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.

Rochambeau!

Trekkin' for Ta-Tas is doing a fundraiser! Rock, Paper, Scissors is an adorable jewelry site that specializes in cute pendants, rings, keychains, etc. Fifty percent of proceeds from any purchase will be donated to our team!

You can purchase items directly from the Rock, Papers, Scissors site, http://www.rpsetc.com/.

Please enter the code trekkin for any order you place so that we will be credited for the order.

Thank you so much for supporting our team!

Pink Glove Dance!

I stumbled across this vid today of the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center performing the Pink Glove Dance for breast cancer awareness! Apparently it's huge and I've been living under a rock (or somewhere besides youtube) (or HEY! on a walking track!) because I hadn't seen it, yet.

I love it all, but I think the funniest part has to be the woman in the background in the waiting area. She NEVER moves! Doesn't look real at all!

I hope my teammates don't get any pink ideas that we have to wear these things...I think they smell funky.

Shopping Counts as Training, too! Right?

Here it is. The first of what I'm sure will be many splurges I'll blame on the 3-Day. I tried so hard to resist this, the most over-priced water bottle that ever lived. But it's so cute...so funny...so PINK...that I just couldn't. It just insisted I take it home with me. Who was I to argue?



Then a few days later, I wandered into this foreign section I'd never been in before. It was called something like...CAMPING...and it had all this strange gear I've never had any desire whatsoever to own. I made lots of mental notes about googling what 10-degrees means on those sleeping bag thingies. And then I found this, the first fanny pack to audition for my walk.

It came with the water bottles. The entire set only cost $4.97 more than my pink water bottle cost all by itself.

Seriously, though, do you think I have enough water bottles?

Countdown!

Am I the only one who freaks out a little bit when I see the countdown on the Participant Center page?

I mean, there it is blaring at me in black and white...

254 days until the event!

Okay, that's still a long time, and a whole lotta training days left. And I'm so excited about it, I can't wait!

But still... *gulp*

Four Miles!

I'm up to four miles! At least I was on Saturday anyway!