Breast Cancer 3-Day Recap

It's taken me a week to sit down and write about the Breast Cancer 3-Day, but at least I'm actually doing it. Overall, it was a wonderful experience and a definite challenge. It was amazing enough that I was able to set aside my general dislike for pink, team chants, and Jazzercise, and enjoy the walk for what it was -- an awesome display of the uniting of people for a cause, in this case being the fight to find a cure for breast cancer. As I've told others, I don't think the event hit as close to home as it did for others who have lost a loved one to breast cancer or who have (or who are) experienced the pain and suffering themselves, but when I'd walk through the cheering stations and see, for example, a man holding a sign that read "If my mother were alive, she'd thank you for walking," I couldn't help but tear up. I thought I was going to lose it before we made it to the end, but somehow I held it together (ditching out on closing ceremonies a bit early probably helped out).

I'll try to give you a general idea of how the walk progressed. We started out bright and early in Alpharetta at North Point Mall and walked around this area the first day. A shuttle then took us a short way to our camp area at Rogers Bridge Park in Duluth. The second day we walked a big loop in the Duluth area, ending at camp. A bus took us just inside the Perimeter on the last day, and we walked under I-285, through some neighborhoods, came out on Peachtree Industrial Blvd., and basically walked all the way down Peachtree Rd. (with a bit of meandering through some side streets), ending in Piedmont Park.

We became well acquainted with the Port-o-Johns, traffic help in crazy pink-infused costumes (see the photo above), showers in a truck, towels the size of washcloths, the art of layering clothing when all the storage you have for the day is a waistpack, and every variation of the word "boobs" that you can imagine.

I was pleasantly surprised with the food. I chose the vegetarian option, and that way had the best of both worlds because they would check your credentials for the "V" if you wished to eat the vegetarian meal, but could care less if you jumped in the meat line. Because I've been disappointed with veggie options many a time, I didn't have high hopes -- but I only opted for the nonvegetarian once. It was just that good. And food was in definite abundance. If we weren't sitting down for a meal, we were stopping every two or three miles at a designated Pit Stop, where there was table after table of Gatorade, water, bananas, baby carrots, pretzels, chips, the famous peanut butter and jelly graham cracker sandwiches, peanuts, orange slices, etc. It's no wonder some people actually gain weight on the 60-mile walk.

Emotions ran high both at camp and during the walk. We heard some fabulous speeches given by survivors, the most impacting to me given by a girl who keeps the blog, www.biographyofbreastcancer.com. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 28. There was a memory tent set up, where inside photos hung of some who fell victim to the disease -- some who were signed up to walk this very walk. Inside the memory tent was a white version of the pink tents we slept in, which you could sign in honor or memory of those with breast cancer.

I mentioned the cheering stations -- we walked through two per day. These made the walk, as it was just incredible to me that so many people would come out and cheer for us and thank us over and over again for what we were doing. We were handed candy, water, necklaces, bracelets, pom-poms, donuts, fruit, stickers, etc. And some would just come out and play music for us or even just offer to take our trash. To me, all of these people made the walk mean something.

Would I do it again? I don't know. To be honest, I really don't like raising money. The walk itself was fine -- I escaped virtually blister-free and though I'm still limping around some due to overuse of muscles behind my left knee, I felt the walk went well. It's the asking for money that is hard. So, again, I have to thank all of you who opened your wallets for this cause. Your generousity was amazing. I walked for you and for all of those around you who have been affected by cancer. I walked in hopes that others won't suffer.