T-48 Hours

The countdown is on!  Okay, the countdown has been on since we registered in January.  But it's THE countdown, the official less than 48 hours until Opening Ceremony!

So what happens in the hours before the 3-Day?  That's the easy part!  Tomorrow afternoon, we're staying in a hotel in Natick, which is an offical 3-Day "Host Hotel".  After a hopefully restful & early to bed evening, we're rise and shine at the lovely hour of somewhere around 4:30-5am.  We'll take a shuttle to the Opening Ceremony, check our bags at our Tent Assigned truck, then head to pre-start festivities.  There's the opportunity for us to put the names of those we've lost to breast cancer on white strips of paper and they'll be included in the ceremony.  Then it'll be stretching, hydrating and waiting for the show to start (oh, and shaking off those jitters!)

Almost everything is packed up and ready to go...is it Friday yet?! :)

We're There

You know that feeling you get somewhere between oh-my-gosh-I'm-so-excited-I-can't-wait-anymore and oh-my-gosh-what-the-heck-am-I-doing-I'm-going-to-puke?  We're there.

Less than 3 days until Opening Ceremony!  I can't wait for Thursday night though....we have plans for an awesome dinner and then even bigger plans to hit the hay by 9pm.  Brace yourself for the excitement, I know :)  Then before the crack of dawn, it'll be showtime!

Please send a message to the Weather Gods for NO rain!  The heat is a whole other issue.  Boston's weather forecast is looking hot, hot and hotter.  95-ish temps, heat index of 100-105 and humidity!  Trifecta!  Keeping an eye on it though.  As we New Englanders know, don't like the weather?  Wait 5 minutes it'll change!

Stay cool out there!
~A

In Memory

The friend of a friend who was recently diagnosed lost her mom last week.  She survived breast cancer, awhile back when it wasn't as favorable.  My thoughts go out to the daughter, who is fighting breast cancer as we speak.

For her, and the million others, we walk.

<3

14 Days!

I apologize for the lag in our updates.  We have had a busy few weeks!  Last week, the 2 of us were able to walk every day!  We were lucky enough to walk in Roger Williams Park, Providence.  It really was a dream for walking!  If I lived near there, I'd walk a lot more that's for sure.  Over 5 days, we logged almost 40 miles and walked about 3 hours a day.  Woohoo!  It was great to get some back to back days in.  It also gave us a chance to try out our gear, which we found works awesome.  Tweaking things here and there helped and I really think we are in good shape for the 3-Day.

Which is (drum roll please!)....14 DAYS from today!  Actually, 14 days from now, we'll be passed out in our gorgeous pink tent, I'm sure.  Time is literally flying by!

We are now entering what I call the Logistics part of the journey.  Lists, lists and more lists!  For us 2 non-campers, take staying overnight (in said pink tent) plus everything we need to walk in heat, cold & rain plus everything we need to carry with us while doing said walk...and voila!  Checklists galore.  All in all, we're doing pretty good and have, I'd venture to say almost everything.  A few small things but overall I think we're doing pretty well.

On the flip side, we should be since we're only 2 weeks out!  And counting!

~A

4+ Weeks and Counting

4 weeks and 2 days.  That's IT until we start walking!  Excitement and a little bit of panic is setting in.  We are well on our way to getting everything together for the walk (and remember, you have 2 non-campers in the house!).  We both are breaking in our 2nd pair of shoes.  And who knew things like socks were so important?!  Actually we did, since we've done this before but seriously, those $12 socks really are worth it.

Next week will be filled with lots of walks!  The plan is to get a long walk or two in, hopefully, as well.  Last Sunday we set out on a 12 mile training walk.  Annnnd, now cue in the rain.  It started out a great walk, cloudy but cool and overcast.  A few miles in, the drizzle started.  Not so bad!  We kept walking and kept our 20 min/mile average pace.  It really wasn't awful until we started getting sprayed with water from cars going 50mph.  Yikes.  So we headed back and got in 6 miles.  Not a bad day but not a 'long' walk either.

Walking we will go!

"The greatest step is out the door."  ~German Proverb

9 Miles...Check & a Reality Check

The weather in Boston is perfect for training!  Sunday we got in a 9-mile training walk.  It was a great chance to try out our gear and learn what works/what doesn't.   It was a sunny but not overly hot day, so that helped make the walk pretty nice.  It was also great to get out on the roads and walk; walking at the park on the track works, but it's much easier to make the time & the miles pass when you're actually walking somewhere.

We were averaging 20 minutes miles and it felt like a nice, relaxed pace.  We stopped 4 times and at the end, we were tired but felt pretty good, considering.  I thought I'd be sore today being the day after, but I have to say that I'm happily surprised that I wasn't.  Kathey got a little of that 'road rash' as they call it on her ankle and I got a hot spot on my foot (but no blister yet, thankfully!) so we in pretty good shape all in all.

It's going to be a really hot week later in the Northeast (someone said almost 100 on Wednesday?!) and little K is out of school as of Tuesday, so training is going to be a bit of a challenge in the coming weeks.  We do have plans for some walks while she's in summer camp, but it's going to take much more effort when I don't get those school hours to train.  One way or another, it'll get done.

My recently diagnosed friend of a friend had her mastectomy last week.  She's recovering & getting ready to learn the rest of her treatment plan.  Stay strong & fight hard.  You're not alone; your fight is our fight.  We're all in this together to find a cure.  

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.  ~Winston Churchill

~A

Training...We're Back at It

Long holiday weekend behind us...today we're back at the training!  A very awesome 8 mile walk for KL (woohoo!) in hot, sunny weather.  Great job!  I got 4.5 miles in this morning.  Boy it gets hot fast!!  We are both a little afraid of what the weather will be like in July.  Usually in the Boston area, it's hot, somewhat humid and often rainy in July.  Fingers crossed that Mother Nature won't be too hard on us (come on, lady!)

Gear update - we have started the massive collection of things we'll need for the actual 3 day.  Shoes (3 pairs check, 3 more pairs to go), clothing (said weather will warrant wicking shirts fo-sho) and a smorgasbord of blister, bandaid and first aid products.  The list is pretty decent as to what a 3 day walker must bring so we're putting together our 'stuff' and trying everything out beforehand (no new things/products/gear during the walk itself!)  We're both opting for a different Camelbak product.  Kathey's going with the pink fancy pack style & I scored a lightweight backpack which is pretty rockin'.  Check, check.  We have one extra obstacle to tackle since I am gluten free  & wheat free, so I'll be bringing my own food (meals & snacks!) to supplement what I can eat from the food that is provided.  Kathey's amazing with this type of thing (wouldn't be able to do it without her - in more ways than one!) and we scored a perfectly sized pink & white cooler so it'll be just a matter of logistics for meals.  We have a plan though, so in a few weeks it'll be a mock food trial-run.

Moving right along!
~A