My Official Recap - Day 2

Day 2 - Sat October 9 - The Longest (Shortest?) Day

Good Morning!

Woke up at 5:15am, was a bit chilly at about 52 degrees. Headed to the shower truck.  Really impressed by the facilities – a tractor trailer held 8 or 10 individual shower stalls, each with its own dressing stall.  There was lots of hot water, good water pressure, and it was nice and clean.  Enjoyed the shower, it really was nice to start the day off with a hot shower, it kept me warm the rest of the morning,   Also took advantage of the towel service.  For $12, I got the use of two fresh hotel-style white towels.  Saved me from having to bring them and worrying about drying them, etc.

After the shower, I headed to medical and spent some time fixing up my feet with fresh bandaids on the blisters.  I had blisters on both pinkie toes, the instep of my left foot in three plces.  Over the rest of the day, they got worse and worse – ouch!

Off to breakfast.  Very impressed by camp meal services, both at dinner and breakfast.  Good hot food, well organized, no lines. Breakfast today included scrambled eggs, sausage patties, fried potato rounds, fresh fruit salad, Yoplait yogurts, oatmeal, and pre-packaged muffins.  They also offered coffee, juices, milk and sodas.

After eating, I realized that it was already time to grab my waist pack and head over to get in line for the start of the day’s walk.  The walk on this day left directly from the camp and headed out into suburban Germantown and Gaithersburg.

Jen, Lori D, Sharon and me

Some of our team members decided to head out a little later, so I was starting off the day with Jen, Lori D, and Sharon.  The morning was chilly, but sunny and clear.  It was going to be a beautiful day!

Walked to Pit 1, again pairing off with different team members here and there. I was really worried about my blisters – they were very uncomfortable, and I wasn’t sure what would happen if they got worse.  I spent quite a bit of time at Pit 1 trying to re-bandage them, but wasn’t really able to make them feel any better.

Walked some more, blistered some more.  Walked alone a little, walked with team members a lot. Really enjoyed the company of my team mates to try to keep my mind off of my feet.

Came in to Pit 2 (or was it 3?  I can’t remember), where our friend from Harbor City Music Company chorus was there to cheer us on as an unexpected surprise.  Thought the New Balance Cheerleaders were really fun – very encouraging and cool to be welcomed into the pit stop that way.  “No skateboards, no scooters, you’re walking for our hooters!”

Took a shorter pit stop here, just potty and refill on drinks, then kept going.  I knew that Dave and Mike would be at the Cheering Station just down the road and I wanted to get there.  By this time, I was really hurting, from big, angry blisters and from tendonitis that I felt gaining hold in both shins, my right foot, and behind my left knee.  I called Dave and thanked him for being there.  If he wasn’t there, I might have grabbed the Sweep van to lunch by now.

On the way to the Cheering Station, I looked up ahead of me and saw a man walking with an artificial leg from the knee down.  I decided to stop complaining about my sore legs and feet, and tried to keep that attitude the rest of the weekend. (not sure I achieved the no-complaining goal, but I tried,)

Mike and Dave

Got to the Cheering Station and found Dave and Mike holding up some great signs – very funny!  It was so great to have their support all weekend, I appreciated that so much!

Next, kept walking on into lunch.  My pace was really dragging at this point, and by the time I had just finished eating, the last walker had arrived at lunch and we had to get a move on.  We had spent the majority of the day at the back of the pack on Friday, and once again we found ourselves in the back of the pack on Saturday.  Darn it!

Headed out again, enjoying a nice walk and chat with my friend Jen.  Got to the second (and last) Cheering Station and again Mike and Dave were there.  Yay!  They asked us how far we’d come so far, and we said 12.5 miles.  When Dave said “only 11 more to go,” Jen and I looked at each other like “OMG!!!!” .  It was already after 1:30pm and we still had just under half way to go!  Ugh!

Thank goodness for supporters!

We walked a little more, hit another pit stop, and then walked a little more.  As we walked, the sun was high and hot, my blisters and tendonitis were really yelling at me, and I just couldn’t figure out how we could possibly finish all 23 miles that day. At the 13 mile mark,  Jen and I decided to take a sweep van to the next pit stop to give ourselves a fighting chance of finishing before they closed the route.

Once on the van, we learned that they would be taking us to the second stop, since the next stop was not a full pit stop an the van wasn’t allowed to pull in.  As the van drove along the route, we saw Lori D and Sharon walking a few miles ahead of us already.  How had they gotten so far up there????

Once we got to the pit stop, I hopped off the van and my feet just screamed at me! I felt like there was no way I would be able to walk any more that day.  We were at the 5-miles-to-go point, and debated resting just a minute then walking the rest of the way back to camp.  But the soreness and heat and fatigue were just overwhelming, and Jen and I decided to join our other team mates who were at this stop and hop on the bus back to camp.

Me and Jen back at camp

Immediately after arriving at camp, I began to regret that choice – I had wanted so much to walk all the miles on this weekend, just to prove to myself that I could do it.  So I was disappointed in myself for letting my pain get in the way of that.  But, I have to admit, there is no way I could have walked all the Saturday miles without being forced off the route by the sweep van, my pace was just too slow.

So we spent the afternoon enjoying the camp.  We visited the sponsor tents and the Remembrance tent.  We took our showers.  We relaxed.  I checked email and facebook.  Generally rested.  Hung out in the dining tent, listened to Candy Coburn’s concert, which was fun.  Visited medical again – they lanced my blisters and wrapped me up again.  The old dogs were not looking too good!

Sharon and Lori finish Day 2 

Around 6:00 we began to wonder about Sharon and Lori – how were they doing? Would they make it all the way?  Around 6:15 we got the text from them that said they had one mile to go.  We went down to the camp entrance and began cheering for walkers who were coming in for the day.  Soon we saw Sharon and Lori – wow!  They walked the entire day!  They looked really tired, but really beautifully proud as they walked into the camp! Congratulations girls!

We all grabbed dinner together – chicken, rice, mixed veggies, breadstick, salad, and pre-packaged chocolate brownie/cake.  Again, very good!

We enjoyed the camp show, including a motivational speech by Nancy Brinker, the sister of Susan Komen, and the founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. 

Last but not least, enjoyed the camp dance party.  I didn’t do too much dancing, but enjoyed the fun atmosphere and the opportunity to stretch out my muscles. (Wrote about the dance party here.)

I called Dave to say goodnight, then headed to bed.  Again, loved the air mattress!  Slept ok, though not as well as the night before.  I guess walking fewer miles made me less exhausted on this night.  But still, a good night’s rest.

Up next:  Determined to walk all day Sunday!