Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

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The View from the Sort of Middle

Team 2ManyCats did it! We walked in the 2011 JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes, and we had a blast! The weather couldn't have been more perfect. People actually walked together--I wasn't all alone by the third mile. And even better...I wasn't dead last!

AND...we finished 3.1ish miles in less than an hour. Take THAT, SGK! :)

I think next up may be the American Diabetes Association StepOut Walk to Stop Diabetes. I also eventually want to do an Alzheimer's walk in support of my great aunt, who suffers from it.

Yeah, I think I may be hooked on this walking for a cause thing.

Trekking again...like I did last November!

Well, not exactly like I did last November.

This time, I'm only walking three miles. And only for a few hours on one day. Without all the financial commitment. But still...

My mom and I have formed Team 2ManyCats, and we'll be walking in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes on April 30. This cause is even more near and dear to me than breast cancer, so I'm really excited about trekking on to support it!

We'd really appreciate any donations you could make on our behalf!

Donate to Team 2ManyCats

A Life That Was Changed...

Finally! I give you pictures of my 3-Day adventure! I wanted to use the pawprint slideshow. I mean, a team full of CCLs, how perfect would that have been?! But it cut off the photos too much, and I had to go with this theme instead. *whine*

The 3-Day for the Cure was a once in a lifetime experience for sure. It was hardly the Kumbaya-singing lovefest the 3-Day online community promotes, but it was a good experience. One I'm glad I had. I do feel changed by it. In a very positive way.

I also feel a bit lost now that I don't have it to obsess about. A good, hugely relieved lost, but lost. Like I'm forgetting to do something. Like buy socks.

Unfortunately, thanks to my size and sometimes my sugars, my pace during the walk was too slow, and I was forced on to sweep vans several times. But I was able to finish more of the walk than I ever imagined I could. I'm really proud of that fact. But I am most proud of myself for the fact that not once the entire time did it occur to me I could quit and check in to a toasty, pillow-filled hotel room. Not once. Never. Not at all. I'm really surprised now that it didn't. And pretty freaking awed about it.

Thank you so much to all my donors! Thanks to you, I was able to raise $2,560! You'll never know what your financial support meant to me, or how many lives you saved.

You didn't have much money, but you gave it anyway...I am a life that was changed...I am so glad you gave.

I also want to thank my encouragers and my prayer warriors. Everyone who asked me about the walk, who told me they were proud of me, who assured me I could do it.

And my bestest besties and phenomenal mother whose constant texts and calls got me through those three days...like Skyler, who somehow made me laugh in the midst of a pink Kool-Aid festival about the fact I'm too slow. Raff, who surprised me by not trying to talk me out of the Red Zone but telling me to kick some tail instead. Meg for sending me some medical TLC in the form of one very hot fictional doctor.

My mom for the training and travel support. Her training waned during one incredibly horrible year for her, but her support never did. She paid for a major portion of my trip. She even paid the charges for texting me encouragement! I especially appreciate the fact she was so terrified I was going to lose my diabetic feet but didn't tell me until after the fact how much she didn't want me to do this because she was so worried I would.

Thanks to everyone who played any role whatsoever in my 3-Day journey. I will never forget how many people truly believed I could do this. How many people are so proud of me. How many people have changed my entire opinion of myself with your belief.

Maybe it was a Kumbaya lovefest after all.

DEE-VINE Forecast!

Three days 'til the 3-Day!!!

The weather forecast couldn't be any better!!!

10 Day Weather Forecast for Phoenix, AZ - weather.com

One Week!

So there are only seven days until the 3-Day!

I can't believe it's that soon! When you sign up for the walk, you think you've got a couple zillion years to prepare and poof! Time zooms along as usual and before you know it, you're making a last minute list of things you need to get this weekend. Because this is the last weekend you have to prepare!

I'm alternating between levitating and fainting! Levitating over finally seeing my teammates and hanging out with them! I can't wait for that, for our pre-walk dinner, for our post-walk dinner celebration with two bonus Catsters, for our hot stone massages, for whatever geeky sightseeing I can talk them in to...oh, and yeah, all the crazy, wonderful, amazing fun we'll have on the walk itself!

And I'm so not kidding when I say this...I also can't wait to see the 823 pictures (at least) I'll take!

I'm so excited for an hour or so, terrified for ten minutes or so, frantic about all I still need to do for another 15 minutes or so, excited for five minutes, terrified...

Fat Girl Walking wrote a post that included some great advice: "enjoy what you've already accomplished."

So I have been. I've been beaming, pretty much, that I've made it this far. Logged as many miles as I have, learned as much as I have about shoes, blisters and socks, actually bought that hideous sleeping bag contraption...

I've beat myself up so much about not training enough, still not losing weight, spending too much money on this thing. But in the past week, I've reached the point of being ecstatic I've come this far. I've reached the point where I figure I'm as ready as I'm going to be, and you know, that's ready enough.

Last year at this time, I thought walking a mile was a big deal. And I did it so rarely, it was a big deal when I did. So enough miles of training or not, still 1000 pounds to lose, I've been more active this year than I've been since I was probably 16.

And that, all by itself...is pretty freaking awesome!