My Life On The DD List

As I have now been able to locate where my ankles have been hiding(and they still think I don’t know where they are, but I’m starting to see them!) and noticed that my badges of courage (road rash)are subsiding, I’ve been thinking about the Tampa Bay 3 Day event and the miles I walked. I’ve thought about the people that were out supporting us, the few people that were p.o.’d when the police were holding them at an intersection so we could cross who yelled “I have someplace to be!”, the staff, the crew and the 1899 people who walked the 60 mile path with me. 

The rainbow at Opening Ceremonies was my sign from above that this was going to be a wonderful event and re-affirmed to me that those who I walked in memory of were watching over every step that I was going to take. It gave me strength enough to cross the first bridge on that sunny morning over the intra coastal waterway and as I looked at the Gulf of Mexico, I thought “what a remarkable way to start this journey.  Rainbows and blue sky.” I spoke with so many people along the way.  I learned why they walk and in turn I shared why I walk.  See, you live in a bubble for 3 days.  The world, for those 3 days, is the way it should be.  People who are understanding of the short comings of others and ask “What can I do for you?”.  It’s the kind of display of humanity that isn’t seen very often in “the real world”.  There are thank you’s, your welcome’s, what can I do for you?, are you ok?, do you need something?, chants like “Make sure you snack, you’re walking for your rack” or “Drink Drink pee pee you don’t want an I.V.!!”  Lets face it, you have nobody at your office telling you “Come in and rest, you’re walking for your breasts!”, right?  If you do…I wanna know where you work and if they’re accepting applications. 

I must tell you that for the first time at a 3 Day event, I danced my butt off in Philadelphia at the Saturday Night Dance Party and had a great time.  So naturally, I promised Sister Rosaire (aka. Donna, my sistah in hydration at the lunch stop in Philly)to do so at the Tampa event. However, I must come clean. At the Tampa event, I heard threats from my feet that if I got up and made a move toward the stage that they would leave and I’d have to find my own way home.  That’s a four hour drive, how would I have gotten home Monday?! So I sat back down and watched the other participants and heard THEIR feet mumbling at them.  On every 3 Day event, on Saturday night, there are people who are chosen, and have the courage, to share their story of what brought them to The Breast Cancer 3 Day. In Philly, we listened to a woman talking about Inflammatory Breast Cancer.  We cried.  But the new spokesperson (and I say spokesPERSON because I suppose we have to be P.C. even on the 3 Day!) Jenne wound us up and dropped the gauntlet to dance her off the stage and we were, at least for the moment, back in a joyous mood.  In Tampa, we listened to a gentleman who lost not one, but TWO wives to this disease.  Again, we cried, but again Jenne found a way to bring our minds back to the joyous spirit and once again challenged those of us under the tent to dance her off the stage.  This is where I heard the threats from my feet.  Quite frankly, my knees and calves were on their way to back up any threats my feet may have made earlier.

When I registered to crew in Philadelphia and walk in Tampa Bay, it was in the hopes that the weather would be cool.  I mean, come on, it’s October, it shouldn’t be bad right? HA!  We arrived in Philadelphia with temps in the upper 80’s and I thought “this is not autumn!”. As we arrived at crew day, a bead of sweat formed on my brow and I thought “this isn’t gonna last.”  I was right, the upper 80’s didn’t last, it climbed into the 90’s!  So at the end of each of our hard days of crewing and making sure each of the walkers was fed and hydrated, we returned to camp to our little pink sweat boxes, um eh hem, tents and waited for SOME kind of relief.  This didn’t happen until nightfall.  Once the sun went down we navigated through a dark, cool and misty night.  In that misty darkness, I heard many people warn those who were new to this event, “don’t leave anything outside you don’t want wet.”  It helps being a veteran.  Not  because you know to bring with you extra baggies, Gold Bond Medicated Foot Spray powder or the creature comforts that you missed on your first event.  It helps because you leave home all the things you thought you might need by looking at the never ending packing list!  But let us not forget that the bag you bring must weigh 35 lbs. or less.  On my first event I thought, “are they kidding? 35 lbs.?  My bag is 45 and I haven’t even packed the several pair of clean bloomers yet!!” But I digress.  So we dealt with the heat in Philly and left Closing Ceremonies with the feeling of inspiration and a sense that we can change the world one 3 Day event at a time. 

On to Tampa Bay!  I was so glad to have the ability to do TWO events this year.  People thought that perhaps I was a bit mad, but I’d love to do all 12 in one capacity or another if I could!  I couldn’t wait to get back amongst the spirit that flows through the 3 Day event.  I couldn’t wait to see the little pink sweat boxes, er eh hem, tents again, eat the pre-cooked CHICKEN again or drink gatorade all weekend long while the crew called it Blue Hawaiians or Pink Martini’s!  But I especially couldn’t wait to see the faces of everyone participating and not because I knew them, but because I knew there would be smiles.  There, in the eyes of all of those people, I would find the 3 Day spirit.  The spirit that becomes as addicting as chocolate or potato chips.  Now some of you may have heard that camp, on that first night in Tampa Bay, was evacuated to a parking garage due to inclement weather.  As I thought about how hot I was and was on the verge of whining…although there IS NO WHINING on the 3 day, I went to the information tent and found a list of hotels in the area and made arrangements.  Now I know I should have been a trooper and evacuated to the parking garage, but I wasn’t the ONLY person who fled to the comfort of the local Ramada Inn.  So this made me feel like less of a quitter.  I tried to talk myself into the fact that I had already camped in the heat in Philadelphia, so this didn’t really count, right?  I love staying in camp because of the sense of community and fun, but there is something to be said for staying at a hotel after walking 15 miles in 98 degree heat under the Florida sun and not in a parking garage.  That’s right, 15 miles.  I was hoping you wouldn’t notice that part.  The first day, after Opening, the sun became unrelenting and by mile 15 I realized I wasn’t “walking ON sunshine” and started to get overheated.  So I returned to camp.  Day two started out with an overcast sky so I felt as though I could do anything, but that was the LONGEST 20 miles I’ve ever walked!  (ok, so I have only walked 20 miles one other time before when I walked in the NYC 3 Day, but you know what I mean!)  Day three started beautifully and ended up becoming sunny.  Again, I wasn’t walking ON sunshine, I think the sunshine started to walk all over me!  (Why do I feel like breaking into that Nancy Sinatra song?)  The two longest stretches of walking were at the last half of the day, which to me didn’t seem fair.  I kept walking from Lunch Stop toward Pit Stop 3 and thought will it ever appear? As I saw balloons and hear cheering, I thought perhaps I was seeing an Oasis, which I must tell you the last two pit stops became for me.  I was overheated and was welcomed to Pit Stop 3, at the hydration tent, by someone in an Afro wig telling me to get into the shade and be sure to keep hydrated.  A man in a wig is telling ME to stay cool.  Our crew dressed up in that heat just to make sure we were sufficiently entertained at each stop and he told ME to get cooled off.  This is what this event is for me.  People thinking of other people.

As I arrived into finish and hugged my mother, I broke down.  I had just walked 57 miles and was heart broken that I couldn’t do all 60.  I wanted to complete it all for everyone who was on my shirt.  I wanted to finish in honor of my sister.  In memory of Susan and Grace.  But I realize that even though I can’t claim to have walked 60 miles in this event, I can say that I tried.  I can say that I’m proud to have been a part of two Breast Cancer 3 Day events in 2007.  I can say that I walked as far as I could and that I would walk farther to give my sister a life time.  I can say I will continue to walk so that my nieces, your nieces, daughters, sisters, mothers, husbands, sons or brothers won’t have to. 

“The longest journey begins with a single step.”

Lao Tsu

For More Information Please Visit www.the3day.org