WOW! THE 3-DAY was AWESOME!! & a bit chilly.

This will be short because I am at work and they frown upon these things while on company time, can you imagine?

Anyway, what a great time we all had this past weekend at the 3-Day in Philly! Dispite the pain that most of us endured (is it safe to say all of us Ladies?), & the COLD weather (nights especially!)I think that I can speak for all of us when I say that none us would trade the experience for anything else we have ever done! What do you think my fellow Pink Penguins? Please feel free to add your own thoughts ladies!

I wanted to add the photo of all of us that we took on the morning of day 3. It was pretty COLD! As you can probably tell by the way we are all bundled up. Ok, maybe it's just me that looks like Nanook of the North. I don't suppose I make a very good Penguin, I am kind of Pink though :)!

(What you can't see of what I am wearing are the walking shorts & thermal walking pants under the pants you see, the two pair of socks seperated by an ankle brace on each foot; the wicking short sleeve shirt, and long sleeve shirt & grey sweat shirt under the pink fleece you can see. I also have on two hats that my mom crocheted under the hood of the grey sweatshirt. I don't think that I took any of it off all day.)

That's all for now. More later Folks!

IT'S HERE!!!

In less than 24hrs I will be doing my 2nd Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk.

I AM SO EXCITED!!!

I hope I survive this year. I trained a lot more than I did last year but I've tempted fate by making myself sleep deprived this past week while reconnecting with a friend I haven't seen in 25yrs.

CONNECTING THE DOTS from 6th grade to present time takes awhile!

10 DAYS LEFT!!!

10 Days until The Pink Penguins go on our 60 mile walk Breast Cancer Walk.

I am really excited! For one, I get to hang with my uber cool friends, Kimm and Sammy. We did the walk together last year. Total strangers until the event, lifelong friends afterwards! We also have some new additions to the team and I am looking forward to meeting them.

Fundraising has been very slow this year for me. I only just reached the $2000 mark. Last year I had met the minimum $2200 with a couple of months to spare. The economy is really hitting people hard and as much as they'd like to support me financially, they just can't. Next year, I am going to CREW, which means I'll still be involved with the event, but I won't have to deal with the fundraising and training. I still plan on doing SOME fundraising......in preparation for 2010 (Boston, right Kimm?!?!?!).

Our team leader, Samantha, is walking in Philly again with us this year. In addition, she recently was a Crew member in DC. She is awesome!!!

First Training Walk

Well, I did it. I became and Official Training Walk Leader and held my first walk this weekend!

Met up with three ladies, all 3 Day "virgins". I bonded with them instantly (it's true....you never meet a stranger on path to the 3 Day). They peppered me with questions and I feel great that I was able to pass along the knowledge that I gained in doing the event last year.

2 of the ladies were sisters...Sam and Pam. I am exceedingly bad at putting names to faces, so I automatically labeled them The SPAM Sisters. They loved it so much that they are thinking of making it their team name!

We logged 3.2 miles on Sunday. On Saturday I spent the day in NYC and logged another 3.3 miles. My legs love it! I remember last year, that first 3-4 mile walk was killer. Now I hardly even notice it.

Unfortunately I picked up an upper respiratory infection somewhere along the way, which has sidelined my plans to hit the gym for CrossTraining. It's oj, green tea, echinacea, and lots of rest for me this week,

18 days left and I'm ODing on OJ

No, not the delicious and vitamin C filled drink. I mean the wife-beating, got away with murder, pathetically past his prime, former football player known as OJ Simpson. Aren't there enough real issues in our daily lives? Is there really ANY REASON to devote so much media time and attention to his recent arrest?!?!

GET A GRIP PEOPLE!

OK, back to 3 Day stuff!!!

Lesson learned this weekend. STRETCH! I am very bad at doing it. I usually only do it if I feel a cramp. Stretching should NOT be a reactive thing....it should be done as a preventative measure! I read somewhere that you should stretch 5 min every hour that you walk, as well as in the mornings and evenings (whether you walk on those days or not) to help keep your muscles healthy and happy!

I also decided to switch from my fanny pack to my camelback. A lot of people advise against making a change this close to the walk, but the benefits for me are worth it. The buckles are placed in such a way that weight is more evenly distributed. It's a lot lighter and less awkward. I can cram more stuff into it (such as my warm up jacket and sweatshirt after the sun comes up and it's too warm to keep walking in them...or my wonderful walking sandals, which I have fallen completely in love with!).

I walked 11 miles on Saturday and 7 on Sunday (schedule called for 10 and 8...close enough!). Next weekend I have my training walks all mapped out. One day will take me into Manayunk (where I will treat myself to a wonderful lunch at one of the many restaurants on Main Street) and the other will take me through many of the interesting neighborhoods of Philly.

Tired Feet

This Saturday I walked 17 miles. This is the LONGEST training walk I have ever done and I am glad that I did.

For one, I realized that my original "sock plan" wasn't going to cut it. I have super thick socks and I have super thin socks. I was going to start out with the thicker ones and slowly switch over to the thinner (as my feet got more and more swollen). What I learned on Saturday was that my feet started to really get sore (achy, crampy) as I went to the thinner socks. Next weekend, I am going to start out with the thinner ones and then move up to the thicker ones as my feet get more and more tired. Hopefully that will work better. If not, then I will have to just use the thick ones all day long and hope that I can keep my feet dry enough to avoid blisters.

Another thing I learned.....my feet are NOT blister proof as I had hoped. I actually developed a blister between my pinky and "ring finger" toe. And the cheapie bandaids that I brought are pretty much worthless. Now I know that I have to go out and buy the "flexible fabric" type of bandages and am also going to invest in Second Skin (a type of bandage that is recommended for distance runners/walkers).

I also stretched for the first time on any walk. And I learned (from my wonderful training walk leader) that you have to KEEP HYDRATING even when you are done walking. And you can't run home and jump into a shower. You need to allow your body to cool down naturally for a bit or else the cooling effect of a shower (even a warm one) can shock your system!

This coming weekend the schedule calls for 18 miles, but split up over 2 days. I am looking forward to it. The weekend after that is a 15mile/18 mile back-to-back session. I am NOT looking forward to that one quite as much, but I also know that it is a necessary evil if I wish to handle the 3 Day Walk.

6 weeks!!!!

I am having mixed emotions!

I am excited and nervous. I feel settled now that my last corporate sponsored check has cleared and I have met my $2200 requirement. Yet I feel extremely manic when I think of all the things I still need to buy and do (although that list is growing shorter by the day).

I am looking forward to taking on this challenge and meeting new people. However, I am also dreading it because I have not been traing NEARLY enough. I will have to step it up (literally) in the next month and a half and trust that God will get me through.