60 miles... complete!!!!!

Well, I did it! I could not be more proud, happy, excited. :-)

Here is the full story:
Friday morning Trav and I were up at 4:45, and ready to leave by 5:15. My bag had been packed the night before, and my clothes were all laid out... so it was just a matter of getting up, eating something, throwing on my clothes, brushing my teeth and hair, then out the door. We stopped for gas, then headed over to Willow Grove. That early there was no real traffic, so we made good time. I kissed Trav goodbye about 6am, dropped my bag off at the bag truck, and headed over to the opening ceremonies site.

It was set up with all these glowing balloons! So neat in the pre-dawn.
I met up with Katie (my Tuesday training partner, and tentmate for the weekend) after that, and we waited for things to get started.

Openning ceremonies was great. It lasted a bit over an hour, and was all about the inspirational.

After that they let us out slowly, to space the masses out... there were 3100 of us walking! We headed through Willow Grove and Glenside, and over towards Philadelphia. In Chestnut Hill we walked along the main street, and it was great... so many people were out to support us! With signs and noisemakers, plus lots of businesses put out treats for us.

All the supporters really made the walk easier. They gave you a little boast.
We stopped for lunch and changed our socks before getting on the road again.

We continued on to our camping site in Fairmount Park, which had a great view! (At night it was even better, since Philly lit up its skyline in pink!)

(That's the food/dining tent.) Once there you grabbed your bag, and a tent, and made camp.



Day one wasn't too bad. My feet were a bit sore... but nothing too horrible, and the addrenaline of actually being there! and doing it! was great to push you through. A good thing too because they tricked us and said that we were doing 20 miles that day, when we were really doing about 23ish?

That night we had a big spagetti dinner, picked up some letters from the mail tent, hit up the foot rub tent (a very popular tent!), then showered and hit the hay early. Sleeping that night wasn't great. It was cold cold cold, and the ground was hard. But I managed to get a few hours.

Day Two. We woke up around 5:30am... not when we planned, but when 1000s of other people decide to get up, the decision is taken out of your hands!! Lol. It was okay though, it gave us extra time to work ourselves up to actually getting out of the sleeping bag. We went to the food tent to grab some breakfast and hot chocolate to warm us up, then it was time to hit the road.

Katie and I split up for walking on day two since her foot was giving her problems and she didn't want to slow me down, plus didn't know if she would be able to complete the day. We walked along Boat House Row, past the art museum, over to City Hall (where the Mummers were cheering us on!), past Independence Hall, down to the water front, then looped back through Philly and along the very long Sckukill River bike trail, and back to Fairmount Park.

Day Two was much harder then day one... and by the end my feet were hurting, badly. But... I made it, walked every single step, and without a blister! Plus I came in about 460-something out of 3100.

That night Katie decided to sleep at home since it was going to be even cooler... I asked her to leave her sleeping bag, which I shoved my sleeping bag into. I slept so much better that night with the extra padding and warmth.

The next morning we headed out again, exiting camp for the last time.

Our cheerleaders were still out in full force, despite the cold. These were the boobilicious girls, who were out daily...

Day three was easier then day two, but still a bit challenging. You were tired, mentally and physically... your feet hurt... but ever step you took was bringing you closer to home!

And the feeling when you crossed that finish line! Nothing compares!


After I finished (around 1:50, low 400s!!) I relaxed and waited for Katie. Despite her hurt foot, she shouldered on and crossed the finish line around 4... and I was so happy to be there cheering her on.

After that we all put on our victory shirts (white for walkers, grey for crew, and pink for survivors), lined up, and made our grand entrance into the stadium for closing ceremonies.



It was great... again, very inspirational and moving. And we found out that the Philadelphia 2008 3-day (so not all of the cities, but just ours) raised $8.1 million for breast cancer research!!!!!

After that we met up with loved ones (Trav and my mom were there to meet me), and headed home.

Yesterday (Monday) I had the day off... I anticipated a lot of soreness and not wanting to move. Amazingly, I really wasn't sore! My feet were tender, but no more then after an intense training walk. Yay! So I had a relaxing day of internet, NCIS, House, and Anthony Bourdain! :-)

Today its back to work, but I do have a break this afternoon for my massage! Can't wait! For now, back to work... so much to do!