A walker's best friends

The most important item to a walker is her shoes, of course.

So, since yesterday was payday, I knew where my first stop after school would be ...

SUPER RUNNERS STORE IN HUNTINGTON, LI!

(That was an unsolicited shout-out!)

I was fitted there for my very first pair of walking shoes 9 years ago.

I am happy to present my New Balance 859 ... size 8D (mens.)

Sweet!

During the summer I'll buy another pair.

On our second walk in New York City, my shoes actually gave out. It was pretty painful. The other pair wasn't much better!

These are real beauties!

And ... the salesman gave me two pair of Thor-lo socks ... wishing me luck on my training.

Now that was really sweet.

***

Alissa ... if you're reading this ... please leave a comment!

Trudy ... thank you again and again!

Mail call!

My 3-day Walker Handbook came in the mail today!

I am so excited.

I'll read it cover to cover.

There were other things in the envelope.

Thank you Laffin for helping me display everything.

Here's an excerpt from "Why We Walk"

"More than 200,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and almost 40,000 will die from the disease. Be a hero--tell as many women as possible about the lifesaving benefits of early detection and treatment of breast cancer."

So ... I'm telling you.

Here's something else I'm telling you...

Because of you I have raised over $200 in less than two weeks. That's AWESOME!!! Can you imagine if I raise $100 a week every week until the walk?

Thank you Andrea, Jennifer, Jana, and Alissa for joining Auntie Bea, Trudy, and Nora in supporting me!

You gotta eat!

My friend Trudy asks:

"In the background of one of your previous posts, I noticed the wall of porta-potties. So here comes another question: Are there restroom and watering/Gatorade stations along the route each day? Certainly there must be! And where do the lunches come from? How many hours a day do you walk? Inquiring minds etc..."

Well Trudy ... here are a few pictures for you to look at.

The first picture is from our first "Avon 3-day" walk. This is what a "watering and snack station" looked like. (Biggify to see the snacks.) These stations popped up every several miles ... some stations were bigger and more elaborate than others. The oranges were the most delicious things I had ever tasted!!!! (Can you see the porta potties in the background? They were always there!!!)

You can't spend too long at a rest station because there is lots of walking to do. We started walking at sunrise and had to reach "camp" before sunset. It's not a race ... more endurance than racing ... but we always wanted to know what number we were when arriving at camp!

Lunch was provided along the way ... but breakfast and dinner were served under the "big top," as shown in the next picture. This picture was taken on the Boston "Susan G. Komen 3-day" walk.

How long do we walk each day? Well ... we have to walk about 20 miles give or take ... and figure a 15-17 minute mile with occasional stops. That's a whole day of walking. Our poor feet! There are medical tents for blisters and other maladies ... and there are volunteers available for massages!!!! (I never took advantage of that!)

Thank you for your questions Trudy. And, as always, thanks for being such a wonderful blogger friend.

If you're reading this blog ... please leave a comment. I appreciate it!

Tiara wearing beauty

Walker? Crew?

Auntie Bee should get a load of this tiara wearing beauty.

Yes Trudy ... we laughed our way through 60 miles!

This was the Boston walk ... why can't I find pictures of the second New York walk?

I received a donation from someone named "Jana"

I don't know who Jana is ... but I'm very grateful!

ps ... nobody has asked about the "facilities" yet ... If you "biggify" the picture you will see the lines waiting to use the porta-potties.

Dear Kiera

Dear Kiera,

I thought you would like to see some funny hats and some funny faces.

These pictures were taken on your Auntie Berta's first walk.

Don't these people look funny?!

Auntie Berta is standing next to that silly man wearing wings.

He was riding a bicycle the whole way ... all 60 miles ... just cheering us walkers on.

He was great!

Look at this silly lady wearing a funny face ... (I think it's just a mask, Kiera!)

She had fun things for us to wear in her bag!

These people are called "crew" and they were the nicest and most fun people on the long walk.

Breast cancer is a very bad thing.

I'm going to walk near where you live in October.

I'm walking so you ... and your mommy ... and everyone we know ... will never have to worry about breast cancer ever again!

Love--Auntie Berta

Question and Answer

Ah ... how do we get our gear to where we're going?!

This walk is so well organized. There are trucks for everything!

These are the trucks that carried our gear to the spot where we stayed each the night on the Boston walk. We packed in duffles on wheels.

We packed our clothes for each day in a separate ziploc bag so we didn't have to go hunting for clothes. We also packed our toiletries in ziplocs so we could

carry them to the shower trucks (more about that later!)

I guess we were truck D! There are walkers and there are crew on the 3-day. The walkers walk ... and walk ... and walk ... but the crew WORKS HARD!!!

Look in the back of this truck ... you'll see the tents. Everything is in that blue bag to set up the tent. And the best part is ... there's always a wonderful crew member to help you set up ("help" ... we do the work!!!)

And here's home!

Walkers decorate their tents ... we displayed a picture of us taken during that first summer of training ... and a sign prohibiting whining.

Everything in the tent was packed in our duffle.

So there you have it Trudy! Thank you for asking ... and for being by my side during this journey!

Beth ... my walk-mate

You will be seeing many pictures of my friend Beth throughout this blogging journey.

(Here we are at a quick stop on our first walk.)

She and I have done 3 walks together since 2000.

You know ... she looks great with horns, braids, and an orange in her mouth.

(remind me to find someone else to pose with!)

I don't think Beth will mind if I grab a little something from her SGK 3-day blog ...

"This will be my TENTH year and my TENTH walk! My tenth year of blisters. My tenth year of showering in a truck and going without a hair dryer for three days! But it won't be my tenth year of sleeping in a tent with a tent mate who snores."

Impressive isn't it? Beth has not only walked 9 times ... she has raised more than $3000 each time.

This year Beth will be walking with her 22 year old daughter Faye ... and I will be walking with Faye's friend, Debra, my (almost) 22 year old daughter.
I don't think Debra snores ... I don't know about Faye ...

wait a minute! I've been Beth's tent mate 3 times. I DON'T SNORE! much.

Fried Chicken

Here we were ... Beth and yours truly ... stretching out before beginning day 2 of our first cancer walk in 2000. I was having just a bit of trouble stretching out my short legs ... Beth, on the other hand, was bringing her leg up to and over her head! In the words of JH "duhr!"

The i-Pod is working again ... and today I "cooled down" to Queen singing "One Vision"


So give me your hands, give me your hearts... I'm ready
There's only one direction
One world, one nation, Yeah, one vision
No hate, no fight, just excitation
All through the night it's a celebration

Thank you Auntie Bee and Sarge Charlie, Trudy, and Nora ...

You have given me your hearts ... and continue to push me in the right direction!

ps ... "fried chicken?" Those are the last two words in One Vision. Go figure!

Blogging in two places!

I'm blogging in two places. Here and HERE

Now talk about challenges!

I'm late for work ... but I'll be back with a new picture later!

Have a great day ... and don't forget to comment!

My least favorite part of the walk

Thought you might like to see the sleeping arrangements at a 3-day.

This is a picture of the tents on my first walk. It was a sea of blue ...

This is my least favorite part of the walk. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and feeling a tad anxious!

I understand there are some walkers who actually check into a hotel at night!

Babies!!!

Speaking of technical difficulties (Jeter) ...

my i-Pod wasn't working this morning! I had to walk and sing without the back-up singers!

You're not supposed to walk with an i-Pod anyway. It's dangerous!

ps ... if you're reading this ... please leave a comment!

First donation!

This was the beginning of my walk in Massachusetts ...

There's someone to "cheer you on" every step of the way!

I was so excited to be notified that the first donation to Susan G. Komen was made on my behalf yesterday.

That will make me step a little livelier ...

I'm on my way!

Thank you!

Debra

This was the summer of 2000.

My daughters were very proud of what I was going to do.

The arrow is pointing to Debra. She was 13 years old.

Yesterday she bought her walking shoes!

I'm so proud of what she is going to do!

(and hopefully Sashi will join us!)

It's a good thing the treadmill is in the basement ... I did a quick walk this morning in my nightgown.

Whoa! Picture that!

Walk back in time

Thank you for coming to visit from the cat blogosphere. I hope that you'll continue to "walk with me" on my j2sf!

I have been taking a walk back in time, looking at photos from my first walk in 2000. It was from Bear Mountain-New York to New York City. We made our way through New Jersey for part of the walk.

That first walk was sponsored by Avon. It was an amazing experience.

Here I am on "day zero" with a woman named Tara who I met on the bus from the City to Bear Mountain. Tara is a survivor from Texas.

These banners were set up for us to write on. I dedicated my journey to Cynthia ... my childhood friend ... a 3 time survivor.

Thousands of women and men started day-one with us.

These are three friends from our team.

Queen was on the i-Pod this morning ... "Don't stop me now ... 'cuz I'm havin a good time ..."

Listen to Freddie Mercury sing it here!

Long Walk Home

"everybody has a neighbor

everybody has a friend

everybody has a reason to begin again"

I was listening to Bruce on my way to work the day I registered for the walk, and "Long Walk Home" was playing. That's when I knew that I was going to walk. I had let myself go ... but the 3-day is a reason to begin again.
And here's another reason to begin again.
Last year Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Everybody has a neighbor ... or a friend ... or a relative ... who has known what breast cancer means.
That's the reason why I'm taking the Long Walk.
Listen to Bruce sing "Long Walk Home" here!

First step

I took my first step today ...

It's so cold outside, so I walked on the treadmill.
Bruce was on the i-Pod and kept me going for a few miles.


I'm out of shape!

... and here I was ... taking my first step at Bear Mountain in 2000.

The adventure begins

Today I made the commitment to walk again.
Beth and I will walk with our daughters in San Francisco in October.
This time, I will walk in honor of my mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.

Tomorrow I'll start my training.
It has been so long.
I'll challenge myself ... physically and emotionally ...
I don't even want to think about raising the $2300 ...
One day at a time!