2007 3-Day Walk!

The 3Day!!!!!
It was Amazing! Incredible! The amount of kindness and goodwill I experienced in 3 days is probably more than most of us see in a year! I’m in awe of the experience and still trying to take it all in. Truly, an experience I will undoubtedly not do justice to in mere words. I know this post is long, but it still barely scratches the surface of the actual experience! Sit back, relax, and enjoy the play-by-play…..and at the end click to see the pictures of the people and things I write about!

Friday morning we met in Framingham for Opening Ceremonies. I was expecting a pep rally, but it was far more emotional. Why didn’t I have the tissues ready?! The ceremony was quick, but it talked about how breast cancer touches our lives and the important journey we were to embark on. There were survivors carrying flags with inspirational words which would later travel between walkers during the 60 mile route.

The route officially opened and the crowd broke out in cheers! To start you pass through a walkway of fellow walkers cheering, high-fiving, and clapping. We were scanned out – just like at the grocery store we each had a bar code on our credential (worn around our neck during the entire event) and they scanned us in and out every day!

Then I had my 1st of many encounters with Men with Heart. What a truly inspirational group! They are an all guy group, ranging in age from 20’s – 70’s, who not only walk all 60 miles, but they also cheer on every other walker. They wear distinctive yellow shirts, and in addition to the normal fanny pack all walkers carry, Men with Heart carry backpacks filled with supplies to give fellow walkers should they need them. The list of items in the backpack is attached on the outside and it contains everything from sunscreen & bugspray to candy and tampons. Truly 1 stop shopping!!! They are always looking for new amazing men to join their ranks, so I suggest you check out their website Men with Heart. Ok, so back to the walk. After I was scanned out, who do I see? The Men with Heart guys – they’ve formed a tunnel for us to walk through, they’re cheering us on, and handing out buttons. Have I mentioned how impressed I am with these guys?!

Now we’re off and walking with about 2000 other walkers! My training buddies Cecelia and Laura were with me virtually all 60 miles. I’m a slow walker, so there were lots of folks “passing on the left” as you would hear walkers call out. That’s ok, it’s an experience, not a timed race!

On Day 1 we saw “sweep” vans for the first time. Sweep is a vital part of the 3Day. They travel back and forth on the route all day and they’re there to pick up walkers who can’t continue and bring them to camp or one of the many Pit Stops along the road. On top of the official job, they come up with themes for their vans, decorate the vehicles, wear costumes, and blast music as they drive by while beeping the horn and cheering us from the road! My favorite theme was “The Big Support” which had the largest pink bras you’ve ever seen attached to the outside. Not to mention the 2 women driving were a hoot and full of energy all day! Although I didn’t need to sweep during the walk, it sure was reassuring knowing they were close by!

I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned the weather yet….
It was extremely humid and reached 100 degrees on Friday. Can you imagine walking 21.5 miles in this kind of weather?! It didn’t hurt that we had strangers supporting us in amazing fashions. Cars driving by would beep or cheer out their windows. We started the day waving back to all of them, but as the heat and miles took it’s toll the wave turned more to a limp raised hand. We appreciated it though! In fact, if we walked for a while without anyone beeping we’d actually comment on how nice it would be to get a beep!

There were also tons of people standing in yards or on street corners cheering us on. Some of these people had put a lot of time, energy and money into being supporters. They had water, ice, popsicles, and candy all being handed out free! Not to mention the great signs they made to really encourage us. And EVERYONE kept thanking us for walking. They would write it on signs, they would yell thanks from their cars, they would say it in person to every walker that crossed their path. It was all very inspiring!

My favorite type of supporter was one with a water feature. I could spot water blocks away and would tell Laura & Cecelia if I saw one coming up. What’s a water feature? Any chance for us to cool down! A sprinkler someone left running at the edge of their lawn for us. Folks with spray bottles misting walkers as we went by. And the biggest water feature – the Natick Fire Department setting up a ladder and resting a hose on the top for us to walk through! It was 100 degrees on Friday, 93 on Sat, and we had very little shade on the route ~ these water features were pure heaven!!!!


The Youth Corps was also a fun group of kids 10-16 yrs old cheering us on! They're a special part of the Boston 3Day and these kids camp out with us for 3 days, help set up tents, hand out stickers, cheer us on throughout the route, and even baked fresh chocolate chip cookies to hand out to walkers. In order to join this group, the kids have to write an essay about why they want to participate, go through an interview process, and then commit to raising $400 at such a young age. I LOVE seeing kids involved in Charity work and seeing their sweet smiling faces every day was a highlight of every walker!!!


Although the walk is 60 miles long, it’s best to tackle it as a bunch of 3 miles walks. Each morning as you start walking you’re handed a Route card. It slips in the plastic credential which you wear around your neck. It’s not a map, but it lists how many miles you walk until hitting a Pit Stop, Lunch or Cheering Station. Pit Stops are about every 3 miles and have water, Gatorade, snacks and port-o-janes! So, on Friday when you start walking you don’t think – 21.5 miles to go – you look at the route card and say “only 2.8 miles until Pit Stop 1”. Nice way to trick the brain into walking almost 22 miles, huh?!

As a 1st timer it was all trial & error. For example, I broke out in Road Rash. Red, raised bumps that start right above the sock line and then spread up the calf. Cute, huh? It’s a heat rash resulting from long periods of exercise in the sun. About ½ of the walkers ended up with it. I was lucky mine didn’t itch, but it did begin to burn on Sat so we improvised and tied wet bandana’s to our legs to shade it from more sun.

The other think I learned was “I don’t like nature.” Yup, that’s exactly what I said Friday during our Lunch stop. You look forward to lunch b/c it’s the only time you sit down. Not to mention you take off your shoes, let your feet breathe and eventually change into clean socks before continuing walking. Here I am looking forward to all this feet cleaning and lunch is held at an elementary school outside, so everyone just finds a spot and sits on the ground. We’re sweaty and gross, and sitting on ½ grass ½ dirt (not exactly well manicured lawns at the public school), so the dirt and twigs are kind enough to stick to our road rash. Again, I don’t like nature. Lesson learned? Use one of the emergency mylar blankets I had to sit on during lunch for Sat & Sun. Far more enjoyable, and no part of nature stuck to my body!

The rest of the walk was more cheering, more water, more Gatorade! I saw my parents at the cheering station and they made a great sign from “the Flamingo Trainers”!!! J Another group of fun supporters were the “Pink Posse.” The Pink Angels is a team of close to 100 walkers, many of whom wear angel wings during the walk. The Posse, or the Boy Angels as I like to call them, are about 4 of their husbands who dress up as women wearing huge angel wings. They didn’t participate in the walk, but were along the route all day every day cheering us on and entertaining us with their getups!

At the end of day 1 as we walked into the last rest area to be bused to camp which was a few miles away, it was a true sense of accomplishment. We had started at 7:15am and took a little more than 11 HOURS to complete the route, but we made it!!!! And to top it off, the Men with Heart group was all gathered cheering on every walker that finished. Can you believe they had the energy to do that after walking all day in the heat?!

Oh yeah, I might have the order wrong, but here are the towns we walked through on Friday: Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Needham, Milton, Hyde Park, Dedham (got a delicious homemade Mint Chip ice cream in Dedham center!), Canton.

OK, what you’ve all been waiting for. My 1st camping experience. Laura & I got back to camp (Blue Hills High School), got our bags, grabbed a tent and went to our assigned tent location. I may not have camped before, but I can read, and there were directions printed on the tent pkg. So, we took out the pieces, I read step 1 and Laura and I did that. Then I read step 2 and we started doing that. About this time a woman a few tents down came over and said “First Walk?” Guess most people don’t read the directions to assemble the tent so we stood out! Didn’t matter though because we got the tent up quickly and with no problems. Once I had my air mattress in there it felt just like home!

After grabbing dinner, we went to the 3Day Post Office. I was THRILLED with all my letters!!!! Thank you so much!!!! We went off to the shower trucks with letters in hand. Good thing. The shower lines were out of control. A staff member said he’d never seen it like that before. We waited an hour – gave me plenty of time to read my letters! – and then as we were close to the front of the line the entire camp was evacuated due to severe lightening. It was about 9pm when this happened so most people were in their tents asleep or getting ready for bed. The showers were located close to the high school where we evacuated so I was able to get there quickly and find a piece of floor to lie down on close to the door. Can you imagine how crowded a HS gym & cafeteria are when 2000+ people filter in? I was lucky I had a place to lie down and rest! There was a lot of grumbling in the gym about losing our spots in line at the showers. They made an announcement to use the “honor system” to get back in line at the showers. About 10pm we were allowed to go back to camp. This was a funny site – women who just walked 20+ miles actually started RUNNING so they could get to the front of the shower lines. I didn’t have the energy to run, but I was most definitely speed walking! Turns out it wasn’t needed as most people chose to skip the shower because it was so late. You couldn’t have paid me to go to bed without a shower that night!!!

Although the tent and air mattress was comfy I just couldn’t sleep. I slept less than 2 hours the entire night. Not good when you’re walking another 22 miles in the morning.

Off we went on Saturday morning! As usual, the 3 of us were walking at a pretty good pace, but we tended to spend a lot of time at the Pit Stops so in the end it was another 11 hour day! We walked on some trails, and looped all around Milton with perhaps a few dips into Hyde Park during the day. We don’t have a map while we’re walking, so I wasn’t exactly sure where I was at all times. I just kept following the black arrow signs and all the people walking in front of me!

Remember those sweep vans? Well, not only do they pick you up if you need it, they also “sweep” you to the next pit stop if you’re walking too slow. Pit Stops have an opening and closing time. If you don’t leave the Pit Stop before the closing time they “sweep” (drive) you to the next Pit Stop. Time was not on my side on Saturday. At one point I left a Pit Stop only 3 minutes before it was closing and was so afraid I wouldn’t make it to the next one in time. There’s nothing wrong with taking the van, but my fear all along had been I don’t want to take the van because I’m slow. Not it was about to happen! About this same time I saw my parents at the Cheering Station. Between the lack of sleep, running from the sweep van, and the crowds of cheering people, I was highly emotional. I don’t think the tears were good for my mother to see ~ just gave her something else to worry about! Oh yeah, this was also all happening only 8 miles into Day 2, so I was having serious doubts about how I would make it 21.5 miles. But, the body perseveres. I kept walking and making up time, and never needed to be swept.

I saw more amazing people cheering us on, more of the spray bottles and sprinklers which were a huge help in the 93 degree heat on Saturday, and some great signs! I also saw “my girl” as I dubbed her. There was a family which spent 3 entire days cheering us on. They would be in 1 location, and then a few hours later we’d see them again in a new location. Part of the family was a girl about 10-12 who had a spray bottle of water in her hands the entire weekend and kept us cool in the heat. I loved her! Even took a picture with her on Sunday!

Due to the lack of sleep and struggle I had walking Saturday I wasn’t exactly a Chatty Cathy for my walking partners. Especially the last few hours when I swear the 3Day folks were playing a joke. The last 3 miles on Saturday were all trails in the Blue Hills. And by trails I mean tons of up and down hills, 100% rocky terrain with a few tree roots and twigs thrown in for good measure. The route was so treacherous the staff was announcing it at the last Pit Stop before the trails so that people could get on the buses and go back to camp. Not me though. I’m a glutton for punishment! So Cecelia and I took off for the trails (Laura took the bus due to ongoing knee and heel problems. Honestly was amazed at how far she did walk with those ailments!) Due to the terrain I swear I didn’t utter 1 word for 3 miles. I just kept my head down and focused on where the best place to put my next foot was going to be. But what a sense of accomplishment when we made it out of the woods! It was only about a mile at that point to camp and it was a piece of cake!

And who was there waiting for us? Men with Heart, of course. But this time they sang the “Pretty Woman” theme for Cecelia and I as we walked in. We couldn’t have looked more gross, but it sure warmed the heart to hear them signing! It’s an all male group, so as I told 1 member, “You’re the only group that discriminates against women that I like!”

Saturday night was the opposite of Friday. Everything went smoothly. The tent was already set up, so we just grabbed dinner, went to the showers and only had about 4 people waiting before us and then passed out from shear exhaustion at 9pm!

Although it was 93 degrees during the day, it dropped down to the low 60’s at night. I was wearing a tank top and PJ bottoms, but when I got up around 10pm to go to the bathroom, my teeth were chattering like crazy from the cold. Good thing I had a fleece to throw on, and then I snuggled up in my sleeping bag and had no trouble sleeping right through the night!

Sunday we packed up our gear and the tent, and dropped it off to be transported to Closing Ceremonies. After breakfast the 3 of us were scanned out of camp at 7:29 am. The latest you could leave camp that day without being bused directly to lunch was 7:30 am. We made it by the skin of our teeth!

Sunday was beautiful – low 80’s, no humidity, and only about 16 miles to walk. What more could a girl ask for?! After a good nights sleep and good weather, my spirits were soaring again. You could feel the excitement in the air and the sense of accomplishment everyone was feeing as we began Day 3. I also had a chance to talk with a couple of walkers on Sunday as I was more talkative than the previous day!

I met a 16 year old girl who decided to do the 3Day and then convinced her 4 Aunts to sign up with her! I walked a few miles, and had lunch, with Trish, who was also a 1st time walker. She was walking with her friend Christine and the 2 of them had walked 8 miles on each Friday & Sat. Chris has Stage IV Breast Cancer and is currently undergoing Chemo. Although my entire body was aching at this point from over 50 miles of walking, Chris’ story put it all into perspective. If she could walk 16 miles with her health issues and walked probably 12 miles on Sunday alone, who am I to complain about a little foot and knee pain? These ladies are in my thoughts and prayers. I also met Kathy Giller, a familiar name I had seen on the 3Day Message Board for months. She and her husband Lee were walking in 3 cities this year. Her husband is a Breast Cancer survivor. The back of their shirts read: “Male Breast Cancer. Rare…….But very Real.” Their local paper just wrote a story about Lee which is wonderful for raising awareness of this disease among men.

At the cheering station on Sunday I was in far better spirits! I saw my parents, sister, brother-in-law and nieces, all holding signs, cheering and handing out popsicles and spraying folks with water. I chatted with them for a few minutes and took pictures and then kept on trekking!

In the end, it was Cecelia, Laura and I walking by the cheering crowds of strangers at the Expo Center, our last cheers by Men with Heart, and then I saw my family right before I went inside to the holding area for the walkers. It was so emotional seeing my Mom and family, and then my friend Missy was also there! The cheering didn’t end there though! All of the family and friends were outside cheering, but when we walked into the building full of walkers is when the cheering really started! All the walkers who finished ahead of me were clapping and cheering as we finished. What a great way to end this 60 mile journey with all of our fellow walkers!!!

Closing Ceremonies was touching as well. The walkers headed in first and formed a big circle as our friends and family cheered us on. Then the amazing Crew (350+ volunteers who did everything from serve dinner, to hand out shower towels, to drive sweep vans or rode on bike security, or staffed a Pit Stop, to countless other tasks behind the scenes) formed an inner circle. Finally the Breast Cancer Survivors who participated in the event walked in. It was very emotional, and the walkers all bent down on 1 knee to pay homage to their achievements. Truly my favorite part of Closing Ceremonies.

Afterwards I met up with my family and the Sneider’s who are dear old family friends that came out to cheer me on! I recapped all the stories above, and maybe even a few more, and then told them the most shocking news of all. Thanks to ALL OF YOU, we raised over $11,500+ which made me the 9th biggest fundraiser for the entire Boston walk! I truly couldn’t have done it without you!!! And no, there’s no prize for this….remember the point is to donate money for cancer funding and research not to buy gifts for participants! Overall, the Boston walkers raised over $5 million dollars!!!

I’m putting together my plans for the 2008 3Day walk….want to join me?! The schedule of dates hasn’t been announced yet, but I’m hoping to double my efforts next year- walk in Boston and then another 60 miles in different participating city! I would love to have you on my team as a walker or crew member! For anyone who may be thinking about doing this event I say “don’t think about it – Do it.” I promise you’ll get far more out of the experience than you could ever imagine!

After all the miles, the extreme heat, and camping what stands out most from this experience is the people. The walkers who push themselves day after day. To keep going after your feet are blistered and swollen and not longer fit in your sneakers, they would wear flip flops to keep going. Or one woman cut off the front of her sneaker so her swollen blistered foot would have some room. And the thousands of people who cheered us on during the 3 days. It was hard to dwell on your physical condition when people were constantly thanking you for walking, or you'd come across signs like "Thanks from a 10 year Survivor" or "My Mom is proof that your fundraising works!" This was truly an unforgettable experience!

Thanks for going on this amazing 60 mile journey with me!!!

PS. Click to see the Pictures!
PPS. Did I mention I walked 60 miles and have zero blisters?!

Water Party

I thought I was done posting until after the walk, but I have to tell you about this morning. I was putting my gear in my car so I used the elevator in my building and got stuck in it for close to 40 minutes!!! Most common asked question about this event? "What happened?" Are you kidding? Here's what happened ~ the doors didn't open! So a neighbor heard me and called the landlord for help. In the end, I had 2 wonderful neighbors chatting with me through the door while 4 other folks (2 from the elevator company) were able to pry the doors open. The entire time I was DYING from the heat inside the elevator! I swear it was as hot as walking 10 miles in the heat. Except I was dressed for work, not exercise. Once they got the door open I invited everyone in for a Water Party and some air conditioning - both of which were lacking in the elevator and in the hall where they were working to rescue me. Needless to say we were all sweating and I actually had to change clothes before I could go to work. When I was ready (again) for work, I found out the elevatory repairman was stuck. Didn't he learn anything from my experience? Here's hoping the next 3 days go a heck of a lot better!

1 Day left!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell I'm excited?! OK, just have to make it through work and somehow fall asleep tonight with all of this excitement and then I'll be walking!

As I'm typing the weatherman just said tomorrow is "not looking like a pleasant day at all." Guess that has something to do with her forecast of low 90's and high humidity coupled with a chance of severe thunderstorms in the afternoon. What does she know? It's going to be a great day! Followed by 2 other great days!!!!! :-)

Thank you again to EVERYONE for all of your support and enthusiam! Talk to you all after the 60 miles (and probably a few days of constant sleep!)

Webcam

There's going to be a live webcam at the 3Day! From 1pm - 9pm on both Friday and Saturday live video (no audio) will be streaming of the actual event! This is the 1st year they're doing it, so I don't have any inside tips from the message board or veteran walkers.

Here's the info I do have:

"The link can be found at www.The3Day.org. Then go to Information and then to Supporters"