3-Day For the Cure Seattle 2010

So, last week Shanti and I participated in the Susan G Komen 3-Day for the Cure. We walked 60 miles in 3 days with 2,480 other walkers in an event that raised $6 million. 15 cities will host this event, and more than $100 million will be raised.

On a personal level, this event is life-changing. I'm not the same person I was before I participated in 2006, and I know Shanti isn't the same person he was before doing the The Walk this year.

For all of you wondering, I'll give you a summary of what we experienced over the 3 days, and a link to our photos is at the end.

(Before we even flew up to Seattle, we were getting tons of support! Chika and Miles surprised us at the airport with hugs and a 2 Babes & A Boob flag.)

We woke up at 4:30 AM on Day 1 in the Red Lion Inn, so we'd have time to get breakfast with hundreds of other sleepy peeps decked out in pink. Then we took a bus to Opening Ceremony at 60 Acres Park. It was chilly and dark, and I couldn't believe I was doing this walk again!

As the sun rose and the sky turned a gorgeous 3-Day Pink, Opening Ceremony began. Thank you to all our sponsors, tear-jerking speeches to remind us why we're here, then 8 survivors who are walking take up 8 flags to the center stage. Each of these flags bears the name of a group of people who we have lost "Grandmothers" "Daughters" "Spouses" etc. There's lots of crying.

And then suddenly we're walking! Now, don't go thinking we walk 20 endless miles each day. This is an example of a day's schedule:

Lots of pit stops! So what's a pit stop? It's where you get water, Gatorade (available in 4 yummy flavors), potato chips, granola bars, pretzels, etc. And port-a-potties, lots and lots of port-a-potties! The theme of the 3Day is "Drink, pee, no I.V.!" Seriously, I was drinking 4 liters of water every day, plus Gatorade. We'd eat at least 2 bags of chips each day to keep our sodium levels up, and we'd pee at EVERY pit stop. That's how you stave off dehydration and kidney failure. 60 miles is hard enough!

In addition to the chips and such were these awesome graham-wiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiched between two graham crackers and wrapped up like an ice cream sandwich. OH MY GOD!!!! You can't eat enough of those! (Although we were sick of them by Day 2!)

Day 1 took us from Opening Ceremony (in Bothell?) to camp (near Boeing Field?) -- I know we walked through Woodinville. So, you walk 22.5 miles... and then you have to set up your tent and unpack. Camp is a sea of pink tents in front of a virtual city: food tents, drink tents, shower trucks, banks of port-a-potties, a place to play BINGO, a tent to get massages, and remembrance tents for those walkers who aren't with us anymore.

We ate, showered, collected our mail and PASSED OUT! Collected our mail? Yes, because our friends and family could pre-send us letters of encouragement directly to a post office tent at camp! We got 3 letters from my parents, 2 from Shannon, and a letter each from Katy, Kelly, Ina, Grandma & Papa, and the Conrads (if I forgot anyone, I'm very sorry!!!!). We spread out these letters to last the whole 3 days, and they really lifted our spirits and helped us push beyond the pain.

So... Day 2. Now, you'd be thinking Day 3 is the worst. WRONG! The 3 days are front-loaded, so you walk 22.5 miles on Days 1 & 2 and only 15 on Day 3. So, Day 2 is just as long as Day 1, but you are dog-tired. And sore. And all those blisters you didn't prepare for are ripe. And my pinky toe was unhappy!

Day 2 is a loop that begins and ends in camp. Our route took us through beautiful Everett. Many many people came out to cheer us on and pass out water, hugs, breakfast burritos, candy, and cookies. An entire block leading up to lunch was dedicated to Mama Fox, who passed away in 2008 after an 11-year fight with breast cancer. The sidewalks are lined with photos of her with family, and her family and friends are clapping and cheering and thanking all the walkers.

A note on cheering. Imagine if, everywhere you walked, people lined the streets and thanked you. That is the 3 day. Every single mile packed with survivors in wheelchairs, widows with their children, children with signs that say "Thank You For Giving Me a Cancer-Free Future." You laugh and you cry, and you can't believe people are thanking you for putting one foot in front of the other. I wish we could have had some of our family there to cheer us on like we had at San Diego, but even the thank you's from strangers warmed our hearts and pushed us onward.

Back to Day 2... So, at lunch, I opened up my shoes to discover my pinky toe was now in the shape of a cube, rather than a cylinder. I cried and told Shanti I wasn't giving up. We ate lunch, and Shanti bandaged me up as best he could, and we limped the 2.5 miles to the next pit stop. Thank goodness there was a medical tent there!!! The ROCKIN' RN there had the superb idea of turning my right shoe into a convertible. Just cutting out the part where the pinky toe was. And that, my friends, did the trick. So, I walked the remainder of Day 2 and all of Day 3 wearing a new ASICS on my left foot and an old convertible New Balance on my right. :-)

Coming back to camp on Day 2 was very, very emotional. I cried the last mile, because -- when I did the 3-Day in 2006 -- I couldn't finish Day 2 due to a golf-ball-sized blister on my heel. Those 1.5 miles I didn't finish in '06 have haunted me ever since, so I was damned determined to finish Day 2!!!

A 1:00AM between Days 2 and 3, the rain started. We were prepared for this, with a tarp over our tent, our suitcases packed and inside the tent with us, and everything else wrapped in garbage bags and ziplocs. Plus, the sound of the pouring rain drowned out that woman who snored non-stop all night! But, getting up on the morning of Day 3 in the rain, breaking down the tent (and throwing away our air mattress that had a hole in it), slugging through the mud to get breakfast, and then getting on the bus... yeah, not so much fun. They bussed us to somewhere in Redmond, and that's where Day 3 began.

Like I said, Day 3 is only 15.7 miles, but you have to walk up and over Capitol Hill to get there. Capitol Hill, by the way, is the tallest hill in Seattle. Isn't that nice? Well, the weather was awful, but the neighborhoods were gorgeous, and our arrival at lunch meant we were in the final stretch. Dooooowwwwwwn into Seattle's downtown, along the water, back uuuuuuuuuppppppp through the Seattle Art Museum's sculpture garden and on to Seattle Center. Our finish line was right in front of Memorial Stadium, which sits almost at the base of the Space Needle. The whole final mile was clapping and cheering, and I cried the whole way.

When we finally got to the finish line, we were directed down below the stadium, where we collected our stylish white shirts and waited. At 4PM, we were positioned at the outside of the stadium in rows of 10, and first the walkers filed in. The stands of the stadium were filled with supporters, family members, and friends -- all the people that had cheered us on all 3 days. Once we were all in, then came the Crew members: all the medical personnel, the people who staffed the pit stops, the people who fed us and helped us through traffic. Finally, in came the Survivors, and they always get special pink shirts, and we all take off and hold up one shoe to show that we walk with them.

Everything finished with the flag ceremony and some more tear-jerking speeches, and then we were DONE! Shanti and I stayed at the Hilton that night, and we ate room service till we burst. :-)

For photos of most everything I mentioned here, this is the slide show: