If there’s one thing Polly Letofsky has little desire to do these days, it’s go anywhere.
“Travel is kind of a pain,” she says.
Those might be surprising words coming from Letofsky, a woman who at one point seemed to think nothing of pushing a custom-made, 50-pound stroller as she walked 14,124 miles across 22 countries over a period of five years.
On the other hand, she did walk 14,124 miles across 22 countries over a period of five years — so she’s probably earned the right to stay put for a while.
“Three days is the longest I go away for anymore,” says Letofsky, who recently published a book, “3MPH: The Adventures of One Woman’s Walk Around the World,” about the experience. “I have friends and a life now, and I just can’t stand all the hassles. You have to pack, you have to catch a shuttle, you have to go through security. No, thanks.”
On Aug. 1, 1999, though, the Glendale resident felt differently. At age 37, Letofsky rented out her Vail condo, sold the rest of her stuff and began putting one foot in front of the other, starting in the ski town.
According to Guinness World Records, to qualify as “walking around the world,” the journey must comprise walking at least 14,000 miles, the walker has to start and end in the same place and walk across at least four continents. At the end of each continent, the walker is allowed to fly to the next one.
By that criteria, Letofsky qualified as the first woman to walk around the world when she finished on July 30, 2004. Her brother, PJ Letofsky, filmed a documentary about her trip ().
As she explains in the book, Letofsky had wanted to walk the globe since she was 12 years old growing up in Minneapolis. She saw a photo in a newspaper of the first man to accomplish the feat, David Kunst, who completed his four-year, 15,000-mile trek in 1974.
“That’s how I want to see the world someday,” Letofsky recalls in the book. “I’ll walk!”
And walk she did, across North America, Australia, Asia and Europe, raising more than $250,000 for breast cancer organizations, as well as raising awareness for screening and better care in areas that sometimes had none.
“The breast cancer connection was easy,” Letofsky says. “I’m like everyone; I have more people in my life than I care to count dealing with it. And there’s so much misinformation and so much need for people to have help while they’re going through it. The important thing to me is always that I want the money to stay where it’s raised, and for most of it to go to education and actually directly assisting patients.”
Along her route, Letofsky was assisted by a cast of characters — including family and friends, many international members of Lions Clubs, and women and men battling breast cancer, as well as survivors — but she also had more than her fair share of difficult people seemingly determined to thwart her efforts.
“Challenges, all challenges,” she says. “I’m glad for everyone who helped, even the ones who made it, um, more . . . interesting.”
She also says she’s glad she made the journey when she did, even with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks happening near the beginning, which, of course, changed everything.
“If I were starting out right now, I don’t know if I could do it,” she says. “Just considering the social media aspect is so overwhelming now. I just met with three guys who are in the process of doing it, and with Facebook, Twitter, they are constantly posting. I didn’t have a smart phone back then. I just went.
“I think social media makes it impossible to be present in the moment anymore. You’re always thinking about what you’re going to say about what you’re doing, instead of just doing it.”
Kyle Wagner: 303-954-1599, travel@denverpost.com,
Book signing
Polly Letofsky will sign her book “3MPH: The Adventures of One Woman’s Walk Around the World” ($19.95, Tendril Press) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Tattered Cover Highlands Ranch, 9315 Dorchester St.
