Not Enough Sand Training!

I'm back from the beach. And I have to say, despite walking all over the beach, I just didn't get in enough sand training. I'm pretty sure I need to go back for more training like say...this weekend. And then pretty much every weekend after that!

Ah, well, I can dream, can't I?



I can't believe it, but I wore this dreadful thing all over the beach. Yeah, I got some funny looks.

Ah, well, I can believe it was the fanny pack and not my windblown teepee shaped hair that was getting all the funny looks, right?



My mom and I walked to the second pier. Here I am trying to (unsuccessfully) hide my fat behind a pole. I always thought this pier was at least four miles or so down the beach. Measured it with our GPS, and it's a whopping 1.1 miles from our hotel. Woo woo.

I'm hoping the reason I always thought things were so much farther there is because I've always been walking barefoot at the edge of the water, my feet sinking in the sand, and it's seemed like a long, long way because I've had to shake sand and sea off my toes every step.

Ah, well, I can hope that's the reason anyway.



I'm twice as big as my personal trainer, and there's no denying it in this photo. But I wanted to show off the new boardwalk they've built. It's really nice. A great place to train. I plan to train on it next week when I go back.

Ah, well, I can pretend anyway.



And that was my favorite part of sand training. HEY! I needed this, too. I was training for sleeping on a hard lumpy surface, after all.

Ah, well, I can delude myself that's what I was doing anyway.

Sand Training!

Tomorrow I'm off to the beach for some sand training!

My mom has already been trying to figure out how many miles it'll be to the second pier, or way up above the beach houses, or down to...acck!

Hopefully I'll also be able to squeeze in some ocean gazing training.

New Shoes!

Saturday I went to get professionally fitted for new shoes. I went after walking four miles, making sure my feet were properly swollen (and probably properly stinky as well).

But I think I did the wrong thing. Instead of going to a running shoe store, I ended up at a store that fits people with foot problems like hammer toes and bunions and an apparent desire to never bend your feet naturally. They had all of about two choices of shoe brands.

One style had some funky Chinese words scrawled on the shoe. The part where the ball of your foot goes pointed straight up in the air while the heel sat flat on the ground. On another pair, the heel was lower than the rest of the shoe. She brought out still another pair for me, a pair of Egg Rolls or whatever they were called, and well...no one would wear them for their looks. They looked like moon boots without the boot part.

She explained to me that they are the best running shoe possible as far as longevity goes. They build up muscle strength, and they give you great back, hip and knee support. Apparently they also support your ankles really well. The thing is, and it's not such a small thing really...they make you feel like you've walked two miles for every one.

Yes. I had explained to her I will be walking 60 miles in three days. So why she thought I'd relish the thought of feeling like I've walked 120 in three days instead...is pretty much beyond me.

She had me do four laps around the store in them. They felt like my heel was falling off the back of the shoe. I hated them after about three steps, but I obliged and did the four laps, stopping to gawk at really cute sandals on the way around.

Then she put the other option on me. Brooks Addiction shoes. They're apparently the best running shoes you can get, and as far as I could tell, they were comfortable enough to buy. I actually needed an 8.5w instead of my usual 7.5w.

So here they are. My polio shoes:



They actually are kind of photogenic. Because they don't look even remotely as good as this in person. I feel like I'm standing on platforms to make my legs the same length. As I did my laps in them, I stopped to hint how much cuter the other Brooks running shoes were. She said no, the cute ones were way too curvy for my feet. These, and the Egg Rolls, are apparently the only styles that will work for my very straight, wide feet.

Nice to know there's some part of my body that isn't overly curvy.

I suppose I will grow to love them. As long as they're comfortable and will carry my giant butt 60 miles, who cares what they look like. Right?

Right.

Oh, and those really cute sandals...they were $220. Um. Yeah. TWO-HUNDRED-TWENTY DOLLARS for a glorified flip flop. I stuck with the $100 polio shoes.

Arch Support!

I'm in a bit of a funk about my walk. For some reason, my feet are killing me. They woke me up this morning, they were hurting so bad.

Then I went to the endo the other day. I'd gained weight. GAINED! Whaa? How in the? I'm trying to ignore her scale and focus on the fact my jeans are literally about to fall off me and soon I'll look like a fool with my pants on the ground.

But that's always easier said than done.

I have to go back in a few weeks. My sugars have been insanely all over the map, and we're trying to figure out why...walking, bad Insulin, Easter candy... Hopefully the scale will have moved in the right direction by then, and that will revive me.

Meanwhile, though, there's the bottom line...I'm already tired of walking!

Fortunately, the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure Powers That Be must anticipate this will happen. Because I don't think there could be a more supportive community on the Internet! From the Web site with its tearjerking, awe-inspiring videos, to the 3-Day Facebook page featuring photos and links, to the many posts on that page from other walkers, I keep finding so much inspiration. So many reminders I can do this. So many reasons I can't--and won't--fail.

Possibly the most encouragement has come from the blogs of other 3-Day Walkers. Some of my favorites so far are Meanderings of a 3-Day Mom, Kristen Walks and Leanne...the Walker.

There's this post on 60 Mile Thoughts that had me leaking all over my desk and deciding I really must stop reading these blogs in any location where I might have to explain the mascara streaks.

And most recently I found the blog of Fat Girl Walkin'. I gotta love and couldn't relate more to her blog title! She's also walking her first 3-Day in Arizona this year.

I had no idea there were so many 3-Day bloggers! I'm loving their inspiring posts, their song playlists, their humor. I'm sure I'm going to find about 320 more favorites before November!

Then of course there are my teammates' kick-tail blogs, Laura Treks and Diana Treks. It's great to be able to keep up with their training progress this way.

My teammates' support has been amazing in other ways as well. Our captain Sue Lyn recently sent us some great training tips and has organized our fundraising efforts with Rock, Paper, Scissors. Laura obviously just told me how to link directly to other blogs on Blogger. Diana is a fellow Lost junkie, so that provides a welcome distraction from walk talk.

MY BBFF Skyler keeps nagging encouraging me to walk at lunch. And my mom keeps blowing her training whistle.

And, as I was walking the other day, stressing a bit about the $2,300 I have to raise, it occurred to me I've already raised $1,530! $1,530!!! Past short-lived sales job experience taught me I wouldn't be able to sell sunblock in the Sahara, so I never would have thought I could raise this much money for anything before I took on this crazy challenge. But the donations have kept rolling in. I am so grateful and in awe of how generous my friends and my church family have been. Wow. It's just...wow.

So I'm going to keep trudging through this extremely temporary funk with a whole lot of support from my "Web." And I'm thinking a short break may be in order. I may just cross-train this weekend while sitting with my pants almost on the ground at a baseball game.

Trekkin Down the Bunny Trail!

On Good Friday, my personal trainer (aka Mom) and I did our first long training walk. It was in the 80s and HOT, but it was actually beautiful weather for walking.

We started on the riverfront, cut over to World's Fair Park, walked down the Strip and...Pit Stop! I had decided we just had to go down the Strip, and I'm pretty sure that last minute route decision had absolutely nothing to do with the fact we would pass a McAlister's.

My mom, who doesn't want to do the walk because she "could never ask for all that money," informed the guy at McAlister's why we were walking and told him we'd gladly accept a donation. His donation was more ice and more tea. Which, at the time, was a pretty awesome donation!

I was hot and sweaty and more than a little sunburnt already. In case you can't tell:



And we were off again! You can tell how my teammate Laura http://lauratreks.blogspot.com/2010/04/laughter-in-rain.html is pretty much half my size because we have the same fanny pack, and it looks HUGE on her! On me...it looks pretty tiny:



I still can't believe I walked all over town wearing that thing. But you have to practice with the equipment you'll be using on the walk. And I can definitely see how handy a fanny pack will be!

We cut through the Trial Gardens to practice walking on gravel and dirt:



And get a load of this! I actually got in some porta potty practice! Oh...EWW! EWW EWW EWW! Those things are oogy. Of all the sacrifices this walk requires, I'm pretty sure this is the biggest:



As you can tell, my mom is taking her role of Personal Trainer pretty seriously:



We saw this at the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial, and I loved it. I think it also applies to the 3-Day:



By the end of the walk, my clothes would have stood up by themselves, I had been heckled by some teen-aged guy for walking around in a fanny pack looking like a Pink Michelin Man, and I had learned a lot. I discovered I need to drink even more than usual (as much as I drink in a day, that's just...astonishing). I learned I can walk farther than I ever imagined I could. And most important of all...I learned I really need new shoes.