A walk reel mower has a front mounted reel cutting unit and a rear handle. The operator pushes the handle towards the ground to lift the reel cutting unit off the ground prior to turning the walk reel mower around. When this occurs, the manner in which the reel cutting unit is supported in conjunction with the influence of gravity causes the reel cutting unit to pitch rearwardly relative to the frame of the walk reel mower. This change of orientation is used to close a switch which, in turn, initiates an automatic slow down of the mower to ease the task of turning the mower around. When a turn is completed and the cutting unit is dropped back down into engagement with the ground, the slow down is terminated and the ground speed resumes at whatever predetermined ground speed was previously selected by the operator.