Thank You For Support of 3 Day Walkers
I wanted to thank you all for coming out in support of the 3 Day walkers. I am a survivor and was so happy to see you all in support of a great cause.
Go to the link and you will find my photo album- including a picture of one of your own with me. It is a picture that I will treasure.
Again- my many thanks for your support. I will walk again- and hope to see you again as well!
First- point your browser to this site: http://tinyurl.com/kylzf. Best viewed in slideshow mode.
Day One (8/18) was good- we started from the Zoo and were pretty fresh. I know I was as ready as I could get and had trained pretty vigourously. I was wrong in some respects.
First were the hills. We climbed things that you had to "stair step" up and side step down. Not a great way to start the day. In the midst of this we had Safety Crew only letting us cross the street when the light was green. If you had to wait, you stretched. There was a bit of film clip of one of our Safety guys. He was stationed at the bottom of a very steep incline and was shouting about not "Bowling for Walkers" as a funny way to tell walkers above to be careful.
I was tired when I hit camp but Mike was SO with me every step- he raced out in front of the walkers and cheered us on every chance he got. It was great to see him "lurking" around every corner and cheering us on.
Day Two (8/19) was significantly harder. One of my teammates is the daughter of a mother who passed six years ago 8/20 from Breast Cancer. We got to the 6.5 mark and were in Pit 2 when her husband called to tell her that he was picking her up- her maternal grandmother had just passed away- not cancer, age. We spent nearly an hour in that pit waiting for her husband to get all the way there and find us- I had the GPS running on my pack so could talk him in - then my other walk partner and I hit the road - HARD. We had time to make up at that point. We didn't bother with pit stops until we got to lunch. We had to stop there. Lunch is where you take off your shoes and change your socks. My right shoe had been giving me grief from the first mile and the result was a double blister on my small toe. I thought I could just walk around it. I was wrong. Another 30 minutes in Medical and I had both blisters lanced, enough moleskin to keep me going and we were back on the trail.
It is to note - if you are too far behind, they will "sweep" (put you in a van for a few miles) you to the next stop. Neither my walk partner or I were willing to be "swept."
The next 8 miles were like an extended tour of hell. We just wanted to die. My back ached from the pack I have to carry and I had shin splints so bad that I could hardly walk. Those 8 miles were up and down some of the worst inclines I have ever seen. We were on one major upslope for a mile. And then had to deal with the down slope. OUCH!!!
Again the cheerers kept us going. We were in too much pain to think the last few blocks - we just walked them. At the end, the Crew cheered us in along with our teammates who had waited for their shower and comfort to insure that we were okay. Better love hath no man...
Day 3 (8/20) started way too early. Mike brought me breakfast in bed at 4:00 a.m. - two ibuprophen, an Excedrin with caffeine, and a glass of water. He also got Tiger Balm into every aching joint (which was ALL of them).
My walk partner and I connected early and started our walk strategy - Just get this done. And we didn't care how.
Today we were pumped. The finish line was in sight. We just had to get there.
Any Minnesotan knows who the St Paul Winter Carnival Vulcans are. They found us and staked out a street corner. They painted awareness ribbons on our arms and posed for pictures as asked. They were great!
We had a hard time with the bridge walk (3.3 miles) from the Vulcans but made it to lunch. After lunch, we pulled up as many of the team as were left and walked the next 3.5 miles together to the last pit stop before the Capitol.
We gathered the whole team together and walked the last two miles together. THAT was great! There were people cheering us in nearly the whole way. Right now, if I heard a car horn I would probably wave and yell "Thank you." I did that all day for three days.
In the final 1/4 mile all of the available crew, walkers, and supporters line up to cheer us in. I cried - as I had done numerous times over the weekend - to see that level of support. It was amazing!
I have to tell you about the "traveling couch." One man with a truck could be found EVERYWHERE on the route. And with him was a sofa. Very comfy - I know because I sat in it.
This is the story as told by the wife (Terese Rowekamp) of the man and the truck:
Jody Rowekamp lost her 4-year battle with breast cancer July 23rd at the age of 39. I had decided a couple of months ago to do the 3 Day Walk in support of Jody - after she died, it became a walk in her memory. My sister had also signed up in support of Jody and other friends with breast cancer.
The morning of the second day of the walk, my sister and I were surprised by a group of supporters cheering us on (my husband, his siblings and their children - Jody's husband, Dave, is my husband's brother). With the group of people was a couch (which was in the process of being moved to my daughter's college apartment - Jody and Dave had given the couch to her). We thought it was great that the people were there, and the couch being there was kind of funny.
Much to our surprise, about 2 miles later we rounded a corner, and the people and the couch were there again. This happened 4 more times the second day of the walk - the people in the group changed, but the couch was a constant. After the second or third sighting of the couch, walkers began stopping to sit on it and have their picture taken on it. As we would round a corner and see the couch, I would hear other people exclaim "There's the Couch People!"
And sometime during the day, someone in the group of relatives realized that a very fitting thing was happening - Jody's couch was giving some comfort to 3 Day walkers who were in need of a respite. And the Couch People were providing a lift, too.
At the end of the day, I didn't expect to see the couch again, but on the morning of the third day we rounded a corner and there was my husband and the couch. He was on his own and had gotten walkers to help unload the couch from his van. The couch showed up three more times (including a last stop at the capital), and Dave joined the group of Couch People again with his daughter (12) and son (8). And Dave and his 12-year old daughter began to tell walkers the story of the couch - about Jody and how the couch was hers. The story touched many people.
It has been a week and I am still on crying jags. This experience was amazing. I had a unique opportunity to discover what I can do if I am willing to try. I had said that the experience would be similar to jumping out of an airplane. It was that and more.
I WALKED 63 MILES! And I am not done yet. I registered for 2007 too. For those who keep track of such things, Twin Cities walkers raised $6.3 MILLION dollars toward a cure!
People kept saying "Thank You." It is us who should thank each and every one of them. The people who came out to cheer and support us made the whole thing so much easier. It was great to come to a cheering section and see all of the people who were willing to spend their Saturday encouraging us. A woman particularly stands out in my mind. On Saturday a dark gold minivan could be seen on virtually every street. The driver, a woman, was wearing oversized pink sunglasses and waving a pink boa scarf. She must have passed us a dozen times. Walking through one neighbourhood, we saw her standing in front of her van with a bowl of candy. Not two blocks later, she was back on the streets, honking and waving at the walkers.
On Sunday we saw her again. This time she found a driver. She was hanging out the passenger’s window cheering. She followed the walkers to lunch. What a neat lady!
It is impossible to put into words all of the experience. I am trying to journal specific things but it is hard. There was so much compressed into three short days.
Go through the album - you will see the couch, the duck that infiltrated camp (and camper’s tents), the huge number of walkers united for a cause. It’s pretty amazing.
I would never have made it through this without Mike. His love and support for something I believe so strongly in made it do-able. He was everywhere supporting - not only me - but every walker he cheered on. At the first cheering station on Day 3, a woman remarked that she had seen him many times before and that if she saw him again, she would give him a hug. Sure enough, there he was under a shady tree as we crossed the street to University of St Thomas. And he got his hug. The woman then told him, “You just hugged a nun!” And Mike responded with, “What? Nuns don’t need hugs?” The support that he has been to all will be treasured by many. Certainly by me.
My thanks again to each one of you that contributed to this goal for me. I will do it again next year and for as long as I can. Each step brings us closer to a day when cancer is no longer the killer it is today. Each walker serves as a reminder to be aware.
I should have the next web site up in November or so. Until then, I have fundraisers set up for 9/28 at Bobby and Steve’s Auto World on 35 E and County 14. The Embers Restaurant there will donate 10% of their dining total to the 3 Day in my fundraising account. I also have a pancake breakfast set up at Applebee’s in Forest Lake from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on October 7. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Looking forward to the next 60 miles!
Tricia