SGK Washington, DC Walk – Day 3

After accepting a little bit of defeat on Day 2, I woke up ready for Day 3 of the walk!

Day 3 is here and I'm ready!!!

 

Me and some of my team mates waiting for the Day 3 route to open.

The nice thing about Day 3 of the walk is that the mileage is a little bit less to ensure that everyone will make it to the end of the walk in time for Closing Ceremony. There is also a certain level of energy and excitement knowing that the 60 miles is almost over and the impact that I’ve made.

A lot of the Day 3 route covered portions of the city that we had previously walked on Day 1 and 2. Although I never really thought about it, geographically Washington, DC isn’t that big. I really didn’t mind re-walking certain parts since the city is so beautiful!

One of my biggest surprises of the day was that a friend of mine who lives in the area came out to cheer me on and was at the first cheering station!

Claire, Willis, and Me

I can’t explain how good it felt to see a friendly, familiar face out in the crowd! With the exception of my walk in Tampa last year, I have been fortunate to have family and friends attend my walks which does my heart (and feet!) a world of good.

A couple of other unknown people who did my heart good were these two gentlemen:

I have no idea what their names are, although I know that that I saw them from Day 1 when the walk started all the way until the end of Day 3 when the walk ended. So I had to stop and take a picture with them. The gentleman on the left told me that his wife and daughter were walking and they were out to support them.

I walked behind this sign attached to a walker for awhile:

 Can you believe that she is a 3 time survivor out walking a 3 day, 60 mile walk?! Amazing! Although I didn't talk to her when I snapped the picture, I did see her later at a Pit Stop. I had to go over that I had read her sign earlier and how happy I wass that she was here with us walking.

Before I knew it I was quickly approaching the end of the walk. And guess who was at the finish waiting for me?

Me, Willis, and Claire at the Finsh!

It was great walking across the finish with all of my Angels for the Cure team mates who walked DC. At every walk, The Angels walk into the finish together. Although I never mentioned it, I walked this walk with my friend Claire and this was her first time walking. and honestly, I don't think this will be her last walk.

Closing Ceremony was just as emotional for me as Opening Ceremony. It is so hard to put into words all of the emotions that I felt. I thought about my family and friends who have battled this disease. I thought about all of the people I walk 'In Honor Of' and 'In Memory Of' with their names attached to hearts on my fanny pack. As we gave a One Shoe Salute to the Survivors, I thoughts about all of the Survivors that I know and who walked with me the past three days.

One Shoe Salute to Survivors

And as the Survivors Flag was raised and waved in the wind with the words 'We Will Never Give Up', I thought about the impact that I have made and that I can't stop walking until a cure is found.

 

SGK Washington, DC Walk – Day 2

Little did I know how difficult Day 2 of the walk was going to be! Partially due to my training being inconsistent this year and mainly due to HILLS! Hills and LOTS of them!

I never thought about DC being a hilly city. (Ok, yes I have heard of Capitol Hill, although…I didn’t realize it is an actual hill until I walked it!) The most deceiving part is that the hills are long and slow gradual inclines and they last about 2 miles before leveling off and only to start again.

The great thing is that our Walker Stalkers were at our first cheering station of the day!

Angels for the Cure - Walkers and Walker Stalkers

 

After switching our accommodations, we realized that our hotel was only about a ½ mile from the first cheering station and that much of the Day 2 walk was in walking distance for our Walker Stalkers. This was great since parking is a premium in DC and it allowed the Walker Stalkers to get in some training miles for their upcoming Dallas 3-Day Walk.

Once we arrived at lunch, my feet and legs were really feeling the toll of walking the hills. So I decided that I would take a sweep van to the next Pit Stop and catch up with my team there. Although I hated to take the sweep van, I knew that it was important for me to be able to save my feet for the miles ahead of me. And little did I know that I would end up taking the sweep van again to take me to Camp for the end of the day. I’ll be honest, this is my 6^th 3-Day event and I have learned to listen to my body (ok, my feet!). And there’s no shame in taking a sweep van especially if continuing on might result in an unnecessary injury.

I almost forgot! At the end of Day 1, I did check the Camp Post Office and I had mail and Sweet Treats from family and friends! I have to admit that the mail is one of the highlights of the event although I typically don't provide my family and friends with the address to send me mail. It's nice to know that people are thinking of me and their words of encouragement really help to get me through the miles.

SGK Washington, DC Walk – Day 1

My team mates and I arrived at the DC Armory nice and early for the first day of the walk. We also met up with the other 5 Dallas Angels for the Cure team mates who would be walking as well. We had time to register our SmartCards with Facebook for automatic check-ins during the next three days. (If anyone is a 3 Day Walker, I will recommend bypassing the long line for this. Basically it’s 3 check-ins each day of the walk and I’m certain that you will probably already be checking in at key points throughout the day anyway)

For me the Open Ceremony is always emotional. I think about what brought me to this place…my family, my friends, my donors, and all of the people who I walk for. I also think about all of the people I will meet over the next 3 days and what their story is. I think about all of the people I pass on the streets who are there to cheer us on and what their stories are. All I know is that I’m where I’m supposed to be and couldn’t imagine not being there.

Before I knew it the walk was starting!

I did have the chance to take pictures with Santa AKA Mr. December 2012 of the 60 Mile Men and with Gerald who is walking all 14 cities this year! Yes, that means 840 miles and raising over $32,000. How amazing is he??? I later learned that Gerald's Father had passed away the night before and he had just arrived at the DC walk that morning. His family wanted him to be with his PINK family and decided to have his Father's burial after his return on Monday.

 

The route took us past the Pentagon Row and I was able to see a small portion of the 9-11 Memorial. A friend who toured the memorial a few months ago told me that depending on how you read the names on the benches, it depicts whether the person was in the air or on the ground of the day of the attack.

 
I had the honor of carrying the 'Grandmother' flag for 3 miles of the walk. My Grandmother was a breast cancer survivor and is the reason for my passion for finding a cure for breast cancer which will hopefully lead to a cure for other types of cancer. My Grandmother was always an important part of my life, and I could not have imagined growing up without her.

I also had the pleasure of seeing the SGK National Spokesperson Dr. Sheri Phillips! She is such an inspiration and I was glad she had a few moments to take a picture and chat.

We also walked past the Georgetown Waterfront which was absolutely gorgeous! While in the area I had a chance to see Georgetown Cupcake and the ton of people lined up outside to get one of their fantastic cupcakes! At that moment I was so happy for my Mom and sister’s thoughtfulness to have a dozen of their cupcakes delivered to my hotel. Their cupcakes are soooo good and they started a cupcake war conversation on my Facebook timeline!

 

Before I knew it, Day 1 of the walk was over and we were headed back to the hotel. Thankfully our Walker Stalkers had order pizza for dinner and it was ready and waiting when we arrived at the hotel! It was great to be able to come in, eat, shower and then go to bed. Especially since Day 2 of the walk would be a tad bit longer.

I'm Back!

Well, I’m finally back from my SGK 3-Day DC Walk!

All of the 3-Day Walks that I have participated in have been amazing for many reasons. Walking DC definitely tops my list strictly from the location of the walk. DC is amazingly beautiful and the walk allowed me to see so many things within the city.

The group I traveled with arrived in DC two days before the walk to be able to do some sightseeing. The first night we did a night tour of the memorials which was AWESOME! We were able to see the Washington Monument, the White House, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the FDR Memorial, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. I only wished that we had time to do the same tour during the day to see the contrast form day to night. The tour lasted about 4 hours and we were pretty beat afterward.

 

Soon after leaving the tour, the rental car that I was traveling in was involved in a car accident. We were sitting at a red light when a car approached and rear ended us. Thankfully no one was seriously injured although three of us experienced some soreness following the accident. Thankfully we had a day before the walk, and in the end each of us was fine. The other driver accepted liability for the accident which also made everything go smooth.

Unfortunately, we did have some challenges with the condo we rented to stay in during the walk. I’m sure you have all figured out that I can be a bit of a Prima Donna. I’ll just leave this part of the story that we spent the day before the walk relocating to the Dupont Circle area of DC and to hotel rooms. Thankfully all of the traveling I do for business paid off and I was able to secure hotel rooms with reward points!

The other bright spot to our bumpy beginning was that my Mom and sister were thinking about me and my walking team, and they had surprise gifts for us! Pears from Harry and David were at the condo when we arrived. The next day we received wonderful pink ribbon Tervis tumblers with our names on them! And if that wasn’t enough, cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake were delivered to our hotel! These surprises were so unexpected and greatly appreciated not only by me, but my team too. It’s so nice to know that other people were thinking about us and wishing us well on our 3-Day journey!

Before we knew it, it was time for bed since we needed to rise early for Day 1 of the 3-Day Walk!