Being approached and being asked if I’m ok

[Riseandshinee]

I have been trying to get 10k steps in a few times a week. I need to be close to home so I walk around the same places for about an hour with music on. I know this is unusual. I don’t drive so can’t go anywhere different. I’ve been approached numerous times and asked if I’m lost/ok when they see me pacing back and forth. and it’s really putting me off. I am extremely socially anxious/avoid people and I don’t know how to make them stop without changing where I go which I can’t do at the moment.

Get yourself a sandwich board ' not lost, just getting my steps in'

Who, on seeing, a woman repeatedly going past their house, would assume they were casing the joint?l

Much more likely they are worried about her not scared

I get stopped by people all the time. Nothing to do with exercise!! I have Narcolepsy keep falling asleep) It does not happen for long but keeps happening. Embarrassing in pubs and cafes and once I fell of a chair in a train station!

Go on Facebook and tell your local group! I bet they are all wondering and asking 'does anyone know what's up
with this woman who ..." 😂

Walk 5,000 steps in one direction then turn around and walk back! Less pacing around the smaller streets!

Tbf to the people I've twice been in the situation with someone going up or down the same place for ages, approached them and found that they were in urgent need of help.
One was a lady with dementia. She spent about two hours pushing a shopping trolley up and down the same round. She was aggressive when I approached and told us she didn't need help. My colleague who's fairly hefty was knocked over by her shopping trolley level of aggressive. We called the police and it turned out that they were out searching for her. She'd walked from home nearly 7 miles away having left it early in the morning and her poor husband had been woken by the alarm of the door opening but hadn't managed to see where she was going. She was not grateful for the help 🤣 and gave the police a full earful, but her husband was.

The other was similar. I saw this young gentleman walk past the window. And then again. When he walked past on at least the fourth time (and may have been more), I went out and asked if he was okay. He had some learning difficulties, and had got off at the wrong bus stop, didn't know where to go, and had been told not to speak to strangers, so just kept on walking. Quick google of his residential care, a phone call and he was collected.

I've got other stories of how I asked someone who was doing something unusual if they were okay (eg a lad who'd run away from school) and they accepted help and we got it sorted, so it's better to ask than otherwise.

So I think it's reasonable for people to approach you and check.
You've a choice: Put up with the questions and assume that they'll die away as people get used to you, or choose somewhere you won't be noticed, like a large park.

Are you wearing this?

Honestly if people see you pacing up and down the same street. It's not surprisingly they think you're in some sort of distress. I'd either widen the route a bit or break it into different slots rather than in one go

I would think you were distressed unless you were wearing highly visible exercise clothes and clearly working out.

Be glad you live in such a caring place op!

The OP seems to have posted and run.

You mean posted and walked, round and round the same area 😂

😂