AWBC: Wows & Ows
Nearly 30 hours ago, I crossed the finish line at L'Enfant Plaza -- completing all 39.3 miles of the 2005 Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Washington, DC. Yes, I'm just now getting this (very very long) message sent.
History: the (sob) story of 2004.
I didn't make it last year. Last year, I trained for the event, I fundraised for the event, and I was good & ready for the event. But last year, I got sick as a dog the week-before and wasn't able to do it. I hated not walking. I really did. But it really was best that I didn't. As it turned out, I didn't really get "better" until nearly a week later.
And now that I've done it, I can't imagine having tried to walk a marathon-and-a-half worth of mileage at anything less than 100% of my health.
Wow: I did it!
I wasn't sure I was going to make it. Due to various (over-)scheduling I hadn't trained nearly as well as last year. But I was determined to do my best. And I did it. I fundraised (as you all well know!). I did what training I could. I bought the right equipment (love Metro Run & Walk!!). And best of all, I had the complete support of all of my friends.
More Wow:
There were so many great people on the walk, I don't think I could begin to name them all, but I'd like to give special notice to a few of them:
* Megaphone Guy (Phil?): This guy was hilarious. His wife was walking and he kept showing up, leapfrogging the walkers. Each time a group of walkers came into sight, he'd let out a "Waaaay to go waaaaalkers!" on his megaphone, and as time went by, he came up with sillier and sillier rhymes.
* Dog Guy: Same idea, but with a pair of beautiful dogs in the back of his minivan. I'm sure he'd have let them out to greet us in person, but I can't blame him... spending the day with that much Wet Dog Smell(tm) in his van woulda tried ANYONE's patience.
* Cow Guy: Yeah, there was a guy on the route dressed in an udder-ly ludicrous COW outfit, complete with cow puns. More leapfrogging, to make sure we saw him over and over. Sunday morning, he and his bunch even handed out doughnut holes from Krispy Kreme.
* Team Wench Rocks. Together, we managed to raise nearly $17,000 (our team page total shows short of that, but doesn't include monies turned in on Event Eve). Thanks to every single person who donated, whether $2 or $500 or anything in between.
* Within TW, special thanks to:
~~ Kathy and her Route Marking crew for making sure that we knew where the heck we were going. I only took one wrong turn and it was because neither me nor the person I was walking/talking with were paying enough attention. Fortunately, the next couple of folks over the hill saw us about a block away and yelled. *sigh* I blame 30+ miles of walking.
~~ Lynne and her Gear & Tent crew for making sure that our bags were all where they should be, and for offering to make sure my tent got put up (though my tentmate arrived at the Wellness Villiage ~2 hours before me and took care of it before she could do it herself!). They had a really rough job since the entire field where the tents were was turned into field soup by the torrential rain all day long.
~~ Misty and her overeager crew at (lemme see if I can remember them all): Saturday Rest Stop ONE, Saturday Rest Stop SIX, and Sunday Lunch. These folks were completely nuts and helped keep the walkers in good spirits.
~~ Let's not forget my fellow walkers, Chris, Cindy, and Jamie, the latter two of whom were the final walkers over the finish line to a huge round of applause.
~~ And let's not forget the not-officially-doing-the-AWBC member of TW, Rivka, who brought me clean (and dry!!) changes of clothes, not once but TWICE during the weekend, and then gave me a ride home so I didn't have to figure out how to work a clutch with legs that were uncooperative.
* A potential new TW recruit who walked the last few miles with me on Sunday. She's our kind of people and likes MDRF. Yeah, I think she'll fit right in.
* One particular young lady who was on her first-ever Big Walk(tm) and allowed herself to be bullied by me to get onto the sweep van at ~21.5 on Saturday. I did manage to run into her at the finish line and she'd been sidelined by the doc and told that she needed to NOT walk anymore (including Sunday). I know it was hard for her, but her health was more important than finishing.
* My tentmate, John, who knew a thing or two about camping and was smart enough to set the tarp in one of the two intelligent places that didn't let our tent get flooded overnight.
* Richard, who trained with me for 2004 but who I'd managed to lose track of... I didn't see him all weekend, but then at breakfast on Sunday, there he was. What a great way to start the day!
* Each person who saw the Team Wench badge and smiled and either knew who we were or asked about us. I must've told 30 people and even ran into a couple of folks who had been at last year's MSFB but didn't know we did the AWBC too!
* Each person who saw the "wings" for what they were, and commented on them. Sorry, folks, you can't buy these in stores! ;-)
* All of the various individuals who walked with me for various portions of the walk. Thanks to every last one of them. The brief snippets of conversation and camaraderie and insights into their lives were an honor.
* Apparently, this year's walk was unique in that the route managed to walk past each of the Avon Foundation's beneficiaries. That was cool.
p.s. Does anyone know just how many Starbucks we passed?
Ow. (aka "My aches have aches & my blisters have blisters.")
I'm mostly recovered now, but am REALLY happy that I took today off work(**). My right let still twinges each time I move, especially in the Achilles tendon /and/ only really hurts when I flex and/or stretch it. My left leg is pretty much the same except that my Achilles on that side seems to have (mostly) forgiven me.
BTW, this part includes medical TMI -- you've been warned!
Though it rained most of Saturday and all of Saturday night and off-and-on on Sunday, I managed to keep mostly rain-dry (sweat-dry is another story entirely--TMI). A few miles past the halfway-point on Saturday, I began to feel a blister or two forming up, so I checked in with the Medical folks at Rest Stop Four (Five?). They took a look and sure enough, I had two big ugly active blisters and a couple of pending ones. Moleskin is my friend (side note: I'd be curious to find out just how many ACRES of that stuff got doled out by the Med Staff!). I felt better for most of the rest of the day's walk, but repeated this stop on Sunday at Rest Stop TWo (in front of the Japanese Embassy). Yeah, the blisters were back and this time the ones that had been lanced before needed *another* lancing and two *more* (that hadn't bothered me on Saturday) needed treatment. Oh yeah, and one MORE round at L'Enfant Plaza. But all in all, seven blisters in nearly 40 miles sounds like one hell of a deal to me! :)
(**) Quoting from my official Employee Manual:
"[My Employer] encourages all employees to engage in volunteer charitable activities that give back to the communities where they live and work. Qualifying organizations could include a favorite not for profit charity (including a religious charity), or civic, environmental or other community causes. [...] To further that end, [My Employer] will provide paid time off to full-time regular employees up to two days per year, for these activities."
Does they rock or what?!?!?
Thanks again to every single person who helped make this walk happen.
Wow.
--
Ralph/Sas
--
Help support breast cancer research by pledging: Avon Walk, Apr30/May1
http://www.avonwalk.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1091&px=1238800
-=* Walking in memory of two wonderful women who lost their fight *=-
-=* Roberta "Bobbi" Dresser, 6Sept1940 - 9Mar2004 *=-
-=* Cheryl Smith, 22Sept1944 - 3Feb2004 *=-
-=* Please help stop this disease today *=-
EDIT: Yeah, as tchwrtr got out of me... I've already registered for NEXT year's walk to do it again.
History: the (sob) story of 2004.
I didn't make it last year. Last year, I trained for the event, I fundraised for the event, and I was good & ready for the event. But last year, I got sick as a dog the week-before and wasn't able to do it. I hated not walking. I really did. But it really was best that I didn't. As it turned out, I didn't really get "better" until nearly a week later.
And now that I've done it, I can't imagine having tried to walk a marathon-and-a-half worth of mileage at anything less than 100% of my health.
Wow: I did it!
I wasn't sure I was going to make it. Due to various (over-)scheduling I hadn't trained nearly as well as last year. But I was determined to do my best. And I did it. I fundraised (as you all well know!). I did what training I could. I bought the right equipment (love Metro Run & Walk!!). And best of all, I had the complete support of all of my friends.
More Wow:
There were so many great people on the walk, I don't think I could begin to name them all, but I'd like to give special notice to a few of them:
* Megaphone Guy (Phil?): This guy was hilarious. His wife was walking and he kept showing up, leapfrogging the walkers. Each time a group of walkers came into sight, he'd let out a "Waaaay to go waaaaalkers!" on his megaphone, and as time went by, he came up with sillier and sillier rhymes.
* Dog Guy: Same idea, but with a pair of beautiful dogs in the back of his minivan. I'm sure he'd have let them out to greet us in person, but I can't blame him... spending the day with that much Wet Dog Smell(tm) in his van woulda tried ANYONE's patience.
* Cow Guy: Yeah, there was a guy on the route dressed in an udder-ly ludicrous COW outfit, complete with cow puns. More leapfrogging, to make sure we saw him over and over. Sunday morning, he and his bunch even handed out doughnut holes from Krispy Kreme.
* Team Wench Rocks. Together, we managed to raise nearly $17,000 (our team page total shows short of that, but doesn't include monies turned in on Event Eve). Thanks to every single person who donated, whether $2 or $500 or anything in between.
* Within TW, special thanks to:
~~ Kathy and her Route Marking crew for making sure that we knew where the heck we were going. I only took one wrong turn and it was because neither me nor the person I was walking/talking with were paying enough attention. Fortunately, the next couple of folks over the hill saw us about a block away and yelled. *sigh* I blame 30+ miles of walking.
~~ Lynne and her Gear & Tent crew for making sure that our bags were all where they should be, and for offering to make sure my tent got put up (though my tentmate arrived at the Wellness Villiage ~2 hours before me and took care of it before she could do it herself!). They had a really rough job since the entire field where the tents were was turned into field soup by the torrential rain all day long.
~~ Misty and her overeager crew at (lemme see if I can remember them all): Saturday Rest Stop ONE, Saturday Rest Stop SIX, and Sunday Lunch. These folks were completely nuts and helped keep the walkers in good spirits.
~~ Let's not forget my fellow walkers, Chris, Cindy, and Jamie, the latter two of whom were the final walkers over the finish line to a huge round of applause.
~~ And let's not forget the not-officially-doing-the-AWBC member of TW, Rivka, who brought me clean (and dry!!) changes of clothes, not once but TWICE during the weekend, and then gave me a ride home so I didn't have to figure out how to work a clutch with legs that were uncooperative.
* A potential new TW recruit who walked the last few miles with me on Sunday. She's our kind of people and likes MDRF. Yeah, I think she'll fit right in.
* One particular young lady who was on her first-ever Big Walk(tm) and allowed herself to be bullied by me to get onto the sweep van at ~21.5 on Saturday. I did manage to run into her at the finish line and she'd been sidelined by the doc and told that she needed to NOT walk anymore (including Sunday). I know it was hard for her, but her health was more important than finishing.
* My tentmate, John, who knew a thing or two about camping and was smart enough to set the tarp in one of the two intelligent places that didn't let our tent get flooded overnight.
* Richard, who trained with me for 2004 but who I'd managed to lose track of... I didn't see him all weekend, but then at breakfast on Sunday, there he was. What a great way to start the day!
* Each person who saw the Team Wench badge and smiled and either knew who we were or asked about us. I must've told 30 people and even ran into a couple of folks who had been at last year's MSFB but didn't know we did the AWBC too!
* Each person who saw the "wings" for what they were, and commented on them. Sorry, folks, you can't buy these in stores! ;-)
* All of the various individuals who walked with me for various portions of the walk. Thanks to every last one of them. The brief snippets of conversation and camaraderie and insights into their lives were an honor.
* Apparently, this year's walk was unique in that the route managed to walk past each of the Avon Foundation's beneficiaries. That was cool.
p.s. Does anyone know just how many Starbucks we passed?
Ow. (aka "My aches have aches & my blisters have blisters.")
I'm mostly recovered now, but am REALLY happy that I took today off work(**). My right let still twinges each time I move, especially in the Achilles tendon /and/ only really hurts when I flex and/or stretch it. My left leg is pretty much the same except that my Achilles on that side seems to have (mostly) forgiven me.
BTW, this part includes medical TMI -- you've been warned!
Though it rained most of Saturday and all of Saturday night and off-and-on on Sunday, I managed to keep mostly rain-dry (sweat-dry is another story entirely--TMI). A few miles past the halfway-point on Saturday, I began to feel a blister or two forming up, so I checked in with the Medical folks at Rest Stop Four (Five?). They took a look and sure enough, I had two big ugly active blisters and a couple of pending ones. Moleskin is my friend (side note: I'd be curious to find out just how many ACRES of that stuff got doled out by the Med Staff!). I felt better for most of the rest of the day's walk, but repeated this stop on Sunday at Rest Stop TWo (in front of the Japanese Embassy). Yeah, the blisters were back and this time the ones that had been lanced before needed *another* lancing and two *more* (that hadn't bothered me on Saturday) needed treatment. Oh yeah, and one MORE round at L'Enfant Plaza. But all in all, seven blisters in nearly 40 miles sounds like one hell of a deal to me! :)
(**) Quoting from my official Employee Manual:
"[My Employer] encourages all employees to engage in volunteer charitable activities that give back to the communities where they live and work. Qualifying organizations could include a favorite not for profit charity (including a religious charity), or civic, environmental or other community causes. [...] To further that end, [My Employer] will provide paid time off to full-time regular employees up to two days per year, for these activities."
Does they rock or what?!?!?
Thanks again to every single person who helped make this walk happen.
Wow.
--
Ralph/Sas
--
Help support breast cancer research by pledging: Avon Walk, Apr30/May1
http://www.avonwalk.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1091&px=1238800
-=* Walking in memory of two wonderful women who lost their fight *=-
-=* Roberta "Bobbi" Dresser, 6Sept1940 - 9Mar2004 *=-
-=* Cheryl Smith, 22Sept1944 - 3Feb2004 *=-
-=* Please help stop this disease today *=-
EDIT: Yeah, as tchwrtr got out of me... I've already registered for NEXT year's walk to do it again.