3 Day - Day 3
Day 3
5:30 am - Rise & Shine! I rolled out of my nice warm bed, filled my water bag to my backpack and choked down a waffle with peanut butter.
Nikki picked me up and we went to Kata's and picked her up. Once we were back at Camp, we parked in a neighboring bowling alley lot and hitched a ride on a sweep van back to the campsite. It had rained through the nite and the public areas were very muddy. We could see people up in Tent City breaking camp and putting their gear on all the semi trailers. Another benefit of going home the night before, Nikki had already broke camp and we took all our gear home the night before. We were traveling lightly for Day 3.
Once again, we each brought a different set of shoes for "just in case". This time, I brought my Crocs after giving them a cleaning before bed on Day 2. They had been demoted to lawn mowing only status. After seeing how happy Kata was with hers, I decided to promote my Crocs again.
Because of a rain delay we were about an hour off on our pace. But, because the closing ceremonies were set in stone, we really had to book it to make each pit stop before it closed. At our 2nd pit stop, the word on the street was that if we continued walking to lunch, we wouldn't make it in time. They began bussing people from Pit2 to lunch. They could tell people were disappointed about losing 2 miles, but a crew worker announced to us that with the distance from Tent City to the Mess Tent, and the trek from camp to the trail head each day, we would have actually logged near 64 miles. So we decided not to get hung up on the 2 miles, and took the bus ride to lunch in order to get there before they shut down.
Distance sidebar: Throughout the event walkers with GPS systems claim to have logged upwards of 4 extra miles on Day 1 and 8 extra miles on Day 2. If this calculation is correct, our mileage on Day 1 was closer to 25 than 21, and Day 2 would have been closer to 28 rather than 20. I've heard that the GPS systems aren't very reliable off road, and we did have many distances of trails in our route. I believe we walked more than our route cards said, but not to the extent that the various GPS systems were reporting. I think it is safe to say that Kata walked 62 miles, I walked 61.25, and Nikki walked 55 miles (though I believe closer to 57, as she broke camp for us and dragged our gear to the entrance of camp in at least 2 trips back and forth).
Nikki has the Day 3 picture at the trailhead with our 3 fingers up. I'll add it once I get it from her.
But once we made our peace with our ride to lunch, we settled into the back of the bus for a short but plush ride.
At lunch, I visited the medical tent asking about pain in the back of my knees (which I affectionately call my "knee pits"). The doctor at the tent explained to me that I was experiencing "pocket swelling". I asked what to do about it, and she said "you should stop what you are doing because what you are doing isn't normal. But if you want to finish this extreme event, I can give you a couple of tips". She said to use Biofreeze (like IcyHot) and wrap them. So Kata snagged a couple of Ace bandages from the med tent and wrapped my right knee.
We kept trudging along, slowly but surely. Nikki had recovered quite the spring in her step, due in large part to the duct tape she used to completely wrap her heels and other parts of her foot. I pretty much taped up my feet too.
Midway on Day 3, I stopped and had Kata wrap my left knee as well. I was lagging behind, but the girls would stop and wait for me to catch up for the rest of the route.
Our final pit stop was at the Survivors Park in KC's Country Club Plaza area. We knew at that point that we only had a couple of miles left. Somehow, we all (all walkers) developed a spring in our step and we picked up our pace.
As we neared Liberty Memorial (our final destination), the Blue Angels flew over and painted the Breast Cancer ribbon formation in the sky. They were practicing for their Air Show, and treated our event to a couple of sky ribbons. It was very cool.
As we walked into the Holding Area (where all walkers gathered until everyone was there), there were so many onlookers cheering us through the entrance. The path was lined with crew members cheering and high fiving us, and handing us beads to wear. It was very cool.
At the holding area, Nikki, Kata & I changed to our other shoes, (thank you, Crocs!) and got our Victory t-shirts. Here is a picture of the holding area mayhem.
Once family members were dismissed to the closing ceremony site, the walkers formed a tunnel for all the crew members to walk through on their way to the ceremony site. We cheered them like we've never cheered before. These people were amazing, and all that they did so that we could walk is truly impossible to put into words.
After the crew went in, the survivors gathered to walk in together. Their victory shirts were pink, and the rest of ours were navy blue. We applauded them, and then gathered for our final walk into the ceremony. We lined up in rows of 5 walkers. In addition to Nikki, Kata and I, we picked up a set of twins who had trained for the New York 3-day but had a major sponsor fall through at the last minute. After rallying more support, they were able to turn their attention to KC, and walked into the closing ceremonies arm in arm with us. This picture is a look back along the path, and provides a view (albeit weak view) of the number of walkers. Kata actually scored a better picture & I'll repost when it comes through.
I had found my parents and Grandmother in the holding area, and was looking out for them on the walk into the ceremonies. Here I catch my mom (green sweater) looking for me, and Dad with flowers. Grandma is standing in the white coat looking on.
After walking through the spectators, our final tunnel was lined by the crew again, giving us a shoe salute (holding up a shoe in the air). That was very cool and was about the moment that I felt the tears come.
Then, after we walked in and gathered by the stage, the crew walked in. We all took off a shoe and held a shoe salute for them. The crew was brought in based on their category of support. General support, Safety, and Medical. The thunderous support for the Medical team was quite noticibly a higher decibel level!
After the crew walked in, the survivors walked in. We all (crew and walkers) got down on a knee and held a shoe salute to the survivors.
And finally, I'll end this account with bookend pictures of the BreastFriends team self portraits from before Opening Ceremonies to after Closing Ceremonies.
5:30 am - Rise & Shine! I rolled out of my nice warm bed, filled my water bag to my backpack and choked down a waffle with peanut butter.
Nikki picked me up and we went to Kata's and picked her up. Once we were back at Camp, we parked in a neighboring bowling alley lot and hitched a ride on a sweep van back to the campsite. It had rained through the nite and the public areas were very muddy. We could see people up in Tent City breaking camp and putting their gear on all the semi trailers. Another benefit of going home the night before, Nikki had already broke camp and we took all our gear home the night before. We were traveling lightly for Day 3.
Once again, we each brought a different set of shoes for "just in case". This time, I brought my Crocs after giving them a cleaning before bed on Day 2. They had been demoted to lawn mowing only status. After seeing how happy Kata was with hers, I decided to promote my Crocs again.
Because of a rain delay we were about an hour off on our pace. But, because the closing ceremonies were set in stone, we really had to book it to make each pit stop before it closed. At our 2nd pit stop, the word on the street was that if we continued walking to lunch, we wouldn't make it in time. They began bussing people from Pit2 to lunch. They could tell people were disappointed about losing 2 miles, but a crew worker announced to us that with the distance from Tent City to the Mess Tent, and the trek from camp to the trail head each day, we would have actually logged near 64 miles. So we decided not to get hung up on the 2 miles, and took the bus ride to lunch in order to get there before they shut down.
Distance sidebar: Throughout the event walkers with GPS systems claim to have logged upwards of 4 extra miles on Day 1 and 8 extra miles on Day 2. If this calculation is correct, our mileage on Day 1 was closer to 25 than 21, and Day 2 would have been closer to 28 rather than 20. I've heard that the GPS systems aren't very reliable off road, and we did have many distances of trails in our route. I believe we walked more than our route cards said, but not to the extent that the various GPS systems were reporting. I think it is safe to say that Kata walked 62 miles, I walked 61.25, and Nikki walked 55 miles (though I believe closer to 57, as she broke camp for us and dragged our gear to the entrance of camp in at least 2 trips back and forth).
Nikki has the Day 3 picture at the trailhead with our 3 fingers up. I'll add it once I get it from her.
But once we made our peace with our ride to lunch, we settled into the back of the bus for a short but plush ride.
At lunch, I visited the medical tent asking about pain in the back of my knees (which I affectionately call my "knee pits"). The doctor at the tent explained to me that I was experiencing "pocket swelling". I asked what to do about it, and she said "you should stop what you are doing because what you are doing isn't normal. But if you want to finish this extreme event, I can give you a couple of tips". She said to use Biofreeze (like IcyHot) and wrap them. So Kata snagged a couple of Ace bandages from the med tent and wrapped my right knee.
We kept trudging along, slowly but surely. Nikki had recovered quite the spring in her step, due in large part to the duct tape she used to completely wrap her heels and other parts of her foot. I pretty much taped up my feet too.
Midway on Day 3, I stopped and had Kata wrap my left knee as well. I was lagging behind, but the girls would stop and wait for me to catch up for the rest of the route.
Our final pit stop was at the Survivors Park in KC's Country Club Plaza area. We knew at that point that we only had a couple of miles left. Somehow, we all (all walkers) developed a spring in our step and we picked up our pace.
As we neared Liberty Memorial (our final destination), the Blue Angels flew over and painted the Breast Cancer ribbon formation in the sky. They were practicing for their Air Show, and treated our event to a couple of sky ribbons. It was very cool.
As we walked into the Holding Area (where all walkers gathered until everyone was there), there were so many onlookers cheering us through the entrance. The path was lined with crew members cheering and high fiving us, and handing us beads to wear. It was very cool.
At the holding area, Nikki, Kata & I changed to our other shoes, (thank you, Crocs!) and got our Victory t-shirts. Here is a picture of the holding area mayhem.
Once family members were dismissed to the closing ceremony site, the walkers formed a tunnel for all the crew members to walk through on their way to the ceremony site. We cheered them like we've never cheered before. These people were amazing, and all that they did so that we could walk is truly impossible to put into words.
After the crew went in, the survivors gathered to walk in together. Their victory shirts were pink, and the rest of ours were navy blue. We applauded them, and then gathered for our final walk into the ceremony. We lined up in rows of 5 walkers. In addition to Nikki, Kata and I, we picked up a set of twins who had trained for the New York 3-day but had a major sponsor fall through at the last minute. After rallying more support, they were able to turn their attention to KC, and walked into the closing ceremonies arm in arm with us. This picture is a look back along the path, and provides a view (albeit weak view) of the number of walkers. Kata actually scored a better picture & I'll repost when it comes through.
I had found my parents and Grandmother in the holding area, and was looking out for them on the walk into the ceremonies. Here I catch my mom (green sweater) looking for me, and Dad with flowers. Grandma is standing in the white coat looking on.
After walking through the spectators, our final tunnel was lined by the crew again, giving us a shoe salute (holding up a shoe in the air). That was very cool and was about the moment that I felt the tears come.
Then, after we walked in and gathered by the stage, the crew walked in. We all took off a shoe and held a shoe salute for them. The crew was brought in based on their category of support. General support, Safety, and Medical. The thunderous support for the Medical team was quite noticibly a higher decibel level!
After the crew walked in, the survivors walked in. We all (crew and walkers) got down on a knee and held a shoe salute to the survivors.
And finally, I'll end this account with bookend pictures of the BreastFriends team self portraits from before Opening Ceremonies to after Closing Ceremonies.
posted by BreastFriends06 @ Thursday, September 28, 2006
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