Thank you for supporting my participation in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day and for recognizing that the fight against breast cancer continues.
It was an incredible 60-mile journey and I have so many wonderful memories, running the gamut from fun and joyous to extremely touching and emotional.
My most memorable moment was meeting George, a 90 year old 3-Day Walk veteran who has completed 57 walks around the country in the past 20 years in memory of his wife. He started when he was 70 and his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer which eventually took her life. He has a photo of her on the back of his shirt. I probably don’t have to tell you how good he looked for his age. He sells buttons that say “Every man deserves a Wife-time of Happiness” to raise money for his 3-Day walks. How can you not buy one! He is my new role-model.
My husband, Brian, made us a website with a 2 minute slideshow that will give you a great feel for what the walk is like and still photos for closer looks (like of the team T-shirts I hand-painted with the names of the people we were walking for on the front and the names of our donors on the back). There is also a running written description (blog) of where we walked each day if you click on “About the 3-Day”. www.JulianJuggernauts.com You can see photos of George in the Day 3 still photos, the photo of us with my nephew and niece and grand-nephews and husband who came out to support us at the end of day 2, and the very last photo of the pink and red rose petals Brian showered me with at the very end of the walk.
The San Diego police, who rode bikes alongside us in special Pink uniform shirts, were absolutely amazing. They went over and above in their support. I found out that they have to volunteer to do this assignment using their days off or vacation time and must go through a stringent approval process (possibly a humor check). One day one of them rode his bike along the long line of port-a-potties banging on the doors shouting “San Diego Police demanding entry.” At least it was funny to those of us waiting in line!
One thing I noticed was that there was NEVER any pee on the toilet seats of any of the port-a-potties. Probably because anyone walking 20 miles in a day is not going to do an additional squat over a toilet seat! We welcome the opportunity to sit down for a minute. I don’t believe we ever passed up an opportunity to use a port-a potty at our age and drinking so much water and electrolyte mixes.
I also never ate so much candy (mostly chocolate) in my life. They could rename it the 3-Day Bottomless Candy Bowl Walk, there were so many spectators cheering and handing out mini candy bars along the route. But according to my iWatch, I burned over 2000 calories a day, so it’s OK. The first day, my step count was 59,018. Had I checked that before getting into bed, I might have tried to get in 982 more steps to make it 60,000! And I didn’t have any knee or feet problems or even one blister (a shout out here to the Wright Socks, blister-free running/walking/hiking socks).
I was very impressed by the Youth Corp Volunteers between the ages of 10 and 16. They all had their reasons for volunteering, most having lost a grandmother to breast cancer.
Because of your generosity, and the support of all of my donors, I raised almost $4000 and our team of 3, the Julian Juggernauts, raised about $10,000. Donna and Paula were the best teammates ever, not just for the walk but for the many months of training! You will also see photos of a man with us occasionally, wearing a pink wig. That’s Ricky, also from Julian, and a 16-month survivor of breast cancer. Men constitute only 1% of all diagnosed cases. Ricky felt a lump in his breast while sudzing up in the shower and, amazingly for a man, went to have it checked out immediately while It was still in a very early stage.
Over $5.3 million was raised in the fight against breast cancer by the 1700 San Diego walkers and 325 crew members supporting the San Diego walk this year. Komen is the world’s largest breast cancer organization, funding more breast cancer research than any other nonprofit outside of the federal government while providing real-time help to those facing the disease. Since its founding in 1982, Komen has funded more than $988 million in research and provided more than $2.2 billion in funding to screening, education, treatment and psychosocial support programs serving millions of people in more than 60 countries worldwide.
Thank you for making this possible, it was a life-changing experience and knowing you were a part of it, made all the difference. Maybe next year, if I decide to do it again, you can join me or donate to the cause!
Love,
Nancy