low-hanging branches of grass-strip trees.
8) When we finish, we are actually perspiring, even in 20-degree weather.
9) Afterwards, we feel tired as opposed to rejuvenated.

Jess calls it a "Bro-mance" (she views it as a match made in heaven).
I prefer to think of it as "two big guys on a very slow jog".