What I did wrong last year…

Last year was my first year doing the Breast Cancer 3-day, and I’ll admit, I didn’t do much right in preparation for it. I signed up for the 24-week Virtual Trainer, which sent me emails every week telling me the mileage I should be walking each day, the rest I should have, all in preparation for building up my stamina for the walk. I ignored virtually every email.

I also did very little actual fundraising (much to my chagrin, a problem that so far I’ve repeated this year) and relied strictly on donations from friends to come up with the $2200 requirement. This proved to be a problem when, a month or so before the walk, I was still several hundred dollars behind my goal. Luckily, thanks to a good friend and her husband and their generous donation, along with a final push with my friends, I met my requirement about 2 1/2 weeks before the Walk. Let me clarify this though-you are not required to have every cent raised prior to the Walk, but if you don’t, you put up a check or Credit Card and you have until 30 days after the Walk to meet your goal, or they charge your card for the remainder. There are many, many people who do the walk with a sign on their back stating that their short of the goal and donations are welcome.

Needless to say, not thinking that I was going to do the walk for the better part of the year, I didn’t train sufficiently. Hell, I didn’t even buy my shoes until about 2 weeks before The Walk, so I really didn’t have a chance to break them in. I did several walks that were a few miles, but really only 2 that were more than 10 miles even. I didn’t even do any training walks (organized by those who have walked previously, in accordance with the Virtual Trainer). This was supposed to get me ready for 20 miles each day for 3 days? Not even close-I was not ready.

Although I’m a bit of a chubby guy and not in great shape, I pulled it off though. My biggest problem was blisters, which is the #1 problem during the walk. However, I didn’t have them nearly as bad as everyone else. There’s tons of things to do to combat it, but everyone has their own ideas on what works. Obviously, breaking in your shoes would be the best thing to do to combat it. Some people coat the bottom of their feet with Vaseline, which is disgusting to me. Personally, I used Body Glide on the bottom of my feet, bought brand new, Dr. Scholl’s Blister Guard socks (2 pair for each day-feels good at lunch time to change into a new pair of socks) and once the blisters developed I got them treated when I had to.

The only other problem I really had was soreness on Day 2. Everything from my knees down ached immensely. However, along with the blisters, I combatted that by taking one of the “Sweep Vans” between a rest stop and lunch and avoided a couple miles worth of walking. Now, you may think that’s cheating, but for those of us who do The Walk, it’s perfectly acceptable. The point isn’t the physical walking, it’s the fundraising and awareness. There was a very pregnant woman walking last year-I’m positive she didn’t do 20 miles per day. But, she did the fundraising, walked a few miles, and then took the sweep van back to camp or whatever. That’s what matters. Once I did this, I was honestly revitalized. I went to the lunch area, got my blisters taken care of, and then rested. I was good-to-go for the rest of the walk-I was very revitalized.

The other thing I did wrong last year occurred during The Walk, not before. Every 2-3 miles or so we have a rest stop, where you can rest (duh!) and where they have those Uncrustable sandwiches (which are AWESOME, btw) and bananas, water, Gatorade, etc. I stopped at every single one, rested for a bit at every single one and grabbed some grub at every single one. What it ended up doing was slowing me down, and I think out of the 4000 or so Walkers, I was probably one of the last 300-500 back at camp that night, and it was already dark out. It also weighed me down. The second day, I’d learned my lesson-stop every 2 rest stops or so to grab some grub and rest for a few minutes if i needed to, but otherwise only take a real break at lunch. I finished Days 2 and 3 much faster (and well before dark). Lesson learned.