I Survived the 3-Day Walk

I feel guilty because so many friends and family have asked how the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk in Seattle went and I realized how lazy I have been.  I hope you will forgive me as my body was recovering from this little walk of 60 miles in three days.  My friend, Jennifer Tanner and I walked the full 60 miles together.  We supported each other as a few times we were tempted to grab a ride on a sweep van.  I'll tell you about those in a minute.

First, the weather the entire time was GLORIOUS, which is unusual for Seattle.  The lows were in the mid to high 50's and the highs were 75 to 80's.  We got to the Opening ceremony by 6:00 am on Friday and it was a very energetic, moving, uplifting and motivating start to the day.  There was live music, people all decked out in everything pink and ready to walk.  We met the rest of our team.  I want to tell you a little about them.  Christine and I walked in honor of our mother, as well as some dear friends.  My friend, Jennifer Tanner walked for the experience of a lifetime.  Just three weeks prior to the walk, our teammates (Becky and Ellie's) mother went in for a routing mammogram.  She decided to go since her daughter were walking and it saved her life.  She was diagnosed with breast cancer and now they were walking for their mother.  Their Aunt Sheri walked with us as well.

We started the walk at Bellevue Community College and our first cheering station was awesome.  People would come out along the route and cheer us on.  They would spray is with water, hand out Gatorade, water, candy, all sorts of treats, sample Jamba Juice & Starbucks, just little things to keep us motivated.  There were designated cheering stations as well as some just here and there along the route.  There were also Two older ladies dressed up in cow costumes and had their VW convertible bug decorated as a cow.  They had cow jokes all over the route and would drive up and down the route playing music and getting us all pumped up.  There slogan was breast cancer utterly sucks!  There were so many puns, slogans and great team names - most referring to breasts in some way.  There were also sweep vans.  These vans would be decorated with a theme on the outside (one was princesses, one was dogs, one was hippies, etc.).  They would drive up and down the route, honking and making sure they were available in case a walker was unable to finish.  They would climb into the van and be doted on until their next stop.  They didn't want walkers to feel bad about having to take a bus.  They were great motivators along the way.

We walked 20.7 miles on Friday and ended up at camp.  It was a sea of pink tents everywhere and very well planned out.  We went strait to the big tent for dinner and live entertainment.  Lights out was at 9 pm, and I was exhausted, but feeling pretty good.  

Day Two - it was cool and foggy and it was a little harder getting out of bed.  We had a great breakfast and started on our way for the 20.8 mile walk ahead.  Luckily, every day, there were 5 pit stops and a lunch stop.  They were stocked with port-a-potties with jokes on the inside of the door or pictures of really good looking men staring back at you with "so and so LOVES 3-Day Walkers".  They were funny.  They also had stations for medical, water and gatorade, food like uncrustable (a new favorite of mine), bananas and ranges, pretzels and chips, cheese sticks, bagels and cream cheese, animal crackers, granola bars and cookies.  There was something there to please everyone.  They also had dunking stations where you could dunk a bandana into ice water to wrap around your neck to keep cool.  They were so nice.  Each pit stop also had a theme.  There was a beach theme, pirates, disco and a couple other grab and go stops.  

During the walk, no matter how much I stretched, my calves would not relax.  Day two was FULL of hills and was definitely the hardest of all the days.  When I got back to camp, walking all 20.8 miles, I went strait for the ice bags to ice down my ankles while I ate.  It wasn't enough and I had to go see to sports medicine and physical therapy tent for some help.  Stephanie worked on my calfs for a little while and saran wrapped bags of ice around them.  She also said I would need both ankled taped before walking on day three or I might not be able to make it. Luckily, I was pretty much blister free at this point.

Day Three - I had to wait in line for almost an hour to be seen by PT.  Torry taped both ankles and helped me with a couple blisters (darn it - I was hoping to do this without them).  I started walking and just couldn't get my calves to relax.  I was determined to make it to at least pit stop #2 and take a sweep van to pit stop #3.  But... when I got to #2, I was feeling a little more loose and I wasn't going to leave Jennifer alone to walk.  Oh - Becky, our captain, was red-carded after Day 1.  She is pregnant and had some issues.  Ellie and Sheri started much earlier than we did on day three, and Christine was only allowed to walk a maximum of 10 miles per day.  So, it was me and Jennifer together all of the time.  

We walked through Washington University and stopped to flash our guns (Jennifer wanted a picture showing how STRONG we are).  We also got the privilege of walking right through Washington University's RUSH.  All the "PLEDGES" were standing in the middle of the road on the island waiting for their house assignment.  All the Houses' existing members were all dressed up and dancing and partying outside their house.  Music blared from each house and it was loud and exhilarating.  Some houses even cheered us as we walked by as they understood what we were doing.  It was pretty fun.

We walked to Green Lake and then to Gas Works Park.  It was so beautiful and we could see the Seattle Skyline.  We crossed over Fremont Bridge and then to downtown Seattle.  I turned cheerleader in the last 8 miles of the walk.  I even had a following of other walkers that wanted to stay close to us.  The reason for this was... there was a walker who had copies of an army-style cadence written for the Seattle 3-Day.  He gave me one and I tried it out on a new group we were walking with.  My loud mouth and ability to walk and read at the same time came in quite handy.  We made it up a hill with very little effort as we were concentrating on the cadence.  A lot of gals told me they forgot all about the aches and pains as we did this - so they asked to do it several times more.  They best ones we did were in downtown Seattle.  We passed shops and restaurants and everyone listened and cheered us on.  

As we walked, there were a few vendors selling different breast cancer awareness merchandise. I could go on and on about all the different breast-related titles and company names, but I will just tell you my most favorite, as was with many walkers.  There was a guy whose company name and T-SHIRTS read "NO WAR IN MY RACK".  We loved it and I did buy a t-shirt.  It made us smile!

Christine met us at the top of the hill as we were making our decent into the Seattle Center.  She wanted to walk with us into the closing ceremony holding area.  She bought us all beautiful flowers to carry in with us and it was overwhelming as we walked through thousands of cheering family and friends, survivors, fellow walkers and crew, and all those who came out to celebrate our accomplishment.  There were 3200 walkers total (more than they expected) and we raised 8.7 million dollars just in this one event.  What an amazing cause and I am proud to say I was a part of it.  I definitely want to do this next year - so if you want to join us - let me know.  It was an honor to walk and I will never forget the experience.  I thank all of you who supported me in this journey and you will be hearing from me again next year.

Please, please do all you can to take every preventative measure against breast cancer.  Know the signs and symptoms of IBC (Inflammatory Breast Cancer).  They discussed this on Day Two as a survivor related her battle with Breast Cancer and then another Battle with IBC.  The symptoms are different.  The fight is a lot harder.  So, I encourage you to google or go to You Tube for more information.  Also, please do your monthly self-breast exam, get your annual exams, mammogram, etc.  These measures can save your life.