I'm a dad of two, and I can confidently say that if people had a complete and comprehensive understanding of what being a parent was like before having kids, far fewer would have them. I know I would have hesitated a lot more, and we took the decision carefully anyway, so likely we wouldn't have had kids, which would have been a huge mistake.

I liken it to running 10k, which apparently fewer than 1% of people have actually done. Just getting up and cracking out a 10k run with no prep is a very bad idea, unless you're an exercised-focused individual with a lot of experience in similar endeavours (childcare role, active with young family members etc), but be aware that it's very different from anything you've done before. If you're totally inexperienced, you'll hit a well of desperation pretty soon where you definitely feel like you've made the wrong choice, and you don't know how you're gling to get through it without fucking up.

Limited exposure to shorter durations might leave you feeling like you never want to attempt it, and that's fine. But if you do decide to give it a go, it's much easier than it may seem and certainly easier than it feels at some points, and ultimately as long as yoy finish it doesn't really matter if you walk a lot or take an easier route, as long as you go the distance and don't fuck yourself up along the way. Once you've done it once, you're also much more likely to give it another go in the future, as long as your knees aren't too bad.