Hello Angels,
Well, I think that this will probably be the most difficult of all the newsletters that I have written to date. I want so much for you to "experience" the weekend that I did, and I just don't know if I can do it justice with words alone. I wanted to have sent this out sooner after the walk, but I've been pretty much in a prone position in my recliner all week, recovering from surgery on my knee I had done right after the walk on Tuesday. I tore the meniscus in my left knee on one of my training walks about a month before the walk. I went and had it checked right after I did it, and I told the doctor then that I was committed to doing this walk, no matter what. So he gave me a cortisone injection at that time, and then I trained another month on it. The Wednesday before the walk I went back in to see him again. He drained about 15 cc's of fluid off the knee and then gave me another cortisone shot to get me through the weekend. Please understand, this walk was not about me, and I don't want to sound like I'm looking for sympathy for my knee. (One of the legacy pins that walkers proudly wear is one that says "No Whining"). I'm not whining, I just want you to know that this walk was, I think, one of the biggest challenges of my life. It was probably the most physically demanding thing I have ever done, even if I had done it without the pain that I was having with my knee. I kept telling myself throughout the walk, that after the walk and after the surgery, my pain would go away. Knowing in my heart that the pain Joyce is having is never going to go away, it kind of makes mine insignificant. That, and my love for her is what got me through the walk.
So, here we go. Thursday, the 11th, was "Crew Day". I took Joyce down to North Point Mall Thursday morning, where she and all the other "Crew" members would get their training. She was on "Check In Crew", which meant their group would be the ones to check all the walkers in and out of camp each day. Every walker had credentials that had a bar code on it, and was worn at all times during the weekend. The "Check In Crew" had to train on the hand held scanners that were used to scan each walker in and out of camp. Pretty much from 10 until around 4 she was busy getting acquainted with the rest of the crew members and going through all the training they had to do. At 4:30 we both went through rehearsal for the opening ceremonies, as both of us had been chosen to participate in them. I was to carry one of the "Lifetime Flags" and Joyce was to be in the "survivors circle". Just walking through the ceremonies without the crowd around that would be there Friday, gave me chills. To have been selected to carry one of the flags was such an honor, and it made my first walk probably be the most memorable of all the ones that I have committed to do in the future. There are 12 "Lifetime Flags", Best Friends, Victories, Challenges, Anniversaries, Joy, Celebrations, Generations, Turning Points, Dreams, Embraces, Discoveries, and Strength. I was carrying the one that said Dreams. I could only think of all the dreams that Joyce and I have shared in our lifetime, and the dreams yet to be fulfilled, as I carried it. The survivors that were in the survivors circle, also would each pick up flags when we led the walkers out after the ceremonies, to start the beginning of the 60 mile walk. Their flags represent the facets of the survivors' existence that we so admire and appreciate. They are Courage, Commitment, Belief, Healing, Hope, Optimism, Patience, and Love. Joyce carried the Patience flag.
Jenne, who is the National Spokesperson told us that being National Spokesperson, she gets to travel to all 12 events this year. She kicks off each event at the opening ceremonies. She gets to walk and talk with the participants. She said she gets to emcee the nightly camp show (which is crazy fantastic and also the most fun you can have sober … with blisters) and she closes out the event at the closing ceremonies. "It's an amazing job. I am touched each weekend. It never gets old. It's exhausting. It's draining. It's emotionally, mentally and physically challenging. And it is so worth it." she said.
After rehearsal was over, we checked into our hotel. We decided to get a hotel room Thursday night, which was near where the opening ceremonies were held, because we had to be there early, like 5:30 Friday morning. It would have been just too much getting up early enough to drive down to Alpharetta there that early. Then we went over to TGI Fridays for dinner. They were having a fund raiser there for two of the walkers, a young lady named Jan Webster and a 75 year old gentleman named George. Both of them are doing all 12 walks around the country this year. That means both of them are committed to raising $26,400, each, $2,200 for each walk. Mind boggling isn't it. The commitment that the two of them have made to do all they can to help find a cure for BC, inspires me beyond words.
The gentleman's name was George. Walked with walking sticks - he's 75, walking all 12 3Day Events this year ...a total of 720 miles!!! His story....he's a retired electrician, retired in 2001, a speech by President Bush to help others by raising $ to fight breast cancer...got him to thinking about what he wanted to do as a retiree. He started the 3Day at 70, walked 7 before this year. He said his life has more meaning than before the walks. He's already reached his fund raising goal for 2007, he continues to campaign for funds and distributes $ to other walkers trying to reach their goal, or just adds to his own efforts...his email is www.thehappywalker.com He was featured in the book "Why We Walk", if you purchase the book thru him, he puts the profits towards his fund raising....he just smiles and keeps on going! In Atlanta, on day 2, toward the end of the day - he got a severe pain in his ankle/foot, totally stopping him enroute, he iced it down, waited a while, tried again - still painful, stopped and waited a while again. He'd never gotten on a SAG bus in any of his events, didn't want to do it now - but would if necessary. He's very calm. After resting a while, he tried again - slight pain but he could walk with it...and he finished the day. He's married, has no personal family issues with cancer - it's a cause he believes in, figures he can do a little something to help, he's very proud of what little he does that makes a difference. After this year, he's going to continue to participate in 3Day Walks, just not 12 of them!
Friday morning, we're up and ready to go at 5:15. We load our gear, including sleeping bags, onto a bus which takes us over to the North Point Mall. There are already quite a few people there when we get there. We carry our gear over to the back of one of the trucks that are lined up. The trucks are labeled with our tent areas. The "Gear Crew" will load all the trucks and then go to the campsite, unload all the gear, and in most instances, carry the luggage and sleeping bags out to the grid assignment of where ones tent will be located. Quite a feat, moving gear for something like 2700 walkers and 350 crew members. After dropping off our gear at the truck, Joyce went and met with the other 7 survivors at their staging area, and I went behind the stage and met with the other 11 flag carriers. There was music playing over the loud speakers, and as the crowd of walkers began to grow on both sides of the center walkway and grew louder and louder, it seemed like the air was just becoming charged with electricity. The hair was standing up on my arms and neck. It was pretty cool out early that morning, but the temperature was not what was causing the chills to go down my arms and legs. We had been told that when we heard them start the stretching and jazzercises that we had about 10 minutes to get our flags and get into positions.
When the Jazzercised ended, Jenne, on stage, started speaking about the 3-Day Walk, and what it was all about. As she started speaking, the roar that had been coming from the crowd started to diminish, and it grew quieter, to where all you heard was her voice. And as she spoke you could hear the crack in her voice. (She had told us Thursday evening during rehearsal, that no matter how many times she does the opening, she continues to get emotional during it.) She read the words that flew on the banner next to the stage......"We walk because we must. We are strong because the journey demands it. Together in body and united in spirit we lay down our footsteps for this generation and the next. This is our promise: a world without breast cancer." As she continued her speech, we started down the center aisle from the back, walking towards, then around the survivors circle that was about half way down, and then to the front of the stage. As we approached the stage we all came to a stand still. Then Jenne proceeded to speak about the survivors, and as she spoke the words that were on each flag, the person carrying that flag would go up on to the stage.
As Jenne continued speaking, Joyce and 7 other survivors walked in and up on to the survivors circle platform where they joined hands in a circle. And then as she spoke of the survivors, their Courage, their Commitment, their Hope, their Optimism, their Patience, their Belief, their Healing, and their Love, each one stepped out of their circle and took their flag.
At the end of the speech the survivors came down from their platform and started out of the ceremony area, followed by our group carrying the "lifetime flags", and then followed by an enormous group of walkers. Once we reached the exit of the mall parking lot, all of the flags were placed on each side of the walk in holders, and we were able to wait for our team members to meet up with and start our first day of walking.
It was an exhilarating start, after getting by that first emotional half hour of opening ceremonies, everyone was ready to get started walking and was an awesome sight seeing the huge crowd at the start. The temperature was pretty cool when we started out, but it warmed up when we started walking. Little did we know that it was going to be downright cold, that night when we got back to camp.
The first time we came upon people that had come out to cheer us on brought on a whole new feeling that I had not experienced before then. They were not only applauding us and cheering us on, but they were reaching out, shaking our hands, patting us on the back, in some cases hugging us, thanking us for walking, thanking us for fighting to find a cure for breast cancer. It's hard to describe the feeling of pride that you get when that happens.
I think it was just before lunch we hit one of the first of the humongous hills we were to encounter on this walk. It seemed like it went on forever, and then we saw a sign on a light pole, "TOP OF HILL", and as was so often the case on the hills, there was a group of people there, cheering and telling us what a great job we were doing. It's amazing how that would affect you, the adrenaline would start pumping and you would feel like you could do just about anything.
We reached our lunch stop about 2 miles after this hill, I think it was, where I ran into my tent mate's daughter. This was her first walk this year, and due to her job and having to take care of her children, she had not trained as well as she should have. Later on, by the end of the walk, both of her feet had blisters so bad, that she could hardly walk. In fact she came into the finish with someone on both sides of her supporting her. She was so determined, she finished on guts and willpower. I told her that I was so proud of her, that she was truly a hero in my eyes.
Remember me speaking of the medical staff crew. They were set up at all the pit stops and at the lunch area. And believe me, they were kept busy. Mostly treating feet. The most serious of all injuries over the weekend was some broken ribs, when one walker fell down.
The last pit stop before we made it back to camp the first day was Pit Stop 4. Each of the pit stop crews had a different theme, most with music playing and the crews dressed in some type of costume. Pit Stop 4 had a Bavarian Beerfest theme.
At last we made it back to camp, late that afternoon. Coming down the hill to the camp we were greeted by girl scouts and walkers that were back early. They were along the road cheering us in the final half mile. Just after passing the girl scouts I ran into Joyce, she was on check in crew, but this afternoon she was handing out stickers to all the walkers. That was another big thing for the walkers, to see how many different stickers you could wind up with. They were given out at all the pit stops and when you came back into camp. Every thing from stars to happy faces to rainbows to fish.
When we got into camp and located our grid location in the tent area, B-11, we found our gear and our tent. We weren't one of the lucky ones that the boy scouts had set the tents up for. So we had to set it up ourselves. It wasn't to complicated though, and we had it up in about a half hour. It was quite a site after everyone got into camp and had their tents up, a sea of pink.
I think it got down to about 45 the first night. I was pretty warm in my sleeping bag, but my knee was killing me after having walked 24 miles on it, so I didn't get much sleep the first night, I just couldn't get into a comfortable position where it didn't hurt. Remember now, I'm not whining, LOL, just trying to convey the entire experience for you.
I'm going to break this off here and start day 2 in another email. I'm afraid the email might be too large otherwise, and some of your mail servers might reject it. If I DO get notices back from anyone's server saying it was rejected, I'll try and break this one up and resend it.
-- Michael