Daily Archives: November 15, 2009

I am in pain. My feet hurt, and my lower back hurts. But, you know what? It doesn’t matter. I am in less pain right now than my sister is on a daily basis due to the Breast Cancer. The pain that Cancer, radiation, and Chemotherapy inflict upon those afflicted with the disease makes mine pale in comparison.

However, I feel great overall. I had some major issues with blisters during this walk (ironically more than I had last year, when I neither trained adequately, nor broke my shoes in correctly) which I know I’m going to pay for next weekend since I’m walking back-to-back.

I had a lot of fun today. I wore my fedora again, which was a huge hit on Day 1. This may become my main 3-Day hat, everyone loves it. Of course, I have other interesting outfits for San Diego next weekend, but we’ll see…Anyway, although it was chilly out this morning, it ended up being a great day for walking.

By the way, I’m writing this from the Holding Area, having completed my 60-mile journey nearly 40 minutes ago. Ok, so it’s not entirely complete, as we still have to walk our last mile to the closing ceremony, but for all intents and purposes, I’m done with this leg (pun intended) of my journey.

I want to say that today was a million times better than yesterday. Not just because of the excitement of being the last day or because the route was a couple miles shorter. Mostly because it was a beautiful walk today-so different than the first two days. If the walk was as interesting those days as it was today, I may consider doing it again.

Cool thing of the day, number one: we actually sold some calendars today (and by “we”, I mean “Mary”), with the promise of many more sold at the end of the closing ceremonies. No one seemed to actually buy them until today, walkers and cheerers alike.

Cool thing of the day, number two: I met sisters, who last year walked with their mother and in honor of her. This year they were all three supposed to walk again, and they all raised their funds…instead of walking with their mom and in honor of her, they are walking in memory of her, as she lost her battle about a month ago.

I absolutely dread the day I’m walking in memory of Shayna, as opposed to in honor of her. I’m not sure I can handle that (although I will), because I’m actually crying even as I type that. I’m not sure my sister knows that she’s my hero. I need to make sure I tell her that today.

Closing ceremony was pretty great. They had us in Scottsdale Stadium, which was huge compared to doing the ceremony in one of the parking lots outside of Petco Park in San Diego.

Well, I’ve made it to Day 3! There is a definite buzz in the air this morning, a real excitement and sense of accomplishment. And there should be.

Because we’ve ALL made it to Day 3! The first two days are the hardest physically, because Day 1, your body is getting used to the act of the walk and Day 2, you’re paying for it (dearly). Not to mention Days 1 & 2 are longer…for Day 3, it is typically closer to 15 route miles because they need to control people finishing by time Closing Ceremonies begin.

What they do is put us in a holding area, and after the last walker arrives, either by foot or by van, we all line up, about 6 abreast (I’d assume that depends on where we’re finishing and the number of people that it can accomodate in a single line) and do the “last mile” (note: it may not actually be *a mile*), with all of us clad in our 3-Day shirts (which we get as we cross the finish line) to our friends and families, so they can be part of the end of our journey.

Today will be a good day, and an emotional one to boot (I’m even tearing up as I write this…)