Last month I wrote about America’s Walking Club — the AVA — which moved its national headquarters to South Alamo Street a year ago. This month, I want to tell you about a couple of the major walking events that are coming up.

First, there’s the Texas Trail Roundup (TTR) — a three-day event held by one of the local clubs of the same name. Other clubs assist with planning and providing volunteers for this event.

The TTR event is tied in with the international organization IML Walking Association. IML is like the AVA, but on an international level. They usually organize about 28 events around the world every year, in normal times. The TTR has been held since 2017 but officially became an IML event in 2020, when several hundred participants came to San Antonio. It was not held last year due to Covid, and this year we are expecting fewer participants than in the past because of travel restrictions and other pandemic concerns.

The TTR is held to coincide with the rodeo, and starts with a 5K/10K walk downtown on February 18. It has new routes this year that will highlight murals and public art to the participants. On February 19, routes head toward the Mission Reach and range from 5K to a full marathon. On February 20, routes feature the Pearl, Brackenridge Park, and the Japanese Tea Gardens and range from 5K to a half marathon. You can read more about these walks by searching for Texas events on this page of the AVA website.

The other big event coming up is National Walking Week, which goes from April 1 to April 7. Three local clubs are having walks each day. You might remember that the American Heart Association used to have a National Walking Day in April. They no longer have it, but the AVA picked it up and turned it into a full week.

The closest of the local walks to Southtown will be on April 6 in downtown, with a route that mainly stays on street level and features many of the historic churches.

Two of the other walks are outside of San Antonio, in Boerne and Castroville. Three more are along or north of Loop 1604 at Friedrich Park, the Leon Creek Greenway, and the Stone Oak neighborhood. Another one is on the Leon Creek Greenway at the Mainland trailhead.

You can learn more about National Walking Week on the AVA’s website and on the Texas Volkssport Association’s Facebook page.