Here's a typed version of my 3-Day journal:
9/23/05 - Day 1
On Friday I walked for my Aunt Pammy, the first in my family to be diagnosed with breast cancer. I made a t-shirt to wear for her day w/ her name and picture on the front and the list of all the women I was walking for on the back.
We woke up at 4 am and left for Sesame Place at 5 am. Mom and my step-dad Bob drove me and my friend Meghan, who was walking with me. We called ourselves Team M&M. We arrived at Sesame Place and prepared for Opening Ceremonies. I was raring to go and full of energy. They let us leave through the gate and Meghan and I were holding hands and practically skipping out to the walk. Elmo and Cookie Monster were there cheering us on. How cute!
We walked a bit fast, but slowed down to talk to some of the other walkers along the way. Our favorite was a lady walking in flip flops. We asked her if she was ok, and she said, "Fine. Two miles in sneakers, one in flip flops." We passed her 3 times that day. She was going to be doing another 3-Day in a couple of weeks. Amazing!
The first day was long. They said it would be 23 miles, but someone with a GPS said it was 25.6 miles. We all agreed that it was more than 23. At the afternoon cheer station, my Dad, Aunt Carol, Mom, and Bob were there to cheer us on. Aunt Carol got me a gift, a pink HOPE bracelette. My cousin Tammi was also there, but she had to leave to pick up her kids from school, so we missed her, but she did see me on the evening news that night, walking exhausted into camp.
Camp was great, but we were too tired to enjoy it. Meghan was feeling sick, so they carried her to the medical tent and she was put on two bags of IV. She got red tagged, which means that she couldn't walk until she got cleared from the medical staff. But other than Meghan's medical emergency, camp was really nice. Hot showers, good food, entertainment, shopping, etc. But all I really wanted was to sleep. I crashed out at 8 pm.
9/24/05 - Day 2
I woke up at 5 am, bright and early. Actually, it wasn't bright yet, the sun wasn't up. I went and got some breakfast while Meghan slept in for a few more minutes. Then we packed up and got ready for Day 2. Meghan was cleared from medical, so off we went at a much slower pace. I was a bit sore and stiff and so was Meghan, but it was a beautiful, cool morning.
We made it to Pit Stop #1 and Meghan was getting a fever. She went to medical and they red flagged her. She was very upset that she couldn't walk, but they told her that she was already overheating.
I went on without her. By the time I got to the next pit stop, I was in a lot of pain. I took some Motrin, bioice-ed my legs, checked my feet, and went on. I think I made it one more mile before taking a sweep van to the next pit stop.
The pit stops are about 3 miles apart. They are the oasis on the walk. The pit stops have port-a-potties, water, sports drink, snacks, and medical crew. They tell us to "stretch, hydrate, and eliminate" during our visits to the pit stops.
At the next pit stop I checked my feet again and massaged them. I rested for a little while and then got up to walk to lunch stop. It seemed to last forever, but I made it. I grabbed some lunch and sat down with Meghan, who was there cheering on the walkers. I wasn't feeling very good at this point. I felt a little light headed and sitting and eating lunch didn't help. I went to medical and they checked me out. I was starting to over heat. I had a slight temp and my blood pressure was high as well as my pulse. They made me lay down and hydrate. I didn’t need to get an IV, but I was done walking for the day. I only walked 10 miles. I was walking for my Aunt Anita on Saturday. They say that the second day is the hardest day, and they are right. The t-shirt I was wearing for Anita was cut by the medical staff. I’ll make her a new one.
Meghan and I took the bus back to camp. It took awhile to wait for the bus. Larry, the crew chief at the lunch stop, kept coming over to the bus line with water and sports drinks and snacks to keep us hydrated and fed. He’s wonderful. He spends his vacation time crewing at 3-days around the country. He was also very helpful on the message boards, so I was glad that I got to meet him.
Meghan and I got back to camp and set up our tent. We checked out the camp a little bit more this time. We checked out the 3-Day café, watched a video on self exams, signed thank you cards to people on the 3-day. We ate, got showered, and crashed out early.
9/25/05 - Day 3
Day 3 was here. The last day! Only 14 miles to walk. Meghan was still red carded, so she couldn’t walk until maybe lunch. She stayed behind and packed up the tent and other tents around ours, while I set off on Day 3.
We started at Chestnut Hill College. They started us with a huge hill that lasted forever. I thought I was dine, but I made it up and we walked through Chestnut Hill. I fell in line with another walker and we talked for awhile. She was a seminary student at Princeton University.
I made it to Pit Stop #1 and still felt good. I made sure to stretch often and hydrate well. They recommend 1 bottle of water and 1 bottle of sports drink between stops and I made sure to keep up with it because I didn’t want to start over heating again.
Along the route are inspirational messages to keep up going and I kept on going. We walked into Fairmount Park and it was beautiful. I felt really good, like it was a walk in the park. Haha. Then we went up another really big hill. We came out of the park and continued up the really big hill. At the top of the hill was the next pit stop. They told us to stretch really good because we’d be walking down a steep hill. At this point we were in Manayunk and we walked down Green Street (which is steeper than the wall in my opinion). We made it down to Main Street and another cheering station motivated us to go on. The Boston Walkers were there too to cheer us on.
We walked down Kelly Drive and back into Fairmount Park. We walked along West Side Drive to lunch stop. I met up with Meghan and ate lunch. Medical cleared her to walk the last 3 miles, so when they opened up the last of the route at 11:45, we continued through Fairmount Park to the holding area. By the last mile I was limping. My left hip was starting to give out which put too much pressure on my left knee, so my left leg started to get weak and wobbly, but I kept going. We made it to the holding area where a huge cheering crowd was there to greet us. We got new t-shirts for closing ceremonies. I went over to camp services and signed up again for next year. I told myself that if I could make it through the last day, I would do it again next year. And next year I will learn from my mistakes and walk all 60 miles. Meghan signed up too.
Meghan and I cheered on the other walkers as they were coming in. Mom found us among the crowd. On Sunday I was wearing my Grandmom t-shirt because I was walking in celebration of my Grandmom
For closing ceremonies the walkers walked in followed by the crew and then followed by the survivors. Mom said there were a lot of survivors, but we could see because we were up front. The walkers raised a shoe to the survivors. It’s kind of a 3-Day toast. There were 2,000 walkers in Philadelphia, over 300 crew and we raised over $6 million. Wow!
I was exhausted. We went back to my house and Bob had made us dinner. We ate veal marsala and then everyone went home. As soon as everyone left, I went up to bed and slept for over 14 hours. I took Monday off from work, so I had a relaxing day and sat down and wrote out my 3-Day journal while it was still fresh in my mind. Words can’t really describe what it is like, but I hope I did it justice. Thanks again to all my donors!
www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=459489419203&page=1&sort_order=0
