Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Barrels of Fun

As most of my friends and supporters already know, the owners of The Barrel House (the newish dueling piano bar in Lawrence) offered to host a fundraiser in support of my participation in the 3-Day this year. The event is this Thursday, October 29, starting at 7 p.m., with the pianos starting at 8. The Barrel House located at 729 New Hampshire. The cover charge is only $2, and The Barrel House will be donating all of the door proceeds to the 3-Day! They are calling it the "Pink Out" and encouraging everyone to wear pink!

If you haven't been to the Barrel House before, it's a ton of fun, and the crowd (at least the night that we were there) is very diverse, with people of all ages coming out to enjoy the music. The pianists are outstanding and play tunes from all eras. It should be a fun night, so grab your friends and head downtown! I would totally appreciate your support and hope to see all my friends there!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Gearing Up

I spent the bulk of my evening preparing for my trip to Dallas, even though the 3-Day is still two weeks away. I just couldn't help myself--I'm getting really excited! I think my renewed excitement mainly stemmed from the fact that over the weekend I actually met someone who is going to Dallas as well, and now I have a tentmate and a walking partner!

This meeting wasn't exactly accidental, in that my new friend Brandy is actually friends with Chad's coworker Suzanne, and Suzanne gave Brandy my email address. We corresponded last week and met up on Saturday to walk a few miles in Topeka. She's a very nice first-time walker who also walks about my speed, which is an added bonus! Now I'm really looking forward to actually knowing someone else in Dallas!

So this evening I went to Target and picked up all of my travel toiletries and a few other supplies, and then I went down to the basement to pull out my sleeping bag and camping pad. I didn't actually start putting things in my duffel, but I did start gathering everything together in the anticipation of packing!

One of the other things I did in preparation was to lace up my shoes with some new laces that I splurged on last year. I think they're pretty perfect, don't you?

Sunday, October 18, 2009

18 Miles Under my Belt

Yesterday my training walk went wonderfully, and I completed all 18 miles I set out to do. I walked 5 miles to my friend Kristin's house in the morning, walked another 2.5 miles with her, walked the 5 miles home, took a lunch break, walked 2 miles with Chad and the dogs, and then walked another 3 miles just with Chad. Five miles was a long walk for my hubby, and I was so thankful to have him along for the ride! Ten miles by myself is about all I can handle without going a little crazy!

I had every intention of getting out today and walking another 15 or so, but yesterday afternoon after I got home my darn bulging disc flared up again. I've been flat on my back ever since. My long training walk will just have to wait!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Done!!!

Wow--I can't thank everyone enough for the amazing generosity this year. Your support has been absolutely phenomenal--and fantastically speedy!! Tonight it's been exactly two weeks since I registered for the 3-Day and posted my first donation request to Facebook. Since then I've sent out almost 100 emails and raised $2,345!! Thank you so much friends! I so appreciate your support!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Amazing Donations!

Although my training might not be going too well this year, the fundraising has been fabulous during these first 10 days! Thank you, friends, for your amazing generosity! Chad's Aunt Meg got me started, just like she did last year, and my mom's friend Carol was close behind. The donations have been steadily pouring in, and today I got a $500 donation from a friend who is also a breast cancer survivor! Thank you so much--you know who you are! :)

Along with the donations of money to my 3-Day account, this weekend I also got a terrific in-kind donation as well! Let me start the story by saying that the right shoes are extremely important when walking 60 miles, so the first year I did the 3-Day I went to a specialty shoe store and was professionally fitted for shoes (which were very expensive) for the walk--and they ended up fitting so poorly that I couldn't even wear them after the first couple of months of training! After that I went to Famous Footwear and fit myself for my shoes...and I've had terrific luck with all the ones I've picked out on my own--not to mention I've spent way less!

So anyway, I was just thinking that I needed to get out to Famous Footwear and get some new shoes for this year's walk, and then I was talking to our friend Ryan, who owns/manages Brown's Shoe Fit in downtown Lawrence. Ryan said that instead of giving me a donation of money for the walk this year, he would actually donate my shoes--and I don't mean the cheap $50 shoes I've been buying myself the previous 3 years! I went down to his store on Thursday, and Ryan let me try on several different (all pink, of course) pairs, and in the end he GAVE me these awesome Pumas, with some fancy Thorlos as well!



This was an amazing gift, and I can't thank Ryan enough for his incredible generosity! Hooray for Ryan at the Lawrence Brown's Shoe Fit! :)

Friday, October 2, 2009

It's Official

Despite the fact that I haven't been training very seriously, I am still planning to walk in Dallas next month, and I just made that plan official! You can be the first one to donate on my 3-Day fundraising page! More to come soon!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Recruiting

Last week I sent out a recruitment letter to a bunch of my friends--basically any of my friends who I thought might have the slightest interest in participating in the 3-Day with me. I have a couple of friends who have had close family members with breast cancer, so I was hopeful that someone would be moved to participate, but no such luck. I have to admit I'm a little down that no one was interested and a little discouraged that I still don't have a team. Here's the letter that I sent out:

Dear friends,

As you all know, in each of the last three years I've participated in the Breast Cancer 3-Day--a 60 mile walk that raises money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In 2006, just after my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was recruited by my friend Cindy to walk with her team in the Kansas City event. Two years ago, when there was no KC event, I recruited my friend Vikkie to walk with me in San Diego--the largest of the 15 annual 3-Day events. The San Diego event was absolutely amazing, and I wanted my mom to have that experience, so last year I recruited her and my brother to walk 60 miles with me in southern California. As you can imagine, watching my 62-year-old mother complete all 60 miles was incredible, and last year was definitely the most meaningful of my three 3-Days. I could go on and on about what a fabulous experience the event has been, but most of you have probably heard me talk about the event in person or seen it through my pictures.

This year, even though my mom has decided not to walk, I'm planning to walk in my fourth 3-Day. I'm walking again because I still want to honor my mom and celebrate her three years of being free of breast cancer. I'm walking again because so many other women in my family and in my life have been forever changed because of this disease. I'm walking again because 15% of breast cancer survivors will someday have a recurrence. I'm walking again because I have a higher than normal risk of developing breast cancer myself. I'm walking again because I can.

My plan this year is to participate in the Dallas/Fort Worth event. It will be an easy drive and I'll be able to stay with family the nights before and after the walk. It's not until early November, and the weather in Dallas should be comfortable by that time. I'm telling you all of this because I want you to consider walking the 3-Day with me. While I will likely be participating regardless, I would much rather make the journey with friends! I'm asking all of you specifically, because you're all people that a) are in good enough shape that you could get by with just 12 weeks of training, and b) are friends that I'd love to spend more time with! Some of you have even expressed interest in the past or have a passion for fighting against breast cancer, making you the perfect person to walk with me! :)

I won't deny that this endeavor is slightly time consuming, so I totally understand if your work/school/child schedule won't allow for training and fundraising. Each participant is required to raise $2200 in order to participate, and although it's much easier than it sounds, it still requires some effort. In addition, in the month prior to the event, the Sat/Sun walks take a pretty good chunk out of the weekend. While training for a walk might seem a little unnecessary, it's definitely essential if you want to avoid blisters and other injuries! However, for the first two years I followed the 3-Day's suggested 24-week and 16-week training schedules, and I definitely felt over-prepared. Last year I modified the 16 week schedule somewhat, and still did not find the 60 miles especially challenging. This year I've devised a much shorter 12 week training schedule that I'm confident will be sufficient, and that schedule will start next week! If you'd like to see the schedule and get an idea of what it would entail, you can check it out here: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXc8jjDet9vFqP3sBFlh5a4KHMa9GD61_GxveYj2YDG47p-wFxX54EjnAcxdP6O6Zl92G-Wh_SvjEXM7D3wxVSLD5-7baEhKyNxwlzpImBgfg_Z0dWaCCUE1GhDbhsAqQgaFKGG_Us_bI/s1600-h/training09.jpg.

There's a ton more information to check out on the web if you think you might be interested. Here are just a few links:

My personal 3-Day journal--http://3dayjournal.blogspot.com/
My personal pictures 2008--http://picasaweb.google.com/kimluce99/2008112420083Day#
Pictures 2007--http://picasaweb.google.com/chadluce/20071115SanDiego#
Pictures 2006--http://picasaweb.google.com/chadluce/2006BreastCancer3Day#
The 3-Day Website--http://www.the3day.org
Some videos from the 3-Day--http://www.the3day.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Videos
(the first one is my favorite)

Should you decide to participate, I promise the 3-Day will be an experience you will never forget, especially if breast cancer has affected your life or your family in a profound way. My mom still faces the physical scars and complications from her surgeries every day. She can't forget, so I can't forget either--which is why I keep walking. As one of the participants in the video (who I actually saw again last year in San Diego) said, "I have two choices: I can be here, or not...I'm just glad I'm here." That completely expresses how I feel. I hope you'll consider being there too!! If you're at all interested...give me a shout! :)

Hugs,
kjl


Since that didn't motivate anyone to join me, I've gone out looking for anyone in the Lawrence area who might be doing Dallas this year, so that maybe I can join their team or find a training partner. I've posted a couple of messages to the 3-Day Facebook page, so hopefully someone in my area will see them and respond! I feel like a walker without a home!!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Dallas, Anyone?

It's that time again. The 3-Day season officially started a few weeks ago. For the last several months I've been contemplating participation this year, and I'm leaning towards driving down for the Dallas event. It would be relatively close and inexpensive, and since it's not until November, the weather wouldn't be bad at all. I invited my mom to walk with me again, but she isn't feeling up for it this year, which means that I'm currently a team of only one. To remedy this, in the next couple of days I'll be sending out an email to a bunch of my friends encouraging them to participate in the 3-Day with me. Hopefully my recruitment letter will work. :)

Technically, I'm under a bit of a time crunch since I'm making this decision a little late. The 3-Day folks recommend 24 weeks to prepare, and as of right now there are only 13 weeks until the event. I'm not worried about the fundraising--I think that's always a bit easier when the crunch is on. I'm actually not too worried about the training either, only because I've done the 24-week and 16-week training schedules and have felt over-prepared both times. I'm pretty confident that I can prepare myself sufficiently in the next 12 weeks, partially because I walk pretty regularly as it is--I just need to add some long walks on the weekends. Here's the 12 week training schedule I've prepared for myself.


That doesn't look too bad, does it? Anyone interested in coming to Dallas with me? Anyone? Bueller?

Monday, December 1, 2008

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! :)

Sunday, November 30, 2008

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!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

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!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

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!! :)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

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!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

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! :)