Hello friends and family! (and friends and family of other team members! *grin*)
Well, we made it!
I keep intending to write a long wrap-up e-mail, but with one thing and another I am just now doing it. I can’t promise how comprehensive or cohesive it’ll be, but here ya go!
First, numbers. Our team raised $14,989.43! I raised $3,155.83, in LARGE part due to your generosity. xoxox Thanks again!
Thursday, 13 November, we left later than planned to head to the Phoenix area. We arrived and descended upon Erinn, who graciously allowed us to use her living room for the night. With Erinn’s hospitality, we only had to get up at 4 a.m. to get ready and go. We got to the site of the beginning of the walk, loaded our gear on the gear truck, signed in and met up with our team mates.
We were in a pink world. There were pink backdrops for photo ops, huge glowing pink globes with inspirational messages on them, of course many many people wearing pink, pink flags and banners and signs, and a stage prepared for the opening ceremonies. Reasonably quickly, all us walkers herded into a fenced off area, where we heard some people talk about why we were walking, etc. It was actually quite a moving opening ceremony, but I was itching to get walking. The fenced in area served as a sort of funnel, and we were set on the trail in duos. This took a while, but then woo! We were off!
While training, the longer walks got really tiring. They just seemed so *long*! At the 3-Day, there were pit stops or grab ‘n’ go stations every few miles, there were “sweep vans” driving by to make sure everyone was ok, but also all decked out in themed decorations and full of people shouting and encouraging us, and there were enthusiastic interesting folks joking and cheering and often costumed for our entertainment acting as crossing guards, handing out snack and beverages at the pit stops, etc. The pit stops had themes, goofy and fun. Each day there were 2 cheering stations where friends and family of the walkers came with signs, stickers, candy, mardi gras beads, little “we support you” cards, and other goodies to give out to us. High fives were abundant and helpful. High fives from small children? Quite possibly the most motivating thing ever. The first day, I was frustrated at feeling stuck in the throngs of people, making it hard and often impossible to keep my normal pace. That got better after lunch, and both the 2nd and 3rd days it was much less a problem.
Each day, the last hour or two was pretty tedious and tiring. My feet were sore, etc. People were having problems with injuries, some people didn’t finish the full distance on a particular day or even each day. Everyone on our team completed the entire walk, with discomfort and blisters and whatnot, but nothing really bad. My tendonitis started to flare a little here and there, but was calmed with TLC and felt better after a day or two resting.
I was surprised at how easily I got up each morning. It was cold and early. I’m not particularly good at getting up early and I’m a big wuss about cold, but I got up and felt good despite those things. Probably having mail from people to open helped (I rationed it). That helped, overall, with motivation and reminding myself why I was there. You guys, I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all of the support you gave me. It was really amazing and I’m still touched when I think about it. <3 <3 <3 <3
We camped in a sea of hot pink tents, which some people decorated elaborately. Maggie and I didn’t decorate ours, so a couple of times I wandered down the wrong line of pink. Camp was great, like a little city. There was a cafe, a post office, a yoga pen, a medical tent, and a huge tent where meals were served and where there was sometimes entertainment to be had. There was a place where you could massage your feet on vibrating massage ball things. There were little shops with pink things, trucks with hot showers, and of course rows of port-o-lets. The entertainment the first night was a group of ladies who were age 65+, one of whom was a 70-something year old breast cancer survivor. The ladies wore sparkling leotards, danced and performed gymnastics stunts that I couldn’t do without some serious practice. They were fantastic.
After the walk, there was a closing ceremony, in which most of us, walkers, crew, etc., took off a shoe and held it up to the survivors’ circle. We were reminded why we walked or worked, and it was beautiful to look up and see the strength on the circular stage we surrounded. When that finished, Mags and I went with Craig* to have free Mexican food. Erinn came to meet us, and we had a good, relaxed time. We then drove down to the Tucson area, stopping to see our friends TJ and Karie, who shared their hot tub with us. Oooohhhh, that was just what my feet wanted.
*Craig deserves a mention all his own. Craig drove us up there and back, volunteered to do security at night, and came and cheered us at the cheering stations. He took our cell phones to charge since we didn’t have electric outlets at camp and carried our thank you signs away from the opening ceremony so we didn’t have to walk with them. Maggie and I don’t have family in Arizona, so Craig was our support in the way other team mates had spouses or parents. It was really nice to have that.
I didn’t have a camera, but here are Maggie’s photos: http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e9/magma313/3day/?albumview=slideshow
Please especially note this one: http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e9/magma313/3day/?action=view¤t=3day3.jpg - THANKS YOU! :) From left to right in that shot: Maggie, Diane, our esteemed team captain and catalyst Naomi (who, btw, finished the walk despite not being able to train much), Helen, and me. That’s before opening ceremony, so you can see some of the pink world behind us. The short white fence is what marked the boundary of the area where walkers congregated to start.
The walk was hard, but easier than I imagined it would be. Some people signed up right away to walk again next year. I was way too into having my time back, not training and fund raising and whatnot. I decided, though, that I wanted to work crew at the D.C. walk in 2009. Crew is a 4 day commitment, but you aren’t obligated to raise funds and you don’t have to train. You do get to wear crazy costumes and whatnot, you’re part of the encouragement for the walkers. So I thought yeah, I can do that. I thought I’d sign up in a few months, and I’d do some fund raising because that’s what supports the research, education, screening, etc. Then, less than a month after the walk, I found out that a coworker at the group home job had to have a biopsy on a lump in her breast. She is a lovely person and really puts herself into the job. She’s amazing with the kids and she’s great to coworkers. She’s also only 24. I found myself reacting to this news by signing up to work crew now, and, well, that’s that isn’t it? I’ve set my fund raising goal for that one at $4,000. I’m not actively fund raising yet (you’re welcome to donate anyway, of course *wink*), though I did carry the pig one night and she’s sometimes going to coffee shops with me. I figure that since I won’t need to train, I will be able to do more fund raising events and such. I’ve started my new 3-Day page and blog here: http://www.the3day.org/goto/Laura_Duncan2009. If you live in the D.C. area, or want to travel out there in October of 2009, you can join my team and work crew with me. If you want to do that, e-mail me and I’ll tell you how to do so.
Thanks again for your support through donations, words of encouragement, spreading the word that I was walking to others (which did help bring in more funds, btw), putting up with my carrying around and personifying a pink princess piggybank, sending me mail at camp, walking with me on training walks, etc. You all rock my world.
Love,
Laura
