39.3 Miles!!!

We did it! My friends came, we walked, and we conquered the challenge! OK, so the details:

Kelley, Clare and I took the train up to SF Friday afternoon where we met up with Kelli and Carole. Checkin at the Westin was crazy! Long lines, lots of people milling around, but controlled chaos. We all got checked in with minimal problems and then had a wonderful dinner and straight to sleep.

Saturday started at 4am. I can't remember the last time I had to get up that early! By 4:30 we were back at the Westin waiting for the buses to take us to Golden Gate Park. This was a COLD morning in the City! At 6:30 opening ceremonies began and by 7 we started walking (very slowly!) out of the park. We quickly learned that this was going to be a fun walk! In addition to the upbeat walkers, there was the motorcycle club that served as our traffic crew- they helped us at the lights to be sure we obeyed the rule, kept out of traffic and stretched! There were the entertainment crews - Hooker for Hooters and Ready Set Wonderboobs! Very fun, great tunes and very high energy support! The Youth Crew - kids between 10 and 16 who were there to help with everything; filling water bottles, giving directions, and offering a smile or set of beads! and finally, my San Jose Bicycle Police (my new crush!) - this crew not only kept us safe, they gave incredible support and great humor throughout the weekend!

Saturday was 26.2 miles: Golden Gate Park, across the Bridge, through Sausalito and all the way out through Mill Valley (has that moved further North?) then a turn around and back. BTW, the bridge is twice as long from Sausalito back as it is the other direction! The day ended at Crissy Field in a little blue tent, but not before a great shower, dinner, foot massage and a few minutes of yoga stretches. Carole and Kelli wound up in the Medical tent because Kelli got dehydrated (the most common ailment after blisters!). My Kelley and I went over to cheer her up and then I ended up a patient when I locked my knees and passed out on the medical tent floor! This cheered everyone immensely since they now have ammunition they can use to mock me for years to come!

Sunday started at a more reasonable hour. We finally started walking a little after 7:30. Kelley and I jumped ahead, but learned at the first big rest stop that Carole and Kelli were swept and taken on the bus. Kelli still felt sick and Carole's feet were chopped liver by then )-: We met up with Clare not long after and then the three of us finished the walk about 2pm. Highlights of Sunday included seeing our girls cheering for us on Polk Street, the slog up Potrero hill, the Avon Breast Center at San Francisco General Hospital, lunch in Dolores Park, and cheers from the homeless guys along the way.

Carole walked to the finish line with us, and then we all celebrated with our families! After the celebration, it was home, to sleep in a bed and try to keep from getting too stiff and sore.

I told the girls this weekend that they could have just blown me off since I was still on drugs when I came up with this crazy idea...but I'm so glad they came anyway. I have amazing friends and fabulous supporters and I'm so glad they all did this with me!

Kelli and I have uploaded our pics:

Kelli - http://www.flickr.com/photos/54178641@N00/2678645384/in/set-72157603538926971/

My Pics (a few borrowed from Kelli!) - http://picasaweb.google.com/draelee2008/AvonWalk2008

Time to Walk!

The Avon Walk officially begins Saturday the 12th at 6:30am with the kickoff in Golden Gate Park, then we walk for 26 miles, camp out on Chrissy Field on San Francisco Bay, get up and walk another 13 miles on Sunday before the closing ceremony ends at 3:30. That's just the official stuff!

There is also the gathering of friends from far and wide...one flying in today after spending the night in the Chicago airport, another flying in tomorrow from North Carolina, and yet another driving up from San Diego and hoping to not get stuck somewhere in the middle because of fires. I will never forget that I have some amazing friends!

Then there is the packing. Calling each other every night for days trying to figure out what we need, how this will work, what to wear when we know the temperature with change 40-50 degrees each day, how to mark our tents so we don't end up lost in the sea of identical tents on the field Saturday night, and making sure we don't forget that all important chap stick and band aids!

And the hotel. Check-in for the event is Friday afternoon, so we will stay at a hotel close to where we will need to meet the shuttles between 3:30 and 5:30am on Saturday morning (YIKES!). Last night I called the hotel to double-check our reservations and to ask a couple of questions. Somehow, in the course of this perfectly banal conversation, I accidentally made the reservation clerk cry!

When she asked why I was coming up, I told her about the walk. She is from the UK and she mentioned what wonderful work the Avon Foundation has done with breast cancer in the UK. She wasn't aware of this event, so we chatted a bit. In the course of the discussion, she told me that her mum had died of breast cancer. Apparently she'd beaten it once, but it came back and was untreatable by the time they caught it. I told her about my diagnosis last August and told her that I'm doing this so that I, and the millions of women like me and like her mum, don't get it again. We chatted a bit more and I hope that our talk helped her. She is still grieving so much.

After that call, it hit me again how hard this weekend is going to be. The walk brings together families who are grieving. Like me they may be grieving the loss of their pre-cancer lives, or they are grieving the loss of a friend, a partner, a mother or a daughter who has had to battle this insidious disease. I'm still not quite ready to call myself a survivor, but someday soon I will be ready. If raising this money and walking with all of these amazing people takes me, and everyone like me, one step closer to staying a survivor, it will be totally worth it.