Polly Letofsky/courtesy photo
When Polly Letofsky gives a presentation at the Basalt Library on Saturday about her walk around the world, she will be returning to the site of her first stop on a five-year tour.
Letofsky started her journey in 1999 in Vail and walked to Basalt on the first day. She went on to cross four continents and conquer 14,000 miles one step at a time. It is believed she was the first woman to walk around the world.
“There was never a time I felt like quitting,” Letofsky said in a news release about the event. “During the darkest, toughest, loneliest times, I thought of the women I was walking for that had been diagnosed with breast cancer. And they are sick and tired of the chemo treatment and the cost of it all and how it has interrupted their lives, and they could never just throw up their arms and say, ‘Well, I’m done with all this nonsense.’”
She survived earthquakes, suffered muggings, struggled with language barriers and even experienced religious riots.
The ultimate challenge came during the aftermath of 9/11, when she found herself navigating a vastly changed world after the terrorist strikes in America. She finished her walk in 2004.
Letofsky undertook the arduous trip to build awareness for breast cancer. She is a motivational speaker who shares her story with humor and honest reflection, according to her website, http://www.pollyletofsky.com.
Letofsky will return to Basalt with a presentation called “Little Steps, Big Feat.” Her talk at the Basalt Library is from 5 to 7 p.m.
The former Vail resident also wrote a book about the experience called, “3mph: The Adventures of One Woman’s Walk Around the World.” There is also a documentary film entitled “Polly’s Global Walk.”
She told the Vail Daily in 2005 that she learned to pick her walks carefully after her globe-trotting experience.
“If I’m going to go for a walk, I want it to be on a sunny day with a nice path,” she told the Vail Daily. “No waking up at 4 a.m. to go hike a fourteener.”