More Videos

I've loaded the remaining videos onto YouTube, so if you're at all inclined, you can visit my personal "channel" here and check them out. Most are self-explanatory, I think, and just consist of a lot of people cheering! The people who come out and support the walkers every day on the route are so incredible. They are always so encouraging and entertaining. This year, there were supporters who made us laugh and cry as well!

The one video that probably needs a little explanation is the one that I think might be the funniest. Let me first say that I knew I had the camera turned sideways--I'd actually learned not to make this mistake after messing up several videos with my old camera. However, this camera appeared to right itself when you recorded a video sideways--at least it did in playback mode. I was trying to test it out, to see if would reorient its videos, when we came upon this guy singing while he was walking. It was so hysterical I couldn't stop recording! In case you can't tell, he's doing Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer. It was absolutely hilarious! Hopefully you can turn your laptop or yourself sideways to watch it! :)

Pictures!!

I've finally resized, uploaded, sorted, culled and captioned all of my pictures from last weekend! I deleted enough pictures from other Picasa folders to get the majority of the pictures loaded (there were actually about 360 total, if you can believe it), but I couldn't make room for all of the videos on the site, so those that didn't make it to Picasa will eventually make it to YouTube so that I can share them all! Only one has finished uploading to YouTube so far, but it's a pretty funny (and slightly startling) video, I think.



These girls wore outrageous outfits like this every day, most of which didn't cover much of their bodies! I love the family with all the boobs on their hats too--they were great! Hopefully by tomorrow morning there will be more than just this one!

So here is the full slideshow of all the pictures and a few other videos. If you'd like to view the slideshow a little bigger, you can visit my Picasa page directly by clicking here. I hope to write more about the walk very soon, but the pictures should give you a pretty good idea of what an amazing time we had!

Sneak Peek of Pictures

Tonight I was so excited to load all of my pictures from our trip and post a slideshow to the blog. Unfortunately, once I loaded the pictures onto the computer, I realized that my new camera was set to such a high picture quality that my folder of 3-Day pictures won't even come close to fitting on my Picasa page!! Argh! I'm so bummed--the trip was amazing and I can't wait to share! I guess maybe I'll look into making a Flickr page or something tomorrow to see if I can find another website on which to post the pictures. For now, here are just a couple of sneak peeks--us freezing before the opening ceremony started and a very happy us after closing ceremonies!

The other bummer about my pictures is that a bunch of them turned out kind of blurry. Granted, I was walking and taking pictures at the same time, which isn't exactly a recipe for steady shooting, but I think maybe there was some sort of setting that was making the autofocus area super small in certain cases--I just can't figure out what it was! Maybe I should have actually read the camera manual on the plane to California or something!

Regardless, the trip was great. My mom did awesome and walked the entire 60 miles without hitching a ride (like hundreds of other walkers do)! I am so proud of her and had so much fun with my brother. I hope to have pictures and to share more of the details very soon!

We're Here!!

We made it safely to San Diego today and are trying to get to bed early as we prepare to get up at 4 a.m. for the second morning in a row! Last night was a late one as I finished up our t-shirts and other last minute packing and preparations, but I think the t-shirts turned out pretty good--a definite improvement over last year!

So tomorrow our months and months of hard work and hours spent will finally pay off. Our team raised almost $8000 (if you haven't donated yet and want to give us about $25 we'll get there!) and walked hundreds and hundreds of miles in preparation. I hope this will be an amazing experience for my dear family that will be worth all the hard work!

Thanks to everyone for all of your wonderful support! We couldn't have done this without you!! :)

Our Route

I'm so excited because this year the 3-Day folks sent out something that we didn't have last year--a map of our walking route! Last year I just had to guess at where we had been for three days! This time we'll have a better idea of where we are going and where we went! If you're interested, you can click on the map below for a larger image!

Eighteen Miles: The Condensed Version

Once again it's late and I'm tired after a busy evening of making 3-Day related preparations. I should go to bed, but I'm afraid that I'll never get around to sharing the story of our 18 mile walk on Sunday if I don't do it now. I'm going to try to keep it short, although I'm generally terrible at condensing a story, as you might have noticed. Maybe some bullet points will help!

• We left at about 11:30 a.m. I wanted to leave about 10:30, but Mom was late getting to my house. We couldn't leave much earlier though because it was COLD in the morning.
  
• We walked about 4 miles to the Dillons at 6th and Wakarusa, where we borrowed the facilities. The highlight of this leg was the hill on Peterson up to Monterey Way. The lowlight was the cold wind we were walking into!
• We walked about another 2-3 miles to the Miller Mart at 23rd and Wakarusa, where we bought some water and sat for a few minutes while we refilled our bottles. The highlight of this leg was definitely the beautiful sunshine in our faces! We stretched a few minutes and headed down back out onto the trail.
• We literally hooked into the hike/bike trail as we reached the end of Wakarusa, and followed it 3-4 more miles out to the movie theaters, where we were able to cut across a couple of parking lots to make it to our destination--Target! The highlights of this leg were seeing a beautiful hawk sitting on someone's fence and walking along the scenic treeline and by various ponds. We did stop for just a few minutes in this leg to do a little more stretching!
• We stopped at Target for probably 40 minutes or so, splitting a terrific sandwich and following it up with a large cinammon pretzel. Yum! After buying some Gatorade we headed back out onto the trail.
  
• We walked back up to Lawrence Avenue and followed it all the way to 23rd, where we cut around the new parking area by the new research building on West Campus, and then wound up the hill to my office at KU Endowment. While Mom took another break and stretched, I logged onto Google maps and checked to see how far it would be for us to walk to Jack's, where Chad was watching the Steelers game. We determined that it would take us too long to get there and we should probably just head straight home. After changing socks and using the facilities, we headed back out to walk, but unfortunately by this time the sun was starting to go down and it was getting cold!!
  
• We walked across the street from my office and took a detour through Pioneer Cemetery, which sadly I'd never done in 10 years of working right next to it. Talk about fascinating! There are so many graves of people who died in Quantrill's Raid--I had no idea!
• We headed towards main campus as the sun went down, walking around the dorms and down 15th and up Naismith hill and down Jayhawk Boulevard. All very pretty, but very cold. We cut through the Union, stretched a few minutes, and then went out the back door to wind around the stadium up to Maine street.
  
• We walked all the way down Maine past 6th, which wasn't just cold--it was treacherous! There are a lot of uneven sidewalks in Old West Lawrence, and unfortunately not a lot of streetlights!
  
• After crossing 6th we made a quick facilities stop at the hospital, and then walked the last 1+ mile to our house, singing the Hallelujah chorus most of the way (literally--we were signing Handel's Messiah because it helped keep us going)!
• We arrived home at about 6:30, but after walking for most of the day, it felt like 10:00! We made it though, and Mom did great!
  

Okay, so the bullets didn't really help the length of my post, but at least I got it done in about 20 minutes! :)

Nine Days and Counting

The saga about our 18 mile walk on Sunday will have to wait at least one more night, since this evening has been consumed with all sorts of other 3-Day tasks. We leave in just nine days, and I have to admit I'm panicking a little just thinking about all that needs to be done between now and then!

Let me just fill you in a little on what's going on in the world of 3-Day preparation:

1. Our team is officially finished with fundraising! Hooray! I received a generous check from my wonderful friend Dan this weekend from Set'em Up Jack's. We brought in about $900 in sales the night of our fundraiser, 30% of which Dan donated to our team (even though he was only supposed to donate 25%!). I sent that check off in the mail to Eric's account, which will put him well over the $2200 mark once it's posted! Part of my evening was spent sending thank-yous to our most recent supporters and organizing my donor database!

2. T-shirts are still in the works. I talked to Mandi at Midwest Graphics today, and although she was super helpful, we ultimately realized they couldn't print our shirts because there's an unlicensed Jayhawk on them! Therefore, I've decided to print our shirts in house again this year (that means I'll be ironing them on), and tonight I put the finishing touches on our new logo.

First, the 2007 logo:


Compared to the new 2008 logo:


What do you think? Is it an improvement?

3. I'm working on updating our honorary/memorial list. Last year, Vikkie and I wore the names of all the people for whom we were walking on the back of our shirts for all 60 miles of our walk. I would like to do the same this year, so I'm preparing to email all of our donors to see if there is anyone we should add before printing our final list. Putting together my email list is taking some time since I've been blessed with so many supporters!

That's all for tonight's update! Thanks for your support and thanks for visiting my 3-Day blog!

A Cold Eight Miles

This weekend was an 18/8 mile weekend, and since there was a KU game I wanted to see on Saturday, we decided to do the 8 miles yesterday and the 18 miles today. My 8 mile walk yesterday can be summed up in two words: cold and quick!! Chad bundled up with me in the morning and we took the dogs our for a very brisk almost 4 mile walk. The wind was super strong and the temp was in the upper 30s, so it was darn cold!! After dropping the dogs and Chad off at home I headed back out to walk my 4+ additional miles with the ipod as my partner, which helped me keep up that super fast pace! I finished my 8 cold miles with an average pace of 14:31 miles, which was very fast considering Mom and I have been walking 17-18 minutes miles on average. Needless to say, my hips/back were very sore when I woke up this morning!

Mom walked her 8 miles yesterday a little later in the afternoon, so she didn't get nearly as cold as we did in the morning. She emailed me last night to say that she had walked about 7.6 outside until it was too dark to see, and then she walked up and down the stairs at her house until her pedometer finally read 8 miles. Now that's dedication!!

I'm exhausted and sore from today's 18 miles, so I'll have to write about that walk tomorrow!!

T-Shirts

A few weeks ago when Mom and I walked at the Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin we found a t-shirt that we just had to buy for my brother. We almost bought an all pink version that just said "Real Men Wear Pink" but then we both decided that Eric probably wouldn't wear it under any circumstance. We settled on this version instead, modeled here by my wonderful and obviously reluctant husband.

Hopefully my brother will actually wear it!

Speaking of t-shirts, this year Eric has a friend who actually wants to purchase a Jayhawks for Jugs t-shirt! Since the t-shirts we wore to the event last year were actually homemade and not really worth purchasing, I'm kind of tossing around the idea of getting some real t-shirts printed, but I might try to make some logo modifications first. I kind of think the logo looks pretty homemade too!

Another Easy Week

This last weekend Mom and I were scheduled to walk just 10 and 8 miles on Saturday and Sunday respectively. We decided to do a flip-flop, and instead walk our shorter 8 mile walk on Saturday so that I could get to the KU/K-State game on time. Mom stayed the night on Friday, and we got up early on Saturday and took the dogs for a quick 4 mile walk. We dropped them off and got a quick snack, and then headed back out for another 4 miles. We were done with our 8 miles before 9 a.m.! Mom is always amazed when we walk that far and it seems like we're just getting started!

On Sunday, our plan was to start our 10 miles around Mom's house in Topeka, and then to head off to Chapman where would attend a special ceremony at Mom's old church before finishing our walk around the tiny town. Unfortunately, after feeling a little crappy all week, I woke up Sunday morning feeling really sick, so I sent Mom out on her own to walk the first five miles. I slept a little longer, and then stopped off for a sprite and saltines before heading on to Topeka later in the morning.

Thankfully Mom had already done 6 miles by the time I arrived to pick her up for our Chapman trip, so after the ceremony we were able to easily walk our last 4 miles while sightseeing around Mom's tiny hometown. There were only a few neighborhoods of the little town that we didn't walk through! Walking around the city park brought back some memories for me as well, since I spent many hours playing in that park with my cousins as a child. It was really a fun day and quite an adventure!

Unfortunately, by the time we got back to Topeka that evening I was feeling the stomach bug in full force, and I've been in bed for the last two days trying to kick it. I just want to make sure I'm over the illness completely before I go back to work, since we have another big 18 mile walk this weekend! It's our last big walk before we head to San Diego in just barely over 2 weeks!

Lazy Weekend of Walking

You might have noticed that I never blogged about last weekend's training walks. That's mostly because Mom and I didn't walk together last weekend, and partially because I slacked off quite a bit on the walking I did do! After our 18/15 walks the weekend before, we were only scheduled to do recovery walks of 10 and 6. Mom did pretty well on her own, walking about 7 and 6 on Saturday and Sunday respectively. I, however, only walked about 6 on Saturday before going to the KU game, and then only walked about 4 on Sunday while walking dogs at the shelter. I was pretty lazy--but it was only because I had so many other things going on!

This weekend is another easy weekend since we did back to back hard weekends when we changed up the schedule a couple of weeks ago. We're supposed to do walks of 10 and 8 on Saturday and Sunday, but will probably only do 8 tomorrow since there's another early football game to schedule around. On Sunday we're taking a special trip and doing our 10 miles in a special town, so hopefully I'll have a good story to tell after our walk!

Fundraising Progress

I've been slacking on the 3-Day updates lately, but that's only because there's been so much going on! Last Thursday, on the same day we had our Pack Jack's event at Set'em Up Jack's, the Wellness Committee at my office (headed by a very dedicated and motivated Pam) put on a fundraiser for my team over the lunch hour. They sold donated pizza and baked goods and raffled off a bunch of other goodies and raised almost $400!! It was amazing! At the event, another of my coworkers gave me a $500 donation for the team as well, which will put my mom over her $2200 minimum once it posts to her account! Since Eric is only about $800 away himself, we are getting very close to being finished with our fundraising!

The evening at Jack's went pretty well also, with 40 or so people coming specifically to support our team. I haven't heard from Dan about how much money we raised, but hopefully soon I'll be able to deposit another $100 or so into Eric's account. I'm glad we're getting close, because there are only 23 days until the event!

Thank you to everyone who came to the work fundraiser, to the Jack's fundraiser or just made a donation to my mom's or brother's account recently! I am so thankful that fundraising is almost over!

The 15 That Followed

As I mentioned yesterday, I was a bit worried about doing our 15 miles on Sunday after Saturday's 18, since Mom had been too tired for back-to-back long walks the previous weekend. When she got up Sunday morning, however, she didn't have too many aches and pains and was eager to get started. We decided to start with just a 5 mile loop, but about 4 miles in, Mom decided that she wanted to go for coffee. We went a couple of miles out of the way to McDonalds, where we enjoyed coffee and a fruit and yogurt cup! It was a very nice break!

McDonalds is only a couple of miles from home, so once we got home we had already knocked off about 7 miles of our day, which was great! After a short reload of fluids and snacks, we headed back out onto the walking trail, this time with a particular destination in mind! Chad was on his way to watch the Steelers game at Set'em Up Jack's, which is all the way across town--but in reality that's only about 6 miles! We decided that Jack's would be the perfect motivation, since as soon as we arrived we could finally eat lunch!

Since the restaurant was only 6 miles away and we needed to do 8 miles, we took our first detour up to campus, where we walked past the new football facility and up Campanile Hill. We stopped off at the Union to fill up on drinks, and the nice girl working at the gift shop there even inquired about our walk! It's really nice when people ask what we're doing instead of just staring/laughing at our fanny packs and water bottles!

We walked around campus a little and took in the fall beauty while I showed Mom all the new facilities that had been built since Eric and I had been in school. After our little tour we headed east towards Jack's, stopping once for a pit stop and more water at Kwik Shop. At that point we were only about 2 miles away, and we needed closer to 3 miles to be finished, so we took a slight detour to the Lawrence Humane Society, where I knew my friend JoAnna would be volunteering. I'd originally thought that I might be able to come join her after our lunch/walk was complete, but when I realized I wouldn't have time before they closed at 4, I thought it would be good to stop by and tell her hi anyway.

After chatting for a few minutes with JoAnna we headed off to Jack's, but since it was less than a mile away and we needed 2 miles, we sort of took the long way. We walked through some neighborhoods, past an elementary school where I volunteered in college, past a preschool where I subbed in college, and then back around to the restaurant. When we arrived we'd walked just over 15 miles on the day and Mom hadn't had any problems at all! I was so proud of her, and we enjoyed a huge, yummy meal at Jack's to celebrate!!

The Biggest Weekend

This past weekend was the biggest weekend in the entire 3-Day 24 week training program. This was the weekend of the 18 and 15 miles back-to-back training walks--a weekend so big that there's even a special milestone sticker to commemorate it! These big walks are actually scheduled for this coming weekend, but since I have the KU homecoming game and a wedding to go to on Saturday, I knew there'd be no time for walking 18 miles!

So Mom and I swapped last weekend with this weekend, and took on the big one right after our grueling 17 mile walk last weekend. I wasn't so worried about the 18 on Saturday--I knew Mom would handle that just fine--but I was definitely worried about the subsequent 15 on Sunday. Mom has struggled a bit on the long Sunday walks, so I encouraged her to stay the night so that I could help motivate her the next day.

For a new and different place to walk on Saturday, Mom and I drove to the little town of Baldwin City, which is just about 20 minutes south of Lawrence. It took a while to get there because of fog, but we arrived at about 8:15, just before the town came alive for the annual Maple Leaf Festival. It was still really chilly outside, so we layered up and started walking around the town, coming back to the car every few miles for drinks and snacks. For our first pit stop we went to Kwik Shop, where we had to wait for at least 20 minutes to use the restroom because the place was so crowded with tourists!

Instead of going downtown for the parade, we decided to go against the foot traffic to head out to the edge of town, where we saw the old train depot and the antique train to nowhere. As we headed back towards the festival we stopped for a quick stretch, and we'd already knocked off 6-7 miles. Our goal was to walk 14 in Baldwin before heading back to Lawrence.

After walking around some residential areas and seeing the train we moved into the downtown, where we milled about the hundreds of booths of crafts and art. We walked through the old-fashioned carnival area and actually stopped at the petting zoo and petted some farm and exotic animals for a while too. It was all very entertaining! We walked around the Baker University campus for the first time--it was really pretty! After taking in the sights and dodging the crowds for a while, we headed towards the north end of town and walked around some really nice neighborhoods there and walked around the high school.

After one last trip back to the car, we headed back down to the festival and bought a few items that we'd seen in our first walk through. We would have gotten finished a lot sooner had we not spent so much time milling about the festival and dropping by local shops! We were still able to finish our 14 miles by about 2:30, at which point we headed back to Lawrence to watch the KU/OU game.

Mom did a lot of napping during the game, and after it was over (a mere 4 hours later) we headed back out for our last 4 miles. We took the dogs along this time, which always takes longer for all the sniffing and squatting and leg-lifting, but we managed to finish the day by about 8:30 or so. Mom didn't get tired necessarily, but she did have some weakness and lightheadedness that we think was probably due to minor dehydration. We didn't wear our fanny-packs around the festival during the day so we probably didn't drink nearly as much as we needed to!

Since our 18 mile walk took so much time to talk about, I'll save the 15 mile story for tomorrow!

Pack Jack's!!!

Yesterday we finalized the plans for the 3rd annual "Pack Jack's" fundraiser for the 3-Day! Our extremely generous friend Dan, the owner of Set'em Up Jack's on 23rd street here in Lawrence, has agreed to again donate 25% of every bill from the evening of October 23rd to our 3-Day team.

If you can join us next Thursday at Set'em Up Jack's, Mom and I would love to see you and would very much appreciate your support!! Click here to download the flier! We hope to see you at Jack's on the 23rd!!

An Amazing 17 Miles

It's Tuesday now, but I think I'm still tired from this weekend's walking! On Saturday morning, Mom came over from Topeka and we started our 17 mile journey, which we had to break up into parts. We walked the dogs almost 3.5 miles, dropped them off, and then headed back out for a much quicker 3.4 miles by ourselves. By 10 a.m., we were already finished with almost 7 miles of our walk and Mom hadn't even blinked.

There was a KU home game on Saturday, so I quickly showered up and got ready to go to the game with Chad while Mom relaxed and lounged around with the dogs. She actually dropped us off at the game so we wouldn't have to deal with parking, and while we cheered on the 'Hawks Mom did some reading at Borders coffee shop. It was pretty hot during the first half of the game, so I was a little worried that our last 10 miles would be a struggled because of the heat. Mom came back and picked us up after our victory (after I walked about a mile in flip flops!), and at home she decided to take a bit of a nap while Chad and I ate an early dinner/late lunch.

I let Mom sleep a little, partially because I thought she needed it, and partially because I was afraid it would be too hot for her after we'd gotten so hot at the game. However, when we headed back out on the journey at about 4:30, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. We headed downtown, walked through a park, walked up the massively steep hill onto campus, passed one of my office buildings and the construction site of the future hotel, wound up another large hill beside the stadium, and wrapped all the way around campus until we came to the Union. The campus was so beautiful and was still filled with tailgaiting students who'd been at it the entire game day!

The Union stop was about five miles in, so we did a little relaxing and stretching before filling up with snacks and fluids and heading back out onto the trail. By the time we left the Union it was getting close to 7:00 and was starting to get dark. We wrapped back around the Campanile on Memorial Drive to the other end of campus, walked down through some neighborhoods of partying students near campus, headed back downtown, walked down New Hampshire to avoid the Saturday night crowds but still got some odd looks from people, and then started heading back west towards home. By this time it was pitch black outside, and Mom and I were both getting really tired! With about 2 miles left we slowed considerably, but we kept plugging along until we arrived back at home at around 8:30. Mom felt better about the fact that I was extremely exhausted too!

Needless to say, I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow Saturday night! My feet hurt terribly when I got out of bed Sunday morning, but I walked about another 6 or so miles that day. Mom got in several miles as well, despite being extremely sore. Hopefully our next long walk won't be such an exhausting all day event!!

Easy Weekend (Physically)

So last weekend our schedule had us only walking 8 miles and 6 miles on Saturday and Sunday respectively--sort of a recovery week after our 15/11 miles the weekend before. Mom was supposed to go to a friend's house near Manhattan, so she was going to try and get a few miles in here and there during her visit, since there wasn't very many miles to do anyway. Unfortunately, I never really got to ask Mom about her walking because a much more important issue came up on Saturday morning--her brother passed away unexpectedly. She zoomed passed Manhattan and onto Chapman to be with family, and has been there most of the week. I haven't asked her much about her walking, nor am I really worried about it. We're going to do our 17 miles this weekend and we'll just take it easy as we get back into the long miles.

On Saturday morning before I found out about my uncle, I took a 4 mile walk downtown, went to a yoga class, and then took the 4 mile walk back home. I kept a really fast pace on the way there, but on the way back, after 1.5 hours of yoga, I was pretty pooped! I struggled to keep my pace under 15 minutes per mile, but ended up with an overall 8 mile pace of about 14:40. Not too bad since we've not been walking nearly that fast during most of our training!

I'll admit that I didn't walk my full 6 miles on Sunday, which really isn't anything new since I've skipped a lot of my Sunday walks this year. I'm such a slacker! Hopefully I'll not struggle too much on days 2 and 3 in San Diego! :)

Two-Thirds

I was going to post a blog just a couple of nights ago about reaching the milestone of being half way done with my fundraising. Thanks to some mustard money from Chad's fundraising efforts, I received the official "congrats your half way there" email message from the 3-Day coaches last night. The crazy thing is, thanks to an ultra generous gift from Chad's Aunt Meg, today I'm actually over 2/3 of the way done with my fundraising!! This is a big relief, since I have a feeling I'll be helping the rest of my family raise their $2200 as well!

Thanks to everyone who has so generously and faithfully supported me in my efforts!!

15 Miles of Lovely Lake Shawnee

This morning Mom and I got up early to walk since it was unfortunately going to be hot again. We headed out to Lake Shawnee for our second walk there. This time I didn't forget the camera--I actually brought two of them! We got there just in time for a wonderful sunrise.


The weather was so cool and nice for the first few miles we couldn't have asked for better weather. We started on the opposite side of the lake this time and walked in the opposite direction, since last time we'd taken a wrong turn at the part of the loop where the sidewalk wasn't yet complete. This time we got about half way around the lake before taking about a half mile detour off the trail in order to get to a restroom. It turned out to be the perfect detour when it was all said and done because the lake loop was 7 miles, and our detour on each loop made it exactly 7.5!

After our first pit stop we continued past the camping area and then on past the golf course and back up and around to the botanical garden where we started. It wasn't even until the last couple of miles that the weather really started warming up. We got the first lap done in just over two hours and took a nice break to fill up on liquids and snacks. We didn't break for too long though, since the weather was heating up pretty quickly. I peeled off a layer, but unfortunately Mom didn't have a layer to peel.

We took off in the opposite direction of our first lap for a change of scenery. The heat immediately began to take it's toll. We walked around the golf course again, relishing any shade that came across our path. We slowed considerably because of the heat, so when we made it to our off path pit stop location, it was wonderful to drench our bandannas in cold water help keep us cool. We went over to a shady shelter nearby and had a nice rest in the shade with some more snacks before heading back out onto the trail.

It had gotten so hot by this time we ended up having to take a detour in the next mile over to the convenience store so that we could by some more water. We soaked our bandannas once again, filled up our water bottles and headed back out to finish the last 2+ miles. We walked back over the dam and in and out of the bends on the west side of the lake until we finally made it back to the car. That last mile or so was very hot and seemed very long!

We got a lot of good pictures on our two laps around the lake, which you can enjoy in the slideshow below. There is also a quick video at the end of a cute little bunch of Canada Geese.




After we finished walking, Mom relaxed in the shade for a while while I walked through the botanical garden and took TONS of pictures with my good camera. I haven't loaded those pictures onto the computer yet, but I'll definitely share them so you can get an idea of how gorgeous that area of the lake is!

Mom and I had a big lunch after our walk, and then I was pretty much wiped out for a couple of hours after arriving back home. It was over 85 degrees by the time we finished, and that heat definitely took it's toll. I was really proud of my mom for sticking it out all 15 miles!

Softball and Sunburn

Mom and I took our long training walk on Sunday this week since I had a wedding to go to on Saturday. We made plans to walk later in the day than we do normally, thinking that it wouldn't be any problem since the weather has been so beautiful lately. Unfortunately, Sunday ended up being the hottest day we had in weeks! Despite the less than ideal weather, we still walked about 14.5 miles when the day was over. We were really pooped!

Our walk was kind of a fun adventure because we had a particular destination in mind. We started from our house at around 11:00 or so, and we headed towards the softball diamonds on the southwest edge of town, where Chad had a game at 1:00. We stopped for a snack in the shade about 4 miles in, and then arrived at Clinton Lake Sports Complex at about 1:30. We cheered Chad's team to a victory for the league championship, and then relaxed with a few teammates for about hour in a shady spot of the parking lot. Chad brought us a refill on food and water, so after snacking and hydrating we headed back out towards home. As we left the softball diamonds I quickly realized that I had not prepared well that morning--I hadn't put any sunscreen on my arms at all and was wearing a sleeveless shirt!

Thankfully, on the way home we got a little bit of cloud cover to help with the heat, and we made another pit stop at Kwik Shop when we were almost halfway back to our house. We had another nice picnic of energy bars and Gatorade, and then we took off for the last 4 mile leg of our journey. We arrived home at exactly 6:00 p.m., a mere 7 hours after we left home! Fortunately, only 4.5 of those hours were actually spent walking!

Chad greeted us with a lovely dinner, which was fortunate since we were both famished and exhausted! The heat was especially draining, but Mom handled the walk like a champ! I, on the other hand, ended up with a ridiculous sunburn! :)

13 Miles of Sprinkles

Despite the record amounts of wet weather we've had around here lately, Mom and I managed to get our 13 mile walk done outside on Saturday! As I drove to Topeka in the rain on Saturday morning, I feared that we'd be forced into the mall again, and I was not looking forward to it! When I arrived at Mom's house it was barely sprinkling, so we rushed out the door and knocked off 2 miles or so before stopping back at the house for a quick pit stop. The rain seemed to be holding off, so we got brave and went for a 5 mile loop around the house, and although some significant rain came down about 3 miles into the loop, we pressed on and made it home before getting completely soaked. After a snack and a change of socks, we headed back out again, and thankfully by this time most of the rain had blown over completely. We walked another 4 miles or so before making another quick pit stop at home, then headed back out and knocked out our last two miles. By this time it was not only not raining--the sun was actually shining and we even got a bit warm!

I guess there was nothing really very interesting about our walk this week, but I have to say it's so nice that we no longer have to get up before the crack of dawn in order to beat the heat. I am so thankful for this cool fall weather! It's making the walking so much more enjoyable!

This coming weekend we'll be taking on 14 miles, but on Saturday rather than Sunday. I have an out of town wedding on Saturday, so we're swapping the training walks for the two weekend days. This means that Mom will be walking 10 miles by herself on Saturday, which will be her new solo record! :)

Yummy Fundraiser

My husband is helping me out with my fundraising this year since he knows I have a long way to go and a short time to get there (73 days, to be exact). He decided to help me along by making several batches of his famous homemade spicy mustard (of which all our friends are big fans) and "selling" them in exchange for a donation to my 3-Day account. Last night at his softball game he gave out about 8 jars along with my 3-Day "business" cards, so hopefully I will get a few donations as a result! Thanks to my dear hubby Chad for the help!

My Mom the Rock Star

The weather was so cool in Lawrence this weekend, Mom and I didn't even take off for our long Saturday walk until after 9 a.m! It was so nice to sleep in a little for the first Saturday in many weeks. We started our walk with a 3+ mile loop around our house with the dogs, and after dropping them off and having a snack and a quick rest, we headed back out on our journey. We walked from our house about 4 miles to J&S Coffee, which is near 6th and Wakarusa. It started sprinkling during the last mile of this leg, but we just pulled caps out of our packs and continued on our merry way in the rain.

At the coffee shop we enjoyed warm drinks and split a muffin and bagel, and after 20 minutes or so of hanging out we headed back out on the road. We took a slightly longer way home, dropped by Dillons for a quick potty break, and then walked the last 2+ miles to our house. As we walked up the last hill before arriving home, the Garmin beeped to let us know we'd gone 12 miles total. Mom actually started celebrating by jogging up the hill!! She'd walked 12 miles and still had energy to spare! My mom rocks!

Eleven at the Lake

Yesterday morning Mom and I knocked off our 11 mile walk around Lake Shawnee. I'd never really been around the entire lake, so I was looking forward to seeing all it had to offer while walking the new hike/bike trail, which was supposed to go all the way around. We drove to the lake and got there just after 7:00 a.m., when the weather was absolutely beautiful. It was only about 60 degrees and there was a wonderful breeze. We guessed the trail was about 7 miles total, so we found a parking lot and headed out around the baseball fields and across the dam. The view of the early morning sun on the lake was just beautiful! Of course I forgot, again, to bring my camera along, and this would have been the perfect spot for lots of pictures! We resorted to taking a cell phone picture with the cute little ducks.

One of the most beautiful areas around the lake that made me most regret that I'd forgotten a camera was the botanical gardens on the west side. I found one picture on the web that gives you a tiny glimpse of how beautiful this area is, so picture this scene times about 100. There are TONS of beautifully landscaped flower gardens and walkways all around. There are gazebos, bridges, streams, benches and all sorts of other viewing areas that make it the place perfect for photos. In fact, there were several professional photographers there taking family pictures! The area was so beautiful. I told Mom we are definitely going back next week and I'm bringing the good camera! I did take this one picture with the cell phone that might give you an idea of the beautiful landscape around there.

After walking through the flower gardens we headed back down the main trail, passing boat ramps, the "junior" lake, tennis courts, play areas, shelters, and fishing areas until we came to the golf course. After walking along the golf course for a while, the trail abruptly came to an end. We followed the road for a little while, and then saw a sidewalk over to the right, so we decided to take it. We had no idea where it went, but we followed it up a hill and into a really nice residential neighborhood. We wound through this neighborhood for a little while until our sidewalk again came to an end. As we pondered where to go and what to do, I noticed that my Garmin Forerunner said we'd gone exactly 5.55 miles, which meant we were exactly half way done with our walk. Even though we were running a little low on water and snacks (we'd planned to go back to the car and refuel in 7 miles) I suggested we just head back the way we came, so that we'd get back to the car in exactly 11 miles.

Looking back, this probably wasn't the smartest idea, because it began to get really hot, really quick. After tracing our steps back in the other direction we walked for a couple more miles until we found a beautiful shady spot to sit and have the couple of protein bars that Mom had smartly packed. We changed socks and did a little stretching, and then after about 15 minutes we headed back out onto the trail. We walked back through the flower gardens a little later, took a quick break to watch the sailboats dancing around the water, and then finished up the last 3 or 4 miles. With about 2 miles left, as we were rationing what little water we had, Mom started getting a little lightheaded, but we took a quick rest in the shade and I made her remove the hat that was trapping all heat in her body. That helped quite a bit, and we finished up our last couple of miles just 4 hours after we started. We slowed down quite a bit at the end, but it was understandable since it was 86 degrees by this time!

Overall we had a wonderful experience at Lake Shawnee and I'd totally recommend going there if you get the chance. It's not at all what I imagined when I thought of a lake in Topeka! :)

Our New Team Member

Tonight my brother called to tell me that he's going to join our 3-Day team! I can't explain how stinkin' thrilled I am! My brother is AWESOME!!! :)

The 10 Mile Mall Walk

If you can believe it, Mom and I finished our first 10 mile walk today entirely inside the mall in Topeka! Ugh! I headed over to her house this morning at 6 a.m. in the midst of a pretty intense thunderstorm. Since walking outside was clearly not an option, we headed over to the mall and started doing laps with the rest of the Saturday morning crowd. As you can imagine, there were very few people under 60! We had hoped that the rain would let up in time for us to take the end of our trip outside, but by the time it stopped raining we were a mile or so from being finished, so we ended up doing every last step inside! After a little shopping, we hit Olive Garden for the endless soup, salad and breadsticks! :)

While walking in a climate controlled building was pretty nice, walking on the hard tile flooring wasn't ideal for the knees and back. Even with the less than ideal walking surface though, we really only stopped for one short 15 minute break in the middle of our 10 miles. Once again, Mom finished with no problem!

A Glimpse into the San Diego 3-Day

This video might give you an idea why I wanted my mom to experience the event specifically in San Diego. The community support out there is outrageous. Watching this video from last year and remembering how cool it was brings tears to my eyes!

Our 9 Mile Adventure

On Saturday, Mom and I took our second long training walk down the Shunga Trail in Topeka. The last time we took a 6 mile stroll down this hike/bike trail, the early morning sights and sounds were so pretty I swore the next time I'd remember to bring my camera. I didn't, but we again witnessed the beauty of the natural grasses, flowers, trees and fields. Saturday morning's walk included some beautiful low-lying fog as well as some amazing August weather.

We walked about 2.25 miles down the trail in one direction before turning around to head back to the car. Upon our arrival, we took a potty break at the tennis courts and then relaxed for 15 minutes or so while we loaded up on snacks and drinks. Pretty soon we were ready to take off again, and we headed down the trail in the opposite direction. After a couple of miles, we were preparing to round a corner when we heard a loud pop that sounded a little like a gunshot. The ensuing cracking and crashing made us realize it wasn't a gunshot at all (thankfully) but rather a tree falling in the wooded area that lines the trail. We made a few jokes about hearing trees that fall in the forest, but when we rounded the bend we stopped in our tracks. There was a massive tree that had fallen right into the hike/bike path and branches and wood had shattered everywhere. We were in such shock! As we stood there and inspected the damage, a couple of other walkers who'd originally come from this direction came around the corner after us. One of them had walked past that spot just minutes before the tree had fallen! It was so freaky to think that in just a couple of minutes we would have been walking in that exact spot as well!

As we were standing in awe, surveying the damage, I realized that I actually did have my camera--at least the one on my cell phone! Mom posed with the fallen mess for some perspective.


Is that not amazing? The main trunk of the tree looked pretty healthy and alive, so we had no idea what could have caused it to fall. It was crazy!

After our little tree adventure, we continued down the path until it came to an end, which turned out to be less than two miles later. We headed back towards the car, but had to walk back in the original direction for a while just to make sure we got our full 9 miles in. We arrived back at the car after walking about 9.4 miles! Mom did great and is all ready to take on 10 miles this coming weekend!

My First Donation

I just want to say a big THANK YOU to my friend JoAnna, who got my fundraising started this weekend! JoAnna is an extra special donor because she's also a survivor--she's one of the big reasons that I walk! JoAnna was diagnosed just a couple of weeks before my mom back in late 2005, and she amazed and astounded everyone who knew her by continuing to volunteer at the Humane Society multiple days a week throughout her chemotherapy. She is an incredible person who always puts the needs of our shelter dog friends ahead of her own!

Thanks JoAnna!! I'm so thankful for that first donation!

Let the Fundraising Begin

This week I got my fundraising page all set up, although I haven't yet had the chance to send out any solicitation emails. Since I don't really love asking people for money (does anyone?), I was kind of hoping that my friends and family who regularly read my blog would just spontaneously decide to make a donation so that I wouldn't even have to bother them about it. I mean really, everyone close to me knows how passionate I am about this event and this philanthropy, don't they? Do I really need to explain it in an email? I guess maybe I do. But it still would be nice if someone would like to throw a small donation my way just to get me started! :)

It's Official!!!

Today Mom and I took a big step forward on our 3-Day journey--we officially registered for the San Diego event in November! I'm so super excited!! I haven't gotten our fundraising page quite up to speed yet, but I'll add pictures very soon. Be on the lookout for an email coming your way soon with more information!!

Easy Week

This weekend there wasn't much to report on training because Mom and I actually didn't go out and walk together. It was an easy "rest" weekend of training--a weekend where the schedule has you scaling back on your mileage to take a break and allow your body some recovery time. Since we were only supposed to walk 4 and 3 miles on Saturday and Sunday respectively, I left Mom to walk alone since I knew she'd breeze through those walks with ease.

In case you're interested, here is the schedule we're following this year. I slightly modified the 3-Day organization's suggested 24-week training schedule, only because when we followed it a couple of years ago we felt way over-prepared. This one has the same long walks on the weekends, but just not as many miles and not as much cardio during the week.


As you can see, we're currently 16 weeks away from the actual event in November. Last year, my friend Vikkie and I followed the 16-week training schedule put out by the folks at the 3-Day, and we still felt somewhat over-prepared for the 60 miles! You know what this means? It means YOU still have plenty of time to join us in our goal of walking 60 miles in the Breast Cancer 3-Day this year!! I'll be sending out a recruitment letter soon! :)

14 Mile Weekend

My mom set a new record again this weekend with her walking--she's doing so well and I'm so excited about it! She came to Lawrence early Saturday morning, and we ended up walking 7.74 miles instead of the 7 that was on the schedule. We walked the dogs about 3.4 and then took a short break at home, after which we walked about a mile and a half to the hospital. They have such a cute gift shop there we thought it would be fun to stop and browse around and enjoy their air conditioning, but when we got there at 9:30 it wasn't open yet. We headed back out for about another 1.3 miles and then looped back to the hospital and shopped around the gift shop for a few minutes. The final 1.5 miles home was really hot since it was after 10:30 by the time we arrived, but Mom made it without too much trouble at all! Since we spent about 3 hours wandering around Target later in the afternoon, I'd say she walked well over 8 miles for the day!

Mom spent the night, and this morning we got up and walked the mutts almost 3 miles, and then walked another 3+ on our own. We finished the day before 9 a.m. with 6.15 miles under our belt! We kept a faster then normal pace and Mom didn't show any fatigue until about the last mile. Even then she really didn't even slow down. I was so impressed with her commitment and determination. Fresco was impressed with the taste of her sweat. :)

We still haven't officially registered yet, but plan to in the next few weeks. Mom is still a little nervous about the fund raising goal, and although she still isn't convinced she'll be able to handle the full 60 miles, I know she can do it!

Training While It's Raining

There’s something super exciting going on in my life that I’ve totally failed to blog about until now. I’ve kind of put it off blogging about it on purpose, because I haven’t been entirely sure that it was going to happen. I’m getting more and more confident about it every week, so it’s finally time to reveal what I’m so excited about!

Last November I walked in my second Breast Cancer 3-Day, and the San Diego event was an absolutely amazing experience. So amazing, in fact, that I wanted to share the experience with my mom, Sherry, who battled breast cancer in 2006. I immediately started talking to her about walking with me in the next 3-Day, but since Mom wasn’t really in shape at all at the time, neither of us were really sure that the 60 miles would even be doable for her.

So back in February or March, I started a sort of feasibility study with my mom. I created a 16-week training schedule for her, to build up her walking endurance so that she would be able to walk 3 miles, 4 times a week by the time the recommended 24-week training period began. She started with just a mile of walking at a time, and slowly built her way up to walking 4 times a week. Then she began increasing her mileage, until by the beginning of June, she could pretty easily walk 3 miles at a time. She wasn't as consistent with her walking as I wanted her to be, but she got to the point where she could start the official training schedule none the less.

Since Mom still had a long way to go before she was walking 20 miles in a day, we still didn't officially register for the walk, just in case her mild arthritis or an injury got in the way of our lofty goal. We decided that we'd keep following (a slightly modified version of) the suggested training schedule for a few more weeks to see how the mileage increases went before making a final decision about registering. Our plan was to wait until mid July or so before deciding if we would for sure make the trip to San Diego.

Last week, I started feeling very confident that Mom was going to stick it out through the training and make to the event in November. She seemed to have a renewed excitement and energy regarding her walks, and she was consistently getting up super early every morning to get her scheduled miles in. Yesterday morning, she came to Lawrence for our 6 mile walk and got up at 5:30 to do so! Not only was she here bright-eyed at 6:30 a.m., but she also powered on through the end of our walk even though we got caught in a pretty heavy rain shower! Chad drove around the neighborhood and came to find us to see if we wanted to call it quits, but Mom wanted to finish even though we were both soaking wet! I was so impressed with her determination!

I can't even express how proud I am of her for taking on this challenge. She has come so far in the last few months, with regard to her fitness level and also her motivation and dedication. We still haven't officially registered, but I'm so excited that we will most likely be walking together in San Diego come November!!