You Can Help

Each walker who registers for the Breast Cancer 3-Day pledges to raise $2,100 by no later than 4 weeks after their event. At that 4 week mark, the walker is responsible for the balance. Many walkers, myself included, start training and sending out fundraising letters and emails, as well as holding fundraisers, such as yard sales and car washes, having faith that the money will come in. I was blessed to connect with a great team who shared their extra funds with me so I was able to reach and exceed my minimum. I would like to extend that generosity to other walkers as well. Once funds have been deposited in a walker's account, they can not be transferred, so our only option is to try to direct any new funds into low accounts. If you would like to make a donation to the 3-Day, please make your donation to one of these walkers. If you get to their personal page and their balance is already $2,100 or more, please try another walker. Our goal here is to get everyone to their minimum so they do not have to pay out of pocket.

Select a walker. Got to http://www.the3day.org. Select the walker's city. Then click Sponsor A Participant. (It's the first menu item under "donate".) Enter the walker's name in the space provided. When the walker's name is found, select it and make your donation. If you prefer to mail your donation, there is a form you can print out and send in with your check or credit card number. Thank you SO MUCH for your help! These walkers have worked and trained so hard! Let's help them out.

Chicago
Diane Swanson

Atlanta
Lu Ann DelVerme

Tampa Bay
Nicole Pugh
Carmel Teeters
Anita Black

San Diego
Cortney Austin
Angela Sciacqua-Smith
Shannon Hershberger
Bonnie Fitzpatrick
Maria Jackson
Zarita de la Cerda
Elaine Kearney

Arizona
Daniel De Lisle
Kathy Fisher

My 3-Day Adventure

I haven't posted in a while because training and fundraising took up a lot more time that I anticipated and along with everything else in my life, I just didn't have time to get on here.

My 3-Day adventure

I thought I would post this on here for a couple of reasons: 1) this blog is about walking in Atlanta. I definitely walked in Atlanta this weekend!
2) You had to come here to read this, which means I’m not forcing anything on you. ;-)
3) It saves me from typing it over and over for different groups and forgetting something.

My journey began Thursday night in Marietta. I stayed at the home of a 3-Day teammate who was generous enough to let me borrow a guest bed for the night. I went to bed around 9:30 after a nutritious piece of German chocolate cake. I didn’t actually get to sleep until around 11:00, which made getting up at 4:00 a lot of fun. The three of us who stayed at the house that night headed out about 4:40 AM to meet the rest of our team in a local church parking lot at 4:45. Fortunately, our team captain knew “certain people” would be late, so she had built in a grace period. We didn’t leave until a few minutes after 5:00. By the way, we did make it there before our captain. ;-)

We met up with most of our team and the 15 of us piled into a Hummer limo donated by Maximum Limo . That was awesome and our driver was a sweetheart!

After Opening Ceremony at Northlake Mall, we headed out around 7:30. I don’t remember many details of Day One because after about 40 miles, it all starts to run together. I do know the support volunteers were AWESOME!!! The motorcycle safety guys helped not only with traffic, but with morale as well. They dressed in outrageous costumes, played kickin’ music and I never dreamed I would be so happy to see a guy wearing pink tennis shoes!

The official mileage for Day One was 22.7 miles, but we had to walk 0.7 miles to get from the Opening Ceremony area to the spot where we were actually released on the route, so we actually walked 23.4 miles. Many of us were very disappointed in the route that was chosen. We walked through some very nasty, dirty neighborhoods. I never felt unsafe, but it was definitely NOT the scenic route. There were four people who had traveled from London, England to participate and many people from out-of-state. I didn’t talk to anyone who spoke with the English visitors, but I understand that several of the out-of-state visitors were not impressed with their first views of Atlanta. Frankly, none of the local walkers were either.

Day One took us through Tucker, Stone Mountain and Lithonia. I’m not saying that there are not lovely parts in all those areas. We just didn’t get to experience any of them. We camped at the South Eastern Athletic Complex in Lithonia. THAT was pretty. It was a park back in the woods, but it was almost dark by the time I got there, so I didn’t really get to enjoy it much.

I was okay most of the day. I didn’t really experience any muscle soreness or cramps. I was getting pretty tired by the end of the day, though. However, our Pit Stops (CLEAN port-a-potties, food & drinks) were 3 miles apart, and the last one of the day was also 3 miles from camp. (Yes, I said “camp”) In an effort to avoid the medical tent and the lovely IV, I had been drinking water and sports drinks all day. I had also been checking out those clean port-a-potties, but this stuff has a way of catching up to you. I all but ran the last 2.5 miles to camp because I *ahem* was “over-hydrated”.

I was feeling great until I sat down to eat dinner (delicious spaghetti!) and almost couldn’t get back up. My muscles had gotten stiff while I was still. I hobbled back to my tent to prepare to take a shower. If you have never taken a shower in a mobile shower, you’re missing out. There are actually big semi-truck trailers with shower stalls in them. And the most important part----HOT WATER!!!!! Because of planning issues, I (along with several hundred other walkers and support crew) ended up waiting in line an hour or more for showers, but we got them eventually.

Day Two was 23.7 miles of hills. Honestly, how do hills only go UP? Don’t they have to go down SOMETIME? By about half-way through the day, my feet were killing me. The rest of my body still really wasn’t sore, which was a total shock. I had been training for this for several months, but you can still never really be prepared for something like this. Again, we walked through some, um, interesting areas, along with some nice areas, like Main Street in downtown Stone Mountain. And all the people who came out to cheer us on were very encouraging. If you ever have the opportunity to spend some time at a cheering station for an event like this, please go! You have no idea how much it means to the people participating in the event.

My feet were hurting so bad by the end of the day that I walked the last five miles with tears rolling down my face. They do have vans you can take if you need to, but I had trained for many hours for this event and as long as I was physically able, I was going to walk. So I walked. I just hurt a lot. Then of course, about a mile past the last Pit Stop and two miles from camp, I had to go the bathroom again, so suddenly, my sore feet are the least of my worries because there is nowhere to “go” except camp, which was at Georgia Perimeter College in Decatur. As I topped the hill I saw a Texaco sign. I have never been so happy to see a gas station in my life. Of course, right across the street was the camp, so I danced along with everyone else waiting to cross (our moto-crew folks always had awesome music for us at every intersection) and ran to the port-a-potties, much to the dismay of the cute costumed crew member trying to give me a sticker or water or something…I really don’t remember.

The awesome crew figured out a new system for Saturday night so the wait for the showers was only about 20 minutes. Our support crew absolutely rocked and we could not have done the walk without all the incredible support we had.

Day Three was a little better, because we knew it was almost over. The route was much more shaded and scenic which made a huge difference in morale. Also the Pit Stops were about 2 miles apart instead of three, which also made a huge difference. For those who may not be familiar with normal walking paces, that’s a difference of about 20 minutes. I still didn’t have any muscle soreness, but my feet were in extreme pain by mid-morning. We had tons of people cheering us on through the whole day. We only had to go 15 miles, so I had called my husband that morning to tell him that I would be at Piedmont Park around 2:00 PM. That was our finishing point and the location of Closing Ceremonies. He isn’t known for being on time, so I called him again when I reached the lunch stop at noon to remind him that I would be at the park around 2. He was already there! More importantly, so was my three-year-old son. All you moms know what I’m talking about! I only ate about half my lunch and took off. My feet were still hurting, but I was determined to get there as quickly as possible. It was still almost 3 when I got there. I had to take potty breaks and tired feet can only do so much. Jay and Jeffrey were waiting near the gate when I walked in. Jeffrey ran to give me a hug, and as only a child can, lifted my spirits by saying, “Eew, you got slimy lotion all over me!”

I knew I still had to check in and officially finish, so I asked Jeffrey if he wanted to walk with me. We walked about another ½ mile to the other side of the park. Honestly, had I realized it would be so far, I would have not taken him with me, but he did really well. We crossed the finish line together as my team captain, Cheryl took our picture. Then I had to check in and we walked back across the park. The Closing Ceremonies would not take place until the last walker entered the park and Jeffrey had already been out there since 11:30. I couldn’t see keeping him there for another couple of hours. And honestly, I was ready to go home. *I* didn’t want to wait around for another couple of hours. So we walked back to meet Jay at the gate, and shouted encouragement to all the walkers still coming in. So after 62.1 miles, I was finally done.

I came home, took a warm bath, and a three hour nap (not in the bathtub). Today, I feel great. My feet are a little tender, but not really sore. I have no muscle soreness at all (I am totally shocked by that.) I ended up with one small blister on my toe, but it doesn’t really bother me. I’m just wearing sandals for a few days so my feet can get some air and stay dry.

Everyone has a different experience on the 3-Day. This was my second 3-Day and I had two totally different experiences each time. Each city is different, each year is different, and each walker is different. The one constant is that it is an experience you will never forget.