Around mile 15 I started walking a little slower and my knees started to hurt. Around mile 18 (there were so many hills at the end!) I started to tell myself that I had to keep going, that there was no reason for me to stop, even though it hurt a lot! The last mile was the hardest, it was uphill and getting dark and we were so close, but still so far. But oh, what a feeling when we saw the "Mile 26" sign at the end of the day! It took us nearly 12 hours to walk 26.2 miles before (literally) collapsing into a chair at the end. It was SO nice to take my shoes off and put my feet up at the end of the day.
Waking up Sunday morning was painful. We slept in a tent all night and I was very sore (and blisters don't go away overnight!) I'm not sure how I even got to the bathroom that morning, but somehow I made it not only to the bathroom, but the last 13.1 miles as well.
Reaching the finish line was one of the best feelings ever! We did it, it's over, we made a difference, wow...
The weekend as a whole was incredible, so emotional, so uplifting, one of the most amazing feelings ever. There were 3,000 walkers and so many people helping out all weekend. There was a group of guys on motorcycles who had bras hooked to their windshields who helped us cross the streets (we were in the city a lot of the time.) These guys were so great. We would thank them for helping us and they would respond with "no, thank you for walking, you are doing great." There were also kids on the side of the roads in the residential areas that handed us lemonade and thanked us for walking.
Also, handmade signs put up on trees and telephone poles, people passing out popsicles, dogs dressed in pink, women shouting from windows thanking us for fighting cancer, and (this really got me) bald women with signs on the sides of the road hugging the walkers with tears in their eyes. It was so incredible. Amazing. I'm tearing up just thinking about it. I can't wait to send out thank you cards and try to describe what it was like to those who supported me and my team. My sister came to visit for the weekend and not only did she and her friend Tara cook for us on Friday night, but they left the kitchen spotless when they left AND waited 3 hours on Saturday so that they could cheer for us and see us for 10 minutes along the route.
It's a great feeling to have someone you know cheering for you! (Even if she is a little crazy and the first thing she said to me was "I'm doing this with you next year!" We'll have to see about that!)So here it is, Wednesday. I am still quite sore, I still have blisters, and I am still incrediblly thankful that I could be a part of something like this walk. For the weekend, I was part of a community of incredibly strong, determined, friendly, encouraging, people who are all dedicated to finding a cure for cancer.
Thank you for everyone who has supported me and my team throughout this journey. You all deserved to be there last weekend, crying and laughing along with us.
To see more pictures of the walk you can visit my Picasa album by clicking here.
This will, unfortunately, be my last blog post about the walk *tear*. I do, however, have 2 other blogs (wait, 2? yes, two!) which I will be writing in the future. One will be tailored to scrapbooking, specifically projects I complete and kits I will be making. The second will be full of the absolute randomness that is me. I like getting all my thoughts down and I have enjoyed the feedback I have gotten from family members about my "humor." (I put the word "humor" in quotes because I don't find myself to be that funny and think I have a rather warped sense of humor which stems from watching a combination of SNL, Monty Python, and Scrubs way too much.) But hey, I enjoy it, so I'll keep on doing it! :-)
Scrapbooking Blog: http://allsamsidea.blogspot.com/
Personal Blog: http://samanthapiette.blogspot.com/
Rest assured these blogs will be getting more attention now that the walk is over (for this year.) *wink*
Day 1 Route:
Day 2 Route:
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