Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3Day - Day 3

Apologies to my 2 loyal readers for the lapse between updates. A broken laptop and no internet will do that...

On to day 3 of the walk ...

Day 3, we were bussed to Lincolnwood, so we'd be walking mostly in the city. This meant that Matt & Claudia's husband Keith would be meeting us along the walk at one of the cheering stations. I cannot tell you how encouraging that was for me.

Sunday morning Claudia, Jen and I all bussed together (Dawn and Angie took the bus directly to lunch to ensure they'd be able to walk at some point during the day). Knowing that Jen and Claudia walked much faster than me, I anticipated spending a lot of the walk on my own. Because we were in the city, I really had little problem with that.

Turns out, I was able to keep up with them. I'm attributing that to being excited to see Matt at the cheering station along the lake and Addison. Interestingly enough though, it was mid to upper 90s, which meant hydration was key. Previous days I had set rules for myself for drinking (everytime I crossed a street, went under/over a bridge, crossed railroad tracks, made a turn, etc), this day, I made sure to enforce them.

8.5 miles were finally over and I could hear the people at the cheering station. My eyes were darting all over the crowd looking for Matt and Keith. I was a lot more excited than I anticipated, knowing they were there really helped my morning walk on sore and tired feet. I eventually spotted them and headed over to them. Matt offered me a beer (ha!), but I eventually took water. We hung out with them for a while, but not too long, as I didn't want to lose my pace.

We had a mile until lunch, and the walk was directly along the lake, so it was great. We made it to lunch, where we met Dawn and Angie and sat down to eat. This is where I realized I had hit a wall. I wasn't hungry, I started to get the chills, followed by the sweats, and eventually had to lay down with an ice filled bandanna on my face. I was exhausted and a bit nauseous. I tried to hydrate some more, assuming that was the problem, but it wasn't helping.

There was a sweep bus taking people to the next pit stop, which was about 2.5 miles away. I decided to get on it, if anything, to cool off. It wasn't leaving for another 20 minutes, so I figured I could change my mind if I wanted. I ended up staying on the bus and taking it to Navy Pier.

I was now on my own and making my way toward Soldier Field. I made it to the last pit stop before Jen and Claudia, so I texted them and let them know I'd be waiting there for them. This also helped me to cool off and not push myself too much.

We only had 2.5 miles to go, and we made our way. It seemed like it was more like 5 miles, probably due to the long walk and the heat combination, but we eventually made it toward Soldier Field. The last 1/4 of the walk was inside of Soldier Field, so that was sort of cool. I was a bit choked up when crossing the finish line, as on Friday during the rain, I figured there would never be a way that I'd be able to walk across the finish line.

Matt and Keith again met us at the finish line for closing ceremonies. This time Jen and I both happily took beers from Matt. I never really understood people drinking beer after races, but it looked and tasted delicious to me.

Closing ceremonies were quick & less emotional than I expected (opening ceremonies ended up being more emotional, but neither were as emotional as I was expecting). We eventually got into the car and headed home.

I was asleep in my own bed within an hour of being home.

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3Day - Day 2

After the awful day I had on Friday, I was looking forward to a better day on Saturday; and then Jen and I turned on the weather channel. Rain until midday expected. It wasn't raining as we left to head toward camp/breakfast, but as soon as we were under the tent with our breakfast, down came the rain. What a downer. If anything, I needed sunshine, or no rain, to be encouraged and energized to get out and walking on my tired, sore feet. I had brought along two of my larger ziplock bags I used to pack my clothing with, and put them over my shoes. I headed to the medical tent and asked for tape (to put around my ankles) - they kept asking me if I wanted sports medics to do the wrapping, and I had to keep explaining I simply needed two small pieces to go around my ankles.

As usual, Jen and Claudia took off in front of the team (they have a faster pace). I stuck back with Dawn and Angie for most of the morning. As I was walking, my right shoe bag wasn't staying as well as I had hoped. Luckily, I brought some extra twine in my fanny pack in case something like this happened. I was able to secure the bag to continue covering the top of my foot. My feet stayed dry.

The rain let up earlier than anticipated (yay!) and the humidity set in. Can't have it both ways, I suppose... and if the previous day is any indication, I'd much rather it be humid and hot than raining.

Saturday was spent walking through Mount Prospect. I don't know if it was due to it being a Saturday or that residents of Mount Prospect are great people (or a combo of both), but we had a LOT of support during our walk. There were many families, boy/girl scouts, cheerleading teams, etc out on the route handing out water, food, candy, and my favorite - popsicles! There were people set up with tents with music, there were people with misters offering to mist people off as they walked by. I never really knew how important having people to cheer you on was. It doesn't even matter that I didn't know them. The fact that they were there was so encouraging and made me want to keep going. The police and fire department were all wearing pink shirts as they helped direct traffic as we crossed busy streets - it was pretty neat!

Around lunchtime, we stopped at a pitstop for an extended period of time to tend to our blistered feet. Mine were worse than I wanted to admit... but throughout the morning, I refused to take off my bags on my feet, out of fear that they wouldn't go back on and continue to keep my feet dry. I was NOT going to go through what I did the previous day of walking through wet shoes all day. I'd rather be in pain and build blisters, apparently.

We ate lunch and started walking the 3 miles toward the next pitstop. About 2 miles into it, I decided I needed to stop walking. I was in just too much pain. I didn't rewrap my blisters as well as I should have and I couldn't take a step without feeling the pain.

I noticed one of the crew members on the side of the road standing with another walker. I immediately walked toward them and asked if they were waiting for a sweep van (these vans took you to the next pit stop). The van was on it's way, and I had no doubts that I wanted to get on it. My first goal of walking the entire day on Friday had already been realized, I was ok taking a van a couple of miles to tend to my feet. As mentioned in my previous post, this was the best decision I made all walk. Dawn and Angie continued to walk and mentioned that we'd meet up at the pit stop.

I arrived to the medic very quickly. I head over and ask them to take a look at my left foot. I remove my sock and the bandages I had on them and asked what they could do. The medic tending to me was shocked and mentioned that I had the worst blistered foot he'd seen all day. I had one large blister on the inside part of my heel and about 4-5 of them all on top of themselves near the ball of my foot under my big toe. I also had a couple of small blisters forming on the back of my 2 smallest toes.

The medic decided the blister on my heel was too big and needed to be lanced. An audience formed. Someone offered to take a picture of it. He stuck it with something pin-like and fluid came shooting out. It took a couple of gauze pads over the course of about 5 minutes to completely drain the blister. HOW GROSS.

He rewrapped the lanced blister area, decided to leave the 4-5 as is (as he'd have to poke me multiple times and couldn't be sure that he'd get them all, which would end up being more painful). I got up, walked around a bit, and felt immediately better. I was ready to go and walk the remaining 10 miles for the day.

Dawn and Angie returned before I was finished being bandaged up and wanted to take a break. This ended being good for me, because I needed to stretch after being on the medic bed for so long.

Dawn and Angie's families were at the last cheering station that day, so we made our way toward them. By the time we reached them (about 15 miles into the day), Jen and Claudia texted to let us know they were finished (the second day was 19 miles). We ended up hanging out at the cheering station for much longer than I was prepared for (45 minutes!!), so, once again, I got tight.

We took another sweep van to the final pit stop, which was only about 1/2 mile away. Once there, I was ready to walk the final 3.5 miles back to camp. Dawn and Angie were not. I wouldn't have minded walking myself at that point, but I was afraid I'd be the last walker to camp. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but they do this big cheering line and flag raising for the last walker when they walk into camp. I would have been way too embarrassed and didn't want to risk it... so, against my wishes, I boarded the final sweep van back to camp.

(Turns out the last walker arrived well after we had finished dinner, almost 3 hours after I would have gotten back had I walked it on my own).

I rationalized it to myself that I wanted to ensure that I'd be able to walk as much as possible on Sunday, since it'd be the best day of the walk, as we'd be walking along the lake down to Soldier Field. I had also talked to Angie (breast cancer survivor and walk veteran) and she told me there was no shame in taking a sweep van and more people should take advantage of the option.

We (Dawn, Angie and I) ended up hanging out at camp for a while on Saturday night after dinner, while Claudia and Jen went back to the hotel. I sort of wanted to get the feeling for the camaraderie of camp and it was a fun time sticking around...but was happy to get into the cab and head back to the hotel for a hot shower (without lines) and a bed all to myself.

Day 3 was coming, which meant seeing Matt at the first cheering station (8.5 miles in on Sunday) and the finish line looming in the distance...

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk

This is going to be a long entry, so grab a soda and something to munch on, because I’m not sure I’ll be able to consolidate this very well.

This past weekend, I completed the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk. Thanks to many generous donors, I was able to raise almost $3200, while our team raised just under $18,000.

Anyway, I’m going to try and best describe my experience. I’m hoping my writing this just over 24 hours after returning home will mean the memories are still fresh in my mind. As it turns out, I will likely focus on one day per entry. Today, you get Day 1.

Day 1

So, the night before was my last class of the quarter at National Louis, and I didn’t pack prior to class. So this meant I’d be packing once I returned home from class around 9 or 9:30PM. I packed up and forced myself to bed around 11PM, setting my alarm for 3:45AM. I had to be to Claudia’s house by 4:30. Being new to my apartment and neighborhood, I wasn’t sure how long it’d take, so I reserved a cab for 4:20 (no, I did not smoke any pot while waiting).

The cab arrived early, but I didn’t head down until I was ready. 12 minutes later, I arrived at Claudia’s house, 15 minutes early. I waited outside, thinking about the weekend I was about to face.

We made our way up north to Northbrook Court Mall. Claudia’s husband Keith was kind enough to get up early and drive 4 of the 5 of us up there. Luckily, he had a vacation day on Friday, so he was able to drive back home and go immediately back to bed.

Driving into the mall, I was expecting chaos. I am happy to report that everything seemed quite organized, which gave me a good impression that most of the event would follow suit (it did, for the most part).

We filed in for opening ceremonies, making sure to stand near the circular satellite stage because our friend and teammate Angie was participating in the Inner Circle of Survivors. She, along with 7 other women, carried in flags to opening ceremonies reading different things (love, joy, commitment, etc). I lost it when the speaker started reading reasons why people were walking, as people walked out carrying flags for who they were walking for (mother, aunt, daughter, partner, best friend, husband, etc). Additionally, while I knew men were a part of this walk, I was still amazed and emotional when I’d see them. Walking with girlfriends, wives, friends, whoever, it was a pretty moving experience for me.

We got started walking around 7AM, everyone energized and enthused. Cars, vans, and trucks saw us walking and would give out an encouraging honk. “This won’t be so hard,” I thought. Having the encouragement of people driving by, or walking by, or living nearby seemed pretty nice.

We walked throughout many of the north suburbs on Friday, seeing many beautiful houses along Sheridan Rd (which butts up against Lake Michigan).

Around 11AM, it began to rain. It didn’t stop raining before we were finished. It continued to rain well into dinner and throughout the night. This led to less people being out, some dreary conditions, and some wet shoes. Sure, we had rain ponchos, but walking in wet shoes was simply awful. Knowing at 11AM that we had probably 15 more miles to go for the day was simply unbearable. I gave myself two goals for the walk – the first was to finish, the second was to make it through day one without being swept. (Sweeping involved walkers stopping and having a van pick them up and take them to the next pit stop or to the end of the day’s route. Pit stops were usually 3 miles apart from one another).

We had a surprise cheerer at the first cheering station, our friend Jill. I hadn’t expected to see anyone we knew until after lunch, so this was a nice surprise. We stopped and chatted for a bit, but kept going, as the rain was on the verge of showing up.

We skipped past the lunch stop to walk to the next cheering station about a mile away. There, Dawn’s family waited for us with lunch made by Dawn’s mom. Dawn’s nieces had made us all signs. It was great to see them, but at this point, it was raining and we were miserable. I was crabby and just wanted to continue moving. We ate quickly and made our way to the second half of our walk for the day.

The afternoon for me was just brutal. I wasn’t looking forward to the 12ish miles, I was sick of walking down Glenview Road, and the last thing I wanted to do that night was camp and worry about my wet shoes drying. As Dawn, Angie and I were walking (Jen and Claudia were simply too fast for me to keep up with), we talked about our alternative to camping – a hotel. I initially was against the idea, mostly because camping with the other walkers was a part of the experience, and a part I didn’t want to miss. But as I was walking in my wet shoes, hearing the water sop out of them with every step, I decided if anything, I could use the hotel hair dryer to dry them. At that point, I was in.

We eventually made it back to camp, where it took some convincing to Jen and Claudia to join us in the hotel. Technically, they didn’t have to, but we wanted to know everyone was invited. Eventually, they both relented, when we realized we had no idea when the rain would let up (as it had been raining for 7 hours already).

Angie’s husband made the reservations and drove us all to the closest hotel. This is probably the second best decision I made the whole trip. The first one will come in the next entry…

Long time, no posts

Work is busier, Matt and I moved to Rogers Park (perhaps pics once we're unpacked and set up), my last in-class (as opposed to online) class before a month-long break is tomorrow night, and this weekend is the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk (60 miles! WTF?)

This is all for now, despite wanting to write more...

...perhaps, when I have time.

Walking, Easter and Decisions

On Friday, I was offered a job at an early learning center where I'd been interviewing over the course of the past 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to take it & I'm not sure how to feel about it. I've made the decision to change careers, however, if and when I do, I want it to feel as right as possible. This place just didn't feel right. I am still in the interview process for another center, on the north side of Chicago, about 2 miles from my current apartment. I'm holding out hope that I'll be offered the job there, even though it doesn't currently offer insurance. It's a new center, starting from the ground up. They're currently working out of a basement of a 3-flat, soon to be moving into a new center being built. I think I'm excited to be a part of something starting from the beginning (if that makes any sense). All of that said, because of the drastic pay cut I will be taking, Matt and I have to move once our lease is up (July 31st). We're currently looking at Roscoe Village (a little further west from where we are) and even contemplating buying a place. That's just a pipe dream of mine though, I'm afraid.

I went on my first 7 mile walk on Saturday as a part of my training program. I've found that I need to map out a walk that includes walking by/to places I want to see. For example, this past Saturday, I mapped it out to walk by the new center to see the progress being made, to walk through Roscoe Village, to then walk to the lake, and back by Wrigley. It certainly helped, and the walk wasn't quite as tough as I was anticipating (outside of the cold wind, which got worse as I walked back toward the lake).

We spent Easter with Matt's mom's side of the family in Glendale Heights (a western burb). He's really lucky, in that he has many cousins that are around his age. We spent time catching up, playing bags, and sitting around the fire outside. His oldest cousin has 2 sons (including the one who accosted me at Thanksgiving) who I spent a lot of my time with. I just tend to gravitate toward kids if they're around. I always assumed this was normal and that everyone did this. Kids are awesome, afterall.

Today is opening day at Wrigley, however, the rainy weather will likely cause the game to be postponed. There were people at the bars on my way to the train this morning. I was jealous.

Walking sort of sucks

I decided to walk home from work today since I had to do a 5 miler today.

About a mile and a half in, I wanted to give up. I was tired, annoyed, my feet hurt, and my knee felt sore. Excuses, excuses.

I knew I needed to make it to the Lake Shore path (it's harder to walk to a bus/train from there). I almost hopped on a bus at least twice.

WTF is wrong with me? It's just walking. I think knowing that it'd take me 2 hours to get home was a huge obstacle I had to get past. Once on the path, I was much better. Next to the lake, seeing other people walking, running and biking certainly helped. I told myself I had to make it to at least Fullerton (roughly the 3.5 mile mark) before I could give up. I "exited" at Fullerton, but kept walking. As I kept walking, I realized I only had a little further to go, so it'd be silly of me to quit so late.

The walk door-to-door from work is about 6 miles, so I walked an extra mile. I feel ok about it.

I will now make myself a celebratory drink.

Good Will Hunting sort of helped

I went to the FFC Union Station last night to get my walk in. I was a bit anxious, because I assumed there'd be some sort of fight for open treadmills. While most of them were in use when I arrived, I was able to walk right up and get on one (where I proceeded to break the 30-minute rule).

Each treadmill has their own TV, so that sort of helps with the boring walking. I have a little trouble focusing on the picture, without it getting blurry and bumpy from walking, so I sometimes watch the bigger TVs above. As I was looking around, I noticed someone else watching Good Will Hunting, so I flipped through the 50 or so channels on my personal TV to find it on mine. I can't remember the last time I've seen that (college, probably) so I wasn't as familiar with the plot, etc. Watching a movie, TV show, or sporting event certainly helps the time pass, but still, walking on a treadmill is BORING.

As I was heading home from downtown, I received a call from the lady at Curves. They are definitely closing. I went to pick up my shoes and get whatever passes they had for the nearby Curves locations. We'll see how that works out. I think I'll stop by and check out the location closest to me on my way home from work today. Seeing that I couldn't always get myself to a place that was 148 steps away from my door, I have no idea how well I'd do at a new location. That said, I don't want to give up the workout Curves provides - so, we'll see.

"CLOSED"

"This location is considering closing. We are hopeful to find a buyer, but in the meantime, please visit these other nearby locations..."

This is the sign I was greeted with yesterday, and I was finally excited to work out. My shoes are in there! Only the ones I use to work out there, but still. Additionally, I wonder if I'll receive a discount for every day the place is closed. If not, I'm certainly going to seek one.

I'm going to the FFC gym downtown today after work to get my 3-mile training walk in. Walking on a treadmill is so boring, I need the weather to turn into Spring soon, so I can walk outside more. Walks go by so much faster when you have changing scenery.

I've got a few more things to finish up for my two classes. I'm hoping to get them finished before next week (end of the quarter) - as next week will be solely focused on basketball. It's bad enough that I will have to leave the bar to give a presentation in class on Thursday. Let's hope Illinois gets Fri/Sun games.

Bing Bang Bong

4 days in a row.

This is probably a new record for me.

When I was only working out at Curves, their plan only requires 3 workouts a week, so I usually went a total of 3 days in any given week.

I went to Curves last night. I'm enrolled in their personal training program called "Curves Smart" - basically, it's just a little tag that you put in each of the machines as you work out - to monitor progress & change how you're working out (intensity-wise) as you're going through the circuit of machines. It's been very helpful for me. When I didn't have it, if I was having a bad day, or didn't feel like working out, I'd dog it throughout the workout. With this, there's a little light that flashes & you want it to stay green. When it turns yellow, I hear "YOU'RE DOING BAD! DO BETTER!" in my head. After the workout, you can then look at what you did, how many calories burned, what areas need to be addressed in future workouts, etc. It's pretty cool.

I went to FFC at lunch today, to see how I'd like it. To be honest,I'm not sure which I prefer (morning or lunchtime). In the morning, I don't feel rushed - it just stinks getting up so early. When I went at lunch, I felt rushed enough into taking a hobo shower (wipe down, spray self with body spray, re-apply deodorant). So, we'll see what I decide for future training... most likely a combo of both.

All of that said, I am SO happy to take tomorrow off. :) Back to the grindstone on Saturday, but once I head home from class tonight, I'm probably going to be pretty darn relaxed.

Training - Day 2

I made it to Curves last night after work. Begrudgingly. I was all pumped for it all day, but as I was off the train, walking toward Curves, I wasn't looking forward to it. Once I was finished and stretching (my favorite part), I felt much better. I worked out harder than I planned to, and had my heart rate up most of the workout. When I walked home, I counted how many steps away Curves is from my front door. 148 steps. Yes, that's right. It's 148 steps away & I hadn't been since October. Awesome.

Now, onto today. Because I have observation hours I need to do at lunch, and a haircut planned for after work, I needed to get my first 3-mile training walk in somehow. That meant I had to work out before work. What the eff? I woke up just fine at 5:55 this morning. Got changed, brushed my teeth & washed my face, grabbed by bag and left. (I packed my bag the night before, so I couldn't use that as my excuse). I hopped on the train and went to the gym downtown, about .7 miles from my office.

Thank goodness for treadmills with personal televisions mounted on them. In the 55 minutes I walked (yes, it took me 55 minutes to walk 3 miles), I watched the end of Saved By The Bell: Miss Bliss Years, Devon Harris hit the game winning-half court shot on Sportscenter, Mike and Mike talking about Golic's 11.5 sacks in his career, and 35 minutes of Law & Order: SVU.

After my 3 miles, I didn't stretch like I should have. The stretching area is in the middle of all the machines, with all machines pointing toward it. I'm not interested in stretching while everyone watches. I'll likely regret that later. In the locker room, I picked up a towel the size of a hand towel and realized this was what I had to use for a shower. What I didn't realize, is that people usually just walk to the bathroom naked, or with this towel wrapped around them. I went fully clothed and had to throw my clothes over the shower stall door as I showered. Oops.

I was able to get ready rather quickly and ended up walking into work around 8:30 (so, only about 15-30 minutes later than normal). I'd like to say I'll do this on a regular basis - but the train ride into the city took forever & made me sleepy. The hoofing of the gym bag and work bag a total of about a mile sort of sucked. I do have another option, a gym is near my house, but the same sort of schlepping would be required.

I am proud of myself for sticking to the training schedule & getting started on time. Let's hope this keeps up.

Training - Day 1

To be fair, I haven't really started training, beyond packing my clothes for Curves. But, I will say that I woke up somewhat excited to get it started again. This is definitely an oddity for me. Typically, even the idea of packing a gym bag puts me in a bad mood.

I think I'm also looking forward to going to Curves tonight because the woman who runs it has called me twice over the past month, asking where I've been and encouraging me to come. She sympathized, "I know, it's tough when it's so cold. No one wants to walk to workout" - if only she knew, I live virtually across the street from Curves.

I've also started keeping a log of what I consume. I'm currently limiting myself to 1800 calories a a day. I've used this metric in the past and I've had success with it, so I'm hoping I'll have similar outcomes this time.

I think having an attainable and tangible goal (finishing the 3 Day/60-mile walk) is a definite motivator this time around. It's been tough for me to work out for the sake of working out. Seems really silly as I'm writing it, but working out and eating right is a lifestyle change. It's one that needs to be kept up, and is difficult.

Here's to hoping I feel as good as I do this morning at the end of week 1 of training.