Talking the walk

Deepa Bharath

You can’t really miss a man like Andy Mandell.

He’s tall, well built and sports a big, gray mustache -- and an

equally magnanimous smile.

And he walks tall, pounding the sidewalk with size 13 shoes and a

dark brown walking stick almost as tall as his 6-foot-4 frame.

The 57-year-old Floridian walked his 2,618th mile Thursday

afternoon on Coast Highway in Newport Beach. The distance is only a

fraction of the 10,000 miles he hopes to cover in the next two to

three years as part of his campaign to educate the nation about

diabetes.

And Mandell is an authority on the subject. He’s been there. He’s

Mr. Diabetes.

Diagnosed with the disease at 40, Mandell was bedridden for two

years.

“I thought I was going to check out,” Mandell said. “But I

survived. I made it and I recovered.”

He started the Defeat Diabetes Foundation to inform people about

diabetes and how to prevent it. The foundation also emphasizes the

importance of good nutrition and regular exercise that can help

counter the problem.

Mandell began his Wake Up and Walk tour in Pensacola, Fla., on

Jan. 15 and reached San Diego on Oct. 11. On Tuesday, he and tour

manager Bob Brooks cruised through Huntington Beach.

Brooks drives the foundation’s white Land Rover ahead and gives

Mandell a heads up about traffic conditions. They communicate via a

two-way radio.

Mandell never gets bored walking because he has his “tunes” --

Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Tchaikovsky.

“Beethoven or Mozart are good when I want to be relaxed,” he said.

“Tchaikovsky is good when I want to get going.”

Going from bedridden to marathon walker hasn’t been easy for

Mandell. A lifelong exerciser, runner and a black belt in karate,

Mandell worked hard to get back in shape.

“I did 4,000 sit ups a day,” he said. “The first 2,000 would

really hurt, but after that, the endorphins would kick in, and it

felt good.”

The duo’s unbelievable voyage has seen its ups and downs, Mandell

said.

“We’ve been attacked by wild packs of dogs at least a half a dozen

times,” he said with a laugh.

And in Louisiana, Mandell almost walked into a bunch of snakes,

intertwined and seething -- more than creepy enough to freak out

Indiana Jones.

But all that is worth it because of the finer moments -- times

when people come up and ask questions with a genuine desire to learn

about diabetes, or even when passersby honk to show their support.

“My message is that people can come to us for information,” he

said. “If I can get up and walk, so can you.”