This is from a fellow Chicago 3 Day walker! I had to post it so you could all see one of the many reasons I walk:
I signed up to walk about 6 weeks ago. We still had hope then.
Sarah Jane was 29 years old. She was diagnosed with triple neg in October, when she was 20 weeks pregnant with her first, and only, child. It was a shock--she was a marathon runner just completing her master's degree in counseling. She wanted to help others deal with grief and family issues--she did volunteer work most of her life and was known above all for her kindness and smile. There was no history of breast cancer anywhere in our family.
It spread so fast it went from stage 2, to 3, to 4 within months. She wanted to save the baby and so had chemo but put off surgery. The baby was born in Jan 2010, premature but robust and healthy with a full head of hair--which made his bald-headed mommy smile. He is our delight now.
In the last few months, she could hardly hold him, she had no strength. The pain had gotten so intense. Two weeks ago, it was confirmed--it had moved to her liver, lungs, spine and other bones. It was time to let her go as she had suffered so much in 8 months and had radiation burns all over her chest and back, while recovering from the brain radiation burns as well.
She fought every moment until we told her to let go. She was one of the most loved people I've ever known--people came from a thousand miles away to say good bye at her funeral. There was such diversity of color, race, religions, and political persuasions there it was amazing--but they came for Sarah Jane because she'd been there for them, always.
Now I have to walk this walk. Part of me wants to say, "Why bother--I'm so tired and just want to sleep for a very long time". Part of me wants to pick up an old habit and have a smoke. Part of me knows it will be really hard to catch up on my training having spent the past 3 weeks in hospital and walking to the coffee machine for exercise.
Yet all of me says, "This is for Sarah Jane. This is to help prevent any other mother's heart from breaking as mine is right now."
So walk I will and sweep I might be. But it's all good and I fear I'll shed a bucket of tears along the way. So if you're doing Chicago--try and take a moment to think about my Sarah Jane.
Thanks much,
Nancy
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
2009 Chicago Breast Cancer 3Day
Another Breast Cancer 3Day has come and gone... It is super depressing once it is over. It's hard to understand why no one is honking and clapping now while I walk down the street and then I remember that I'm not walking 60 miles anymore so that must be why.
But, the good news is that I already signed up for next year, so start donating :)
So, Thursday night Melinda, Miranda, and I drove up to Northbrook, IL. We were meeting my momma bear there. I called in the morning to make sure the rooms were next to each other and they said they were. I got there and she was on the 1st floor and we were on the 2nd. Darn jerks! They gave my room away!!! So, anyway I get to our room and go to the bathroom and it is FILTHY! So, I call the front desk and we get moved up to the 3rd floor. I was extremely MAD! As a side note, I called and complained and the manager gave me a voucher for a free room. So, I'll use that for next year's walk.
Anyway, so I sleep in my outfit that I'm going to wear Friday morning. Then it's rise and shine at 4:30 am. I get up, brush my teeth, slap on some body glide, etc. and we're out the door. We go downstairs and pour 2.5 lbs of sugar in some nasty coffee and we're off. I didn't eat breakfast because I was saving my appetite for the YUMMY Uncrustables that I ate a million of last year.
We get to Northbrook Court, I drop off my bags, hug the lady taking the bags and then it's time to wait. So, I walk over and grab a pair of bunny ears from the Energizer people (our AWESOME sponsors). These ears were made to keep us going and going and going....
My mom, Melinda, Miranda and I had made some signs on Thursday night, so we decide to take pics of them.
1st pic is my mom and me, second is Melinda (my sister) and me and the bottom one is Miranda (my niece) and me. She colored the sign herself.
After taking the pics, I realized that I looked like a complete dork in the bunny ears so I opted to take them off. There!! Now I look hot again.....ummm well as hot as you can be on the 3Day.
Cyndi, Izzy, and Jen arrived shortly after. We had 2 new team mates this year! GOOOOOOOOO Chicas 4 Tetas!!
Below is a picture of Cyndi and me before we begin. I love this picture because we look like serious runners. Don't we??? I thought so...
Then the opening ceremony began. People walk out holding flags saying things like "Mother, Friend, Wife, Hero, My Children, My Aunt" and so on. Bring on the tears! That really makes you cry. They talked about a woman who was supposed to do the walk with her mother but her mother died of breast cancer 2 weeks before the walk. And they talked about the man who promised his wife before she died that he would do everything in his power to get rid of this nasty disease. Then the Breast Cancer survivors walked out. They held flags that said "Belief, Hope, Courage," etc. Below is a picture of the survivor circle:
Then it was time to cross the starting line. There were 1800 men and women walking and 425 crew members!
It didn't take us long to realize that Camelbaks are the best things that were ever invented. For those of you who don't know what these are, they are backpacks but on the inside they have a pouch that you can fill up with water or Gatorade. Then there is a long tube that you just stick in your mouth, squeeze the tip with your teeth and suck. Out comes the Gatorade. WHY didn't we use these last year? Last year we were stopping every two seconds to open the stinking water bottle and take a drink. And to top it off...YES a fanny pack DOES make my butt look big. My how times have changed...
So we get to pit stop 1 (below is a pic):
There's a Medical tent, a Food tent (my favorite), and a Drink tent. Oh and the awesome blue porta potties! So, I race to the porta potties and then I plow people over to get to the food tent to get the uncrustables. But, guess what??? THEY WERE OUT!!!!!! I couldn't even believe it! I believe I even said something like "Great, now I'm going to starve to death!" So, we fill up our Camelbaks, stretch, pee, and we're off.
By pit stop 2 it was already raining :( WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY????????????? So, there we are walking in the rain with these super thin rain ponchos that rip every time you move an inch. Aren't we hot in them!
So, this time (at Pit Stop 2) I run straight to the food tent (ignore the fact that I'm about to pee my pants) but I HAVE to get my uncrustables! I get up there, and the box is empty! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! So, I say "I'm sorry, I'm just a really picky eater and I lived on these last year." Then I walk away... Then I hear an angel in the distance saying "where is the picky girl?" I turn around and there she is... the most beautiful sight I had ever seen (well within the last 5 minutes anyway) she was holding the last uncrustable. She handed it over. I was so excited that I ripped the package open and chowed it down like a savage beast! I was happy for the time, but I was still planning on grabbing 3 at the next pit stop.
So, by the time we got to lunch it was raining pretty hard. It totally stinks when it rains though because we always have to sit on the ground. So, if it's raining, you're sitting in a mud puddle and your butt is drenched. Not very comfy when you're walking 21 miles that day!
Well by this time my mom had been waiting at the first Cheering Station for a loooooooong time! Rumor has it that her eyeballs were yellow because she had to use the restroom so badly. Below is a picture of my momma bear's chair:
While we were walking on Friday we came up behind a lady who had a great sense of humor!
I LOVED the shirt! One problem though (for those of you who aren't English majors, oh wait neither am I) it should say "They're FAKE." But, who's paying attention besides Melinda and me? YES it's "Melinda and ME" not "Melinda and I" in this particular sentence...You thought you caught me, didn't you? Oh well! You probably will later in this blog. Just curious, these companies that make these shirts wrong all the time (because I see it ALL the time) how do they stay in business??? OK sorry I'm getting off the subject here.
After walking 16 of the 21 miles in the rain we arrive at camp. I'm pretty sure I'm 1 degree away from getting Hypothermia at this time and I'm pretty close to delirious. As you can see (below) it was a pretty dreary day at camp because it WOULD NOT STOP RAINING!
There was a LOT of good news though. First of all, this year our tents were half way between the showers and the front where we do everything in the mornings. Which meant we didn't have to walk a half mile every time we had to go back to our tents, only about a quarter of a mile instead. Secondly, they moved the porta potties WAY closer. They were about 20 steps from the front of the tents. GREAT news for me, but probably not such good news for the people who were in the front tents. YUCK! So, the inside of our bags were completely soaked but the good news is that I'm pretty much the smartest person I know. I had packed all of my clothes in gallon zip lock baggies (labeled by day of course) and then I put those baggies in the super huge water proof zip lock storage bags (ok I might have stolen that idea from a guy who wrote "The Underground Guide to the 3Day," but it was pretty smart of me to steal the idea). So, my clothes were super dry. Other good news is that they had spaghetti again!! YAY food fairies, you pulled through for me again this year (remember I'm Italian)! We were also lucky enough to get a visit from the Energizer Bunny.
That night we decided that we would get our mail. Of course I had VERY sweet cards/letters from my mom and my sister, Melinda. They made me cry (just like they did last year). I was also shocked to find that two of my bestest friends in the WHOLE world had also sent me letters, Becky Hissong and Cathy Shedrow. They were so sweet and they even had jokes in them to help me forget about the pain. I love those two ladies!
Friday night we decided that if it was raining on Saturday morning then we were going to take the bus to lunch and wait for the rain to stop. We only bring 2 pairs of shoes and the ones we wore on Friday were completely soaked with no chance of drying any time soon.
Saturday morning we woke up and ate breakfast. Then Cyndi had her feet worked on in the medical tent, and Izzy had her foot looked at because it was hurting on the top. She found out that she has tendinitis in her foot! I KNEW she shouldn't have trained so much, all that repetitive walking has given her tendinitis (ok just kidding it's good to train). So we got on the bus and rode to lunch. As soon as we got to lunch it stopped raining so we grabbed some food and we were off.
Do you want to hear (read) something funny? Well if you don't, skip to next paragraph. So, we skipped the first 10 miles of the day by taking the bus. We get ready to leave the lunch area (after being there for about 2 minutes) and there sits the very first lady who had arrived at the lunch stop (it's 9:30 am and she has already arrived at lunch, already walked 10 miles). She looks up at us like "OH NO! Those lazy girls who took the bus are NOT about to pass me up." So, she stands up and off she goes.... She passes us up like she's the hare and we are the tortoises. Come to find out she's a 68 year old woman. I guess she ended up getting back to camp around noon! Man I sure do feel like a loser now :)
Anyway, so Mount Prospect is the BEST Village in the WORLD! They are so awesome. They had police officers in pink uniforms, and they even had a pink police car. They had also arranged so that EVERY block would have a group of people cheering for us.
Below are three of the houses where people had things set up for us:
Next are two of the police officers and the police car:
Below is the BEST Cheering station EVER! I couldn't believe how many people were there routing us on, handing out popcicles, ice, water, stickers, etc. They ROCK!
Then there was pit stop 4. It was the LOVE BOAT!! How cute!! So, of course we got on the boat and took a picture with the beautiful ocean in the background (you know, the ocean in Chicago).
Then finally we were back at camp. We didn't even have to wait in lines for the showers (one of the benefits of taking the bus and getting to camp early). Also, the food ROCKED!! It was some kind of awesome chicken with some awesome sauce on it, and then some rice and a breadstick! YUMMY! I wonder if we can vote to have the same food year after year? FOOD FAIRIES PLEASE PULL THROUGH IN 2010!!
Anyway, below is a picture of the "remembrance tent." You go inside the tent and inside is a smaller white tent. On it you can sign it or write the name of the person/people you are walking for. As you can see there are two tents on the outside that are already written on. Those are Cleveland and Boston because those two cities were already finished. The rest of the empty tents are for the other cities to come.
Also, below is about a quarter of the looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong path to our tents!
Later we got massages in the Energizer tent!! ENERGIZER ROCKS! I'm buying their batteries from now on.... Forget about Duracel! Duracel who?
Then they had some fellow walkers come in and talk to us. There was a guy who spoke about how he was walking for his wife who had died of Breast Cancer. It completely broke my heart, he was the sweetest little guy. Then a younger girl got up and told her story about having cancer in her stomach when she was younger and they told her she would never have kids. She said she now has 2 kids. Then she found out she had Breast Cancer in 2008. She walked the 2008 walk while she was taking chemo. WOW! That really made me feel awful for complaining about blisters. She was so inspirational. And of course, I bawled like a baby listening to her talk.
Then it was time for the 3Day show! Every night they have entertainment. Also, on Friday night they have auditions for 3Day Rockstar and then Saturday they have the finalists perform. The first part of the 3Day show started with Jenne (the host) saying "OK we're going to have some friendly competition." and me saying "WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" super loud. So, of course I was brought on stage for the game. They asked questions about Breast Cancer and we had to "ring in." My ringing in was screaming (as mentioned above), the girl next to me had to whistle one of those annoying LOUD ear piercing whistles (which I'm sure was way more annoying than my scream), and the guy had to make some kind of monkey sound, I think. I didn't win the game but I still got a free 3Day hat for my excellent participation skills. Below I am practicing my "ringing in!" Do you think the girl next to me is annoyed...nah!
After that, they had a little friendly competition between the two cops in pink. The purpose was to show us how to properly fold up our tents and put them away. But, they made it into a fun race. Of course they had to fit a little bit of dancing in before it started:
Then it was time for the 3Day Rockstar finals. One guy wrote a song for the 3Day and played the guitar in his very own pink bra!
After the competition, they had a dance for about an hour. So you know I was up there shaking my money maker with the best (and worst) of them. Here we are:
Then it was time for bed. I was sooooo worn out. I have no idea how I was able to get up there and dance anyway...where do I find this energy??? It must be from that Energizer bunny.
So the next morning it was time to get up and pack up our tents...Let me start by saying that Cyndi is a MACHINE! I think the Energizer bunny got a hold of her too. I was sitting there complaining that I couldn't carry my bag and she says "Here take the tent and I'll take the bags.." So, she proceeds to take BOTH of our HUGE bags and carry them to the truck, while I carry one tent...WOOOH! Thank goodness I convinced Cyndi to come this year.
Next we had to go eat, breakfast was good as usual. Then we got our feet all worked on with moleskin and the whole 9 and then we all piled on the bus. On day 3 everyone takes the bus to our starting point. As I was getting on the bus, I couldn't resist the urge to honk the BIG HUGE horn...MAN did that make the driver mad. I looked through the gigantic window and saw him running toward the bus. If I remember right his exact words were "DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN." It was pretty much all I could do not to crack up. Anyway, of course I was screaming and hootin' and hollerin' the whole time on the bus. I got a lot of the others on the bus to yell "WOOT TO THE OOT" with me. I *think* I might have been getting on some other people's nerves, but....I doubt it.
So, they dropped us off at a school and we were off. Of course by the third day you're SUPER emotional. So, when I saw this sign I immediately started crying:
NOOO! I'm not talking about the $40 monthly parking sign, although I would probably cry about that too at this point.
I was also approached by some fellow walkers who had awesome tatoos just like mine (I'm the one on the right):
In case I didn't mention it before, the pit stops are so cute because they each have a theme. The crew are awesome at trying to make everything so much fun so that we forget about the pain. I thought this one was so cute:
Anyway, so Sunday was like the hottest day in the history of Chicago (the heat index anyway) and everyone was so hot. Plus, the majority of the walk was in the sun with no shade. We were drinking like fish... You know what they say "Eat, Drink, Pee, No IV." So I just decided to enjoy the view. Lake Michigan looked so beautiful:
It seemed like everyone was really having a rough time with the heat. Izzy even had to go to the medical tent. They said she could have a heat stroke (or something like that, I was so delirious I can't remember but I know it was related to heat...or maybe she was just tired... no just kidding it was heat related). We were really worried about her. Anyway, we eventually moved forward. My hips were killing me and I kept asking the bikers for a ride but no one would listen....Then a few times we almost got ran over by some bikers. MAN those guys are dangerous, and some of them DID NOT like us walking on "their" bike paths. I think I *may* have have yelled a thing or two to one of them who almost ran us over, but I can't confirm or deny that (in case we go to court)...
Anyway, the last mile (just like last year) is always the worst. You feel like it takes 3 days to get there...
Before we could reach the finish line here comes my mom and dad...camera in hand. She was already crying! Here are some pictures my mom took:
As you can see in the second picture, we feel like we're about to die. We didn't want to stop for one second.
Then it was time to walk down the tunnel to cross the finish line (FINALLY!!!!)
OK just looking at this picture makes me cry....again...
Of course we had to wait in the holding area while the other walkers came in. Below is a picture of me with my momma bear and papa bear (aren't they cute!!!!!!). I had to turn it black and white because I was sweating so badly my shirt turned colors.
And of course (as usual) I have to get a picture of my disgusting feet before my mom starts massaging them.... OK now snap to it mom!
Now it was time for the closing ceremonies. We all got in a group and lined up to do our victory walk. We walked in holding hands with our hands up in the air.
Then the survivors walked in doing their victory walk. We all raised our shoes up in the air to honor them:
The survivors were all carrying different flags that said things like "Hope, Patience, Belief, Committment..."
This time we wised up. My dad went and got my bag while we were waiting and put it in the van. After the ceremony was over, we raced out and we were out of the parking lot in about 1 minute. That's 59 minutes shorter than last time :) So, I called Rick and he, Halle, and Ellah met us at the Mexican restaurant in Merrillville, Indiana. Of course I had gone through withdrawal from not eating Mexican food for 3 WHOLE days.
Monday morning I hobbled into work, just like last year. The first thing I did was go to the 3Day website (again) and sign up to do the walk in 2010.
Thank you so much for all of your donations, support and prayers. I can't wait to do this all over again for the 3rd time.
But, the good news is that I already signed up for next year, so start donating :)
So, Thursday night Melinda, Miranda, and I drove up to Northbrook, IL. We were meeting my momma bear there. I called in the morning to make sure the rooms were next to each other and they said they were. I got there and she was on the 1st floor and we were on the 2nd. Darn jerks! They gave my room away!!! So, anyway I get to our room and go to the bathroom and it is FILTHY! So, I call the front desk and we get moved up to the 3rd floor. I was extremely MAD! As a side note, I called and complained and the manager gave me a voucher for a free room. So, I'll use that for next year's walk.
Anyway, so I sleep in my outfit that I'm going to wear Friday morning. Then it's rise and shine at 4:30 am. I get up, brush my teeth, slap on some body glide, etc. and we're out the door. We go downstairs and pour 2.5 lbs of sugar in some nasty coffee and we're off. I didn't eat breakfast because I was saving my appetite for the YUMMY Uncrustables that I ate a million of last year.
We get to Northbrook Court, I drop off my bags, hug the lady taking the bags and then it's time to wait. So, I walk over and grab a pair of bunny ears from the Energizer people (our AWESOME sponsors). These ears were made to keep us going and going and going....
My mom, Melinda, Miranda and I had made some signs on Thursday night, so we decide to take pics of them.
1st pic is my mom and me, second is Melinda (my sister) and me and the bottom one is Miranda (my niece) and me. She colored the sign herself.
After taking the pics, I realized that I looked like a complete dork in the bunny ears so I opted to take them off. There!! Now I look hot again.....ummm well as hot as you can be on the 3Day.
Cyndi, Izzy, and Jen arrived shortly after. We had 2 new team mates this year! GOOOOOOOOO Chicas 4 Tetas!!
Below is a picture of Cyndi and me before we begin. I love this picture because we look like serious runners. Don't we??? I thought so...
Below is a pic of our team Chicas 4 Tetas! Left to right, Cyndi, Me, Jen, & Izzy.
We all wore ribbons on our Camelbaks that had the names of the people we were walking for. Below is a picture of one of my ribbons.
Then we had to stretch and get ready to leave (warning! butts in faces again...refer to the 2008 blog). Why don't they warn us??
Then we had to stretch and get ready to leave (warning! butts in faces again...refer to the 2008 blog). Why don't they warn us??
Then the opening ceremony began. People walk out holding flags saying things like "Mother, Friend, Wife, Hero, My Children, My Aunt" and so on. Bring on the tears! That really makes you cry. They talked about a woman who was supposed to do the walk with her mother but her mother died of breast cancer 2 weeks before the walk. And they talked about the man who promised his wife before she died that he would do everything in his power to get rid of this nasty disease. Then the Breast Cancer survivors walked out. They held flags that said "Belief, Hope, Courage," etc. Below is a picture of the survivor circle:
Then it was time to cross the starting line. There were 1800 men and women walking and 425 crew members!
It didn't take us long to realize that Camelbaks are the best things that were ever invented. For those of you who don't know what these are, they are backpacks but on the inside they have a pouch that you can fill up with water or Gatorade. Then there is a long tube that you just stick in your mouth, squeeze the tip with your teeth and suck. Out comes the Gatorade. WHY didn't we use these last year? Last year we were stopping every two seconds to open the stinking water bottle and take a drink. And to top it off...YES a fanny pack DOES make my butt look big. My how times have changed...
So we get to pit stop 1 (below is a pic):
There's a Medical tent, a Food tent (my favorite), and a Drink tent. Oh and the awesome blue porta potties! So, I race to the porta potties and then I plow people over to get to the food tent to get the uncrustables. But, guess what??? THEY WERE OUT!!!!!! I couldn't even believe it! I believe I even said something like "Great, now I'm going to starve to death!" So, we fill up our Camelbaks, stretch, pee, and we're off.
By pit stop 2 it was already raining :( WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY????????????? So, there we are walking in the rain with these super thin rain ponchos that rip every time you move an inch. Aren't we hot in them!
So, this time (at Pit Stop 2) I run straight to the food tent (ignore the fact that I'm about to pee my pants) but I HAVE to get my uncrustables! I get up there, and the box is empty! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! So, I say "I'm sorry, I'm just a really picky eater and I lived on these last year." Then I walk away... Then I hear an angel in the distance saying "where is the picky girl?" I turn around and there she is... the most beautiful sight I had ever seen (well within the last 5 minutes anyway) she was holding the last uncrustable. She handed it over. I was so excited that I ripped the package open and chowed it down like a savage beast! I was happy for the time, but I was still planning on grabbing 3 at the next pit stop.
So, by the time we got to lunch it was raining pretty hard. It totally stinks when it rains though because we always have to sit on the ground. So, if it's raining, you're sitting in a mud puddle and your butt is drenched. Not very comfy when you're walking 21 miles that day!
Well by this time my mom had been waiting at the first Cheering Station for a loooooooong time! Rumor has it that her eyeballs were yellow because she had to use the restroom so badly. Below is a picture of my momma bear's chair:
While we were walking on Friday we came up behind a lady who had a great sense of humor!
I LOVED the shirt! One problem though (for those of you who aren't English majors, oh wait neither am I) it should say "They're FAKE." But, who's paying attention besides Melinda and me? YES it's "Melinda and ME" not "Melinda and I" in this particular sentence...You thought you caught me, didn't you? Oh well! You probably will later in this blog. Just curious, these companies that make these shirts wrong all the time (because I see it ALL the time) how do they stay in business??? OK sorry I'm getting off the subject here.
After walking 16 of the 21 miles in the rain we arrive at camp. I'm pretty sure I'm 1 degree away from getting Hypothermia at this time and I'm pretty close to delirious. As you can see (below) it was a pretty dreary day at camp because it WOULD NOT STOP RAINING!
There was a LOT of good news though. First of all, this year our tents were half way between the showers and the front where we do everything in the mornings. Which meant we didn't have to walk a half mile every time we had to go back to our tents, only about a quarter of a mile instead. Secondly, they moved the porta potties WAY closer. They were about 20 steps from the front of the tents. GREAT news for me, but probably not such good news for the people who were in the front tents. YUCK! So, the inside of our bags were completely soaked but the good news is that I'm pretty much the smartest person I know. I had packed all of my clothes in gallon zip lock baggies (labeled by day of course) and then I put those baggies in the super huge water proof zip lock storage bags (ok I might have stolen that idea from a guy who wrote "The Underground Guide to the 3Day," but it was pretty smart of me to steal the idea). So, my clothes were super dry. Other good news is that they had spaghetti again!! YAY food fairies, you pulled through for me again this year (remember I'm Italian)! We were also lucky enough to get a visit from the Energizer Bunny.
That night we decided that we would get our mail. Of course I had VERY sweet cards/letters from my mom and my sister, Melinda. They made me cry (just like they did last year). I was also shocked to find that two of my bestest friends in the WHOLE world had also sent me letters, Becky Hissong and Cathy Shedrow. They were so sweet and they even had jokes in them to help me forget about the pain. I love those two ladies!
Friday night we decided that if it was raining on Saturday morning then we were going to take the bus to lunch and wait for the rain to stop. We only bring 2 pairs of shoes and the ones we wore on Friday were completely soaked with no chance of drying any time soon.
Saturday morning we woke up and ate breakfast. Then Cyndi had her feet worked on in the medical tent, and Izzy had her foot looked at because it was hurting on the top. She found out that she has tendinitis in her foot! I KNEW she shouldn't have trained so much, all that repetitive walking has given her tendinitis (ok just kidding it's good to train). So we got on the bus and rode to lunch. As soon as we got to lunch it stopped raining so we grabbed some food and we were off.
Do you want to hear (read) something funny? Well if you don't, skip to next paragraph. So, we skipped the first 10 miles of the day by taking the bus. We get ready to leave the lunch area (after being there for about 2 minutes) and there sits the very first lady who had arrived at the lunch stop (it's 9:30 am and she has already arrived at lunch, already walked 10 miles). She looks up at us like "OH NO! Those lazy girls who took the bus are NOT about to pass me up." So, she stands up and off she goes.... She passes us up like she's the hare and we are the tortoises. Come to find out she's a 68 year old woman. I guess she ended up getting back to camp around noon! Man I sure do feel like a loser now :)
Anyway, so Mount Prospect is the BEST Village in the WORLD! They are so awesome. They had police officers in pink uniforms, and they even had a pink police car. They had also arranged so that EVERY block would have a group of people cheering for us.
Below are three of the houses where people had things set up for us:
Next are two of the police officers and the police car:
Below is the BEST Cheering station EVER! I couldn't believe how many people were there routing us on, handing out popcicles, ice, water, stickers, etc. They ROCK!
Then there was pit stop 4. It was the LOVE BOAT!! How cute!! So, of course we got on the boat and took a picture with the beautiful ocean in the background (you know, the ocean in Chicago).
Then finally we were back at camp. We didn't even have to wait in lines for the showers (one of the benefits of taking the bus and getting to camp early). Also, the food ROCKED!! It was some kind of awesome chicken with some awesome sauce on it, and then some rice and a breadstick! YUMMY! I wonder if we can vote to have the same food year after year? FOOD FAIRIES PLEASE PULL THROUGH IN 2010!!
Anyway, below is a picture of the "remembrance tent." You go inside the tent and inside is a smaller white tent. On it you can sign it or write the name of the person/people you are walking for. As you can see there are two tents on the outside that are already written on. Those are Cleveland and Boston because those two cities were already finished. The rest of the empty tents are for the other cities to come.
Also, below is about a quarter of the looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong path to our tents!
Later we got massages in the Energizer tent!! ENERGIZER ROCKS! I'm buying their batteries from now on.... Forget about Duracel! Duracel who?
Then they had some fellow walkers come in and talk to us. There was a guy who spoke about how he was walking for his wife who had died of Breast Cancer. It completely broke my heart, he was the sweetest little guy. Then a younger girl got up and told her story about having cancer in her stomach when she was younger and they told her she would never have kids. She said she now has 2 kids. Then she found out she had Breast Cancer in 2008. She walked the 2008 walk while she was taking chemo. WOW! That really made me feel awful for complaining about blisters. She was so inspirational. And of course, I bawled like a baby listening to her talk.
Then it was time for the 3Day show! Every night they have entertainment. Also, on Friday night they have auditions for 3Day Rockstar and then Saturday they have the finalists perform. The first part of the 3Day show started with Jenne (the host) saying "OK we're going to have some friendly competition." and me saying "WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" super loud. So, of course I was brought on stage for the game. They asked questions about Breast Cancer and we had to "ring in." My ringing in was screaming (as mentioned above), the girl next to me had to whistle one of those annoying LOUD ear piercing whistles (which I'm sure was way more annoying than my scream), and the guy had to make some kind of monkey sound, I think. I didn't win the game but I still got a free 3Day hat for my excellent participation skills. Below I am practicing my "ringing in!" Do you think the girl next to me is annoyed...nah!
After that, they had a little friendly competition between the two cops in pink. The purpose was to show us how to properly fold up our tents and put them away. But, they made it into a fun race. Of course they had to fit a little bit of dancing in before it started:
Then it was time for the 3Day Rockstar finals. One guy wrote a song for the 3Day and played the guitar in his very own pink bra!
After the competition, they had a dance for about an hour. So you know I was up there shaking my money maker with the best (and worst) of them. Here we are:
Then it was time for bed. I was sooooo worn out. I have no idea how I was able to get up there and dance anyway...where do I find this energy??? It must be from that Energizer bunny.
So the next morning it was time to get up and pack up our tents...Let me start by saying that Cyndi is a MACHINE! I think the Energizer bunny got a hold of her too. I was sitting there complaining that I couldn't carry my bag and she says "Here take the tent and I'll take the bags.." So, she proceeds to take BOTH of our HUGE bags and carry them to the truck, while I carry one tent...WOOOH! Thank goodness I convinced Cyndi to come this year.
Next we had to go eat, breakfast was good as usual. Then we got our feet all worked on with moleskin and the whole 9 and then we all piled on the bus. On day 3 everyone takes the bus to our starting point. As I was getting on the bus, I couldn't resist the urge to honk the BIG HUGE horn...MAN did that make the driver mad. I looked through the gigantic window and saw him running toward the bus. If I remember right his exact words were "DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN." It was pretty much all I could do not to crack up. Anyway, of course I was screaming and hootin' and hollerin' the whole time on the bus. I got a lot of the others on the bus to yell "WOOT TO THE OOT" with me. I *think* I might have been getting on some other people's nerves, but....I doubt it.
So, they dropped us off at a school and we were off. Of course by the third day you're SUPER emotional. So, when I saw this sign I immediately started crying:
NOOO! I'm not talking about the $40 monthly parking sign, although I would probably cry about that too at this point.
I was also approached by some fellow walkers who had awesome tatoos just like mine (I'm the one on the right):
In case I didn't mention it before, the pit stops are so cute because they each have a theme. The crew are awesome at trying to make everything so much fun so that we forget about the pain. I thought this one was so cute:
Anyway, so Sunday was like the hottest day in the history of Chicago (the heat index anyway) and everyone was so hot. Plus, the majority of the walk was in the sun with no shade. We were drinking like fish... You know what they say "Eat, Drink, Pee, No IV." So I just decided to enjoy the view. Lake Michigan looked so beautiful:
It seemed like everyone was really having a rough time with the heat. Izzy even had to go to the medical tent. They said she could have a heat stroke (or something like that, I was so delirious I can't remember but I know it was related to heat...or maybe she was just tired... no just kidding it was heat related). We were really worried about her. Anyway, we eventually moved forward. My hips were killing me and I kept asking the bikers for a ride but no one would listen....Then a few times we almost got ran over by some bikers. MAN those guys are dangerous, and some of them DID NOT like us walking on "their" bike paths. I think I *may* have have yelled a thing or two to one of them who almost ran us over, but I can't confirm or deny that (in case we go to court)...
Anyway, the last mile (just like last year) is always the worst. You feel like it takes 3 days to get there...
Before we could reach the finish line here comes my mom and dad...camera in hand. She was already crying! Here are some pictures my mom took:
As you can see in the second picture, we feel like we're about to die. We didn't want to stop for one second.
Then it was time to walk down the tunnel to cross the finish line (FINALLY!!!!)
OK just looking at this picture makes me cry....again...
Of course we had to wait in the holding area while the other walkers came in. Below is a picture of me with my momma bear and papa bear (aren't they cute!!!!!!). I had to turn it black and white because I was sweating so badly my shirt turned colors.
And of course (as usual) I have to get a picture of my disgusting feet before my mom starts massaging them.... OK now snap to it mom!
Now it was time for the closing ceremonies. We all got in a group and lined up to do our victory walk. We walked in holding hands with our hands up in the air.
Then the survivors walked in doing their victory walk. We all raised our shoes up in the air to honor them:
The survivors were all carrying different flags that said things like "Hope, Patience, Belief, Committment..."
This time we wised up. My dad went and got my bag while we were waiting and put it in the van. After the ceremony was over, we raced out and we were out of the parking lot in about 1 minute. That's 59 minutes shorter than last time :) So, I called Rick and he, Halle, and Ellah met us at the Mexican restaurant in Merrillville, Indiana. Of course I had gone through withdrawal from not eating Mexican food for 3 WHOLE days.
Monday morning I hobbled into work, just like last year. The first thing I did was go to the 3Day website (again) and sign up to do the walk in 2010.
Thank you so much for all of your donations, support and prayers. I can't wait to do this all over again for the 3rd time.
Monday, September 29, 2008
SKYDIVE CHICAGO!!!!!!!!!
WAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The plane fit about 23 people. There were no seats. We all had to sit on the floor toboggan (sp) style. We were in two rows. My camera guy was SOOOO funny. His name was Brad but he went by B-Rad! So, my Tandem master was behind me and my camera guy was in front of me. It was soooooooo exciting. Cyndi was right next to me and Kristi and Chris were behind me. Here we are in the plane:
That little white thing is not the parachute. It's just a thing that slows us down a little bit so that we are "only" going 120 mph. ONLY!!!
Check out this view!!
When you are going down, you are going so fast that you can hardly do anything. At one point I tried to do a peace sign for the camera and I could only get one finger to go up LOL!
I did get a little sick from all of the spinning so I told him not to spin me too much any more. Then he said "OK, I'm going to unclip the bottom two clips." and I'm like "WHAT THE..........." So, I said "OK but don't unclip the top." Like he didn't already know that. He needed to do that so that he would have more room to move around when we landed. Then we just floated down, it was SOOOOOOOOO AWESOME.
Then Enzo went over the process of coming in for a landing. All I had to do was stick my legs straight out. But, that was much harder than I thought. Thank goodness for all of those Planks I've been doing because I have abs of steal. That really uses those abs. Here we are coming in for a landing:
And here we are back to earth safe and sound!! (See mom, I lived!!)
OMG We had the BEST time EVER!!!!!!! Skydiving is awesome!! We seriously had such an AWESOME time. I think I'm still high from it (the legal kind of high LOL). OK so let me see if I can tell you the entire story.
My friends and I met at work at 9:30am on Friday, September 26, 2008. It was Kristi, Cyndi, Chris and me. It was Cyndi's bday too!! We were SOOOOO excited. We were yelling and screaming the whole way there. And we were jamming the music. I seriously think that Cyndi knows the words to every song in the world LOL! We looked SOOOOOOOO HOT riding in Kristi's mini-van. We stopped at a rest stop and of course we had to let the people there know that we were going skydiving. Then we were on the road again. The closer we got, the more we were screaming with excitement!! Right before we got there, we popped in the CD "Live like you were dying" by Tim McGraw!! It's about a guy who just found out he's dying. Part of the lyrics are.... I went skydiving, I went Rocky mountain climbing..... So, we got even more pumped up singing that. As we pulled up, we stuck Kristi's camera out the window and took a picture of the SKYDIVE CHICAGO sign!! We started SCREAMING with excitement.
We got out of the van and we walked in. We were like an hour early so we had time to take it all in. We talked to this lady that was kind of snooty but she said we could fill out our paperwork while we waited for the others to get there. She told us that she had to witness us signing everything so we should not sign anything until we were in front of her. She kept saying "Don't sign anything." Then he said "Be sure not to sign anything, it kind of sneaks up on you." We were like "HHHHHHHHAAAAAAA like it's gonna sneak up on us.." and we were making fun of her (not to her face of course). So, we signed everything that basically in 50 different paragraphs we said that we wouldn't sue if we had serious INJURY or DEATH! We kept laughing because if you looked at the page from a little far away all you would see was "INJURY or DEATH" in every paragraph.
Then it was time for the class. We went downstairs and a guy named Sparky was our teacher. He was decent looking until we looked at his teeth and it looked like he hadn't brushed them in MONTHS! But, he was still really nice and funny. We first had to watch this video made by the guy who had designed the parachutes we were going to use. The guy that did the video sat at a desk with his fingers crossed and he didn't move the entire time. In Sparky's words, he looked like one of ZZ Top's grandpas. He had a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG grey beard that seriously went down to his chest. He basically told us the same thing as the paper work. I don't even remember a word he said LOL! Then Sparky taught us about H-A-T. That is when you jump, you first look at the HORIZON, then check your ALTIMETER, then.... hmmm what was the T for? You can tell I paid attention LOL! Then he said that when we'll be attached to our "Tandem Master" and he'll basically do everything. When we get up to 13,000 feet, we'll jump. We just have to arch our back and tip our head back. Then we'll free fall for about a minute at 120 miles per hour!!! And we're supposed to make a W with our arms. Then we're supposed to check our Altimeter and pull the parachute at 5500 feet (55 stay alive). I think that was it, it took about 5 minutes LOL! He told us that if we didn't pull the chute, it was ok bc they would pull it for us. And there was a reserve parachute, and if we both passed out a chute would come out automatically.
So, then we were done with class. We walked up stairs to see how our tandem master would be. I got "ENZO." I walked over and asked if he was Italian and he said yes. I said "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I'm Italian too!!!" and we slapped each other a 5. I kept screaming and yelling and acting CRAZY!!!! Every few seconds I was screaming. The Tandem Masters kept saying "how much caffeine did you give her today." And they said "She always acts like this." LOL! Then we started suiting up. Then Enzo put my strap things on. It says Danger in 3 different languages on the back since that is the only thing we'll have on, no parachute on us!! Here is a pic of us in our suits!!
Left to right is me, Kristi, Chris and Cyndi. I know, I look like I have 15 chins LOL!
Then Enzo started going over and over with me how to check the altimeter and then pull the little ball for the chute to come out. I was paying attention but I was so excited, I couldn't concentrate. I suppose I should have "tried" to concentrate since I was jumping out of a perfectly good plane!! But, I was too excited! Here is Enzo trying to go over things with me:
Then it was time to load the plane. I was so excited that I just started boarding. Then I heard someone yell, "MELISSA!!" and I turned around and Enzo said "BYE!" HHHHHAAAAAA I totally forgot I needed my Tandem Master LOL!
So, we started loading the plane. I kept yelling "HI MOM" into the video camera because I knew my mom was going to FREAK when she saw the video of me jumping out of an airplane. She had NO IDEA that is what I was doing. Then one time I said "Hi Halle, Ellah, and husband...uh Rick." HHHHHAAAA I was so excited I couldn't' think of my own husband's name. OMG I hope he doesn't read this or I'll be in BIG trouble for that one LOL! Here is me loading the plane:
The plane fit about 23 people. There were no seats. We all had to sit on the floor toboggan (sp) style. We were in two rows. My camera guy was SOOOO funny. His name was Brad but he went by B-Rad! So, my Tandem master was behind me and my camera guy was in front of me. It was soooooooo exciting. Cyndi was right next to me and Kristi and Chris were behind me. Here we are in the plane:
On the way up, we reviewed the steps a few more times and then he hooked me up to him. It was WAAAAAY tight. I go "WOW, that's tight." and he goes "Good and he tightened it more." I thought my boobs were going to go flat. Not that they aren't already.
Then we got up to 13K feet. Cyndi was the first jumper. We "walked" over on our knees and then I watched Cyndi jump out. Suddenly I thought "HMMM that may be the last time I ever see Cyndi." Then my camera guy climbed out and just hung on to the side of the plane so he could get me jumping. Enzo, my tandem master, walked me over to the edge. He kept scooting me closer and for a split second I thought I was going to fall out and I almost got scared. But, then I didn't. Then I arched my back like a pro and put my head back and he counted and we took off. It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My favorite part was actually jumping out. Here is me jumping out. I am upside down in the first few pictures because you actually do a flip.
Check out my "PERFECT" arch!
That little white thing is not the parachute. It's just a thing that slows us down a little bit so that we are "only" going 120 mph. ONLY!!!
Here is another picture of me screaming with excitement as we are "FREE FALLING" Kristi, the gansta's favorite part. And another view of my perfect arch.
Check out this view!!So, on the way down, I checked my altimeter one time and it said I was at 11,000 feet. So, I thought "OK, I'm good, I have plenty of time to act like an idiot for the camera and then I can pull the chute." YEAH RIGHT!! I totally forgot to ever check it again and before I knew it, Enzo was pulling the chute. THANK GOD he remembered LOL! When he pulls the chute, you feel a slight jerk and your legs fly out and that's it. It's completely peaceful and calm.
I did get a little sick from all of the spinning so I told him not to spin me too much any more. Then he said "OK, I'm going to unclip the bottom two clips." and I'm like "WHAT THE..........." So, I said "OK but don't unclip the top." Like he didn't already know that. He needed to do that so that he would have more room to move around when we landed. Then we just floated down, it was SOOOOOOOOO AWESOME.Then Enzo went over the process of coming in for a landing. All I had to do was stick my legs straight out. But, that was much harder than I thought. Thank goodness for all of those Planks I've been doing because I have abs of steal. That really uses those abs. Here we are coming in for a landing:
And here we are back to earth safe and sound!! (See mom, I lived!!) After all of that fun, I went to the restroom and when I came out, Cyndi had already bought me a Mike's Hard Lemonade Light. We waited for our videos to get done and then we were off to Cyndi's campsite at Woodhaven Lakes in Sublette, IL. We decided we were going to stop and eat at this Pizza place before we went to the camper. Kristi is training for a marathon and she still needed to run 5 more miles for the day. We dropped her off 5 miles from the pizza place. She changed on the side of the road.
So, we drive off leaving Kristi behind. When we get to the Pizza joint, we order a Mike's for me, and a pitcher of beer. And of course the Pizza. It was seriously the best pizza I've ever had. I HATE beer so I wasn't having any of that. Kristi came in 32 minutes after we arrived at the pizza place. It was HILARIOUS because she walked in wearing only her sports bra and shorts and she was literally DRIPPING with sweat. I was cracking up because she left a trail of sweat all the way to the bathroom.
Then the pizza came out, perfect timing. We ordered another pitcher of beer and we scarfed down the pizza. Then we were like "Let's hurry and drink the rest of the beer so we can get to the camper and watch our videos." So, there was like 1/3 of the pitcher left. I said "I should just chug all of that myself!" Totally joking since I can't stand beer. But, Cyndi said "I dare you, I'll give you five bucks!" and I was like "OK" you can't dare me to do anything because I WILL do it. Once a kid dared me to jump off my house and he said he'd "catch me." I climbed up and jumped and he moved out of the way and I went SPLAT on the ground (too bad I didn't have a parachute). Anyway, so I started chugging away. There were like 4 other tables of people and they were all laughing at me. Then I stopped for a breath and I looked at this 70+ year old guy and said "I'm getting too old for this." and he started cracking up. Here is a picture of me chugging:
Then we were off to the camper. We broke out the margaritas and beer as soon as we got there and it was all over after that. We were CRAZY!!!!!!! I drank a TON and had a blast. I never drink so that was ok. We started watching the videos. We ended up watching the videos about 10 times between Friday night and Saturday morning. We had the songs memorized by then. Cyndi's mom and dad stopped over at around midnight. I don't even remember them coming in, I just remember looking and they were sitting there LOL! We showed them the video and they left. We also hung out at the camp fire for a while, laughing and acting stupid. My butt cheeks got ATE UP by mosquitos. I guess black guys aren't the only ones that love that ghetto booty!
We went to bed at around 1:30 and got up around 7:30am. It took us a while to get up and around.
We started our drive back but we had to stop at Skydive Chicago again because Cyndi's still pictures didn't show up on her CD.
Then we went back home. We were crazy the whole way home, but a lot more calm than we were on the way there.
We can't WAIT to do it again!!!
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