back from the edge

I'm just recovering from walking 50 miles last weekend! It was amazing. Stay tuned for photos - well here are some another participant sent me http://www.flickr.com/photos/eringobragh14/sets/72157622256772711/

In the meantime I wrote about my experience, blow by blow. I'll just share Day One for now:
It started on Friday morning. I got to sleep until nearly 6am which is unheard of for a staff member on the morning of an event (usually we're on site by 4:30 or 5am). When I arrived at the opening ceremony, I put my luggage on the luggage truck and did my best NOT to go to the stage and become a staff member. We put on our sunscreen. I got a cup of coffee and wrote in my "In Honor Of" sign: I'm walking In Honor Of My Amazing Mom. And Jana wrote in hers: I'm walking In Honor Of Karin and her courageous family. We pinned them to the back of each other's shirts, stretched out our leg muscles, had a moment of silence in honor of the anniversary of September 11th, the national anthem... and then we were off!

We started out towards the coast, and within half a mile I felt the urge to find a restroom. Apparently all the coffee and water I drank were working. I made it to the first rest-stop at about a mile-and-a-half and I was the first one to use that porta-pottie! Nice and clean. Jana and I continued walking down the coast with another Karin's Kids team member Michelle Israel (wife of our chapter president), drinking water and energy drinks, stopping at porta-potties when needed and logging three to four miles per hour.

The lunch stop (10 miles in) was set up at a park where we sat in the grass and took off our shoes. We saw another Karin's Kids team member, Dawn, at the lunch stop, and she said she was doing fine, just not moving as fast as Jana's and my pace. But there were 250+ other walkers out there, so there were plenty of people with whom she had been walking and talking. We rested for 15 minutes or so, stretched and then got on our way - I took an ice cream bar for the road which was really nice since it had gotten muggy and hot. Plus I was sweaty...

After lunch, Jana and I walked along as a pair, keeping up our pace and trucking along. We kept drinking and enjoying the fruit and snacks from the rest-stops. After a couple of pretty steep hills (16-17 miles in), we arrived at the hotel - and our 20 miles were down! We were probably in the front quarter of the pack all day long - starting in the front and moving fast. At the hotel, we picked up our luggage at the front door, checked in and made our way to our room. We were in good spirits and chattering away about who knows what. Especially considering we'd been chattering away all day already about who knows what. But time flies when you're having fun.

After taking off our shoes in the hotel room, we discovered we had blisters! How lucky to not have felt them along the way. We had matching blisters on our left little toes, and Jana had a bigger blister on her right heel. We stretched, showered and dressed in sweat pants and the T-shirts I had made, and then Jana's husband brought us a bottle of wine. We poured ourselves a glass and went down to the nurses' station which is called the "Blister Busters." They cleaned and lanced our blisters and sent us on our way - we were wearing our sandals now. My husband Jesse had come to the hotel after finishing work and so we visited for a while before Jana and I went to the event's dinner. The dinner program lasted from 6:30 until 9pm (with a funny comedienne who has MS), and again, it was difficult for me to avoid helping with the program as I usually would as a staff member. But I held back. After dinner we went to bed.

~Beth