8 Weeks Out

Wow. $4,000.00 reached today. Not only is there something very pleasing about that super nice round number, but this amount astounds me. When I signed up for this, I thought the struggle for me would be the fundraising. $2,300 seemed like such a large amount of money and while I hoped to raise more than that and set my sights higher than the minimum, I secretly wondered how much of the $2,300 would end up coming out of my own pocket. My friends and family have been so incredibly generous that the fundraising truly has been the easy part. $4,000 closer to a cure for breast cancer, all because back at the beginning of this year I signed up for this amazing journey.

I was able to walk again today, and had it not been close to 100 degrees out, I would have gone farther than my 4.4 miles. I'm hoping to get more walking in tomorrow. My foot is holding up just fine so far. I don't want to push it too hard, but it's so gratifying to be back out walking.

I picked up my sleeping bag today and started working on my packing list. I'm also working on the ribbon chain of all the names of the folks I am walking in honor of. I get misty eyed when I think of them. There are currently 26 names on my list. Most of them have survived one or more bouts of breast cancer, a handful have lost their battle, and a few are in the midst of the worst of it. I don't personally know most of them, but I personally know people who are their friends or relatives and my lack of first hand connection with them doesn't stop me from being brought to tears thinking about what they and their families have gone through or are going through.

My hope is that in my lifetime we can find a cure, so that I know my children and nephews and everyone are safe from having to face the fear and pain and loss cancer causes. My hope is that what we learn about breast cancer, translates into the ability to more effectively battle other types of cancer as well.

Eight weeks from today, I will have just finished day 2 of the 3-day walk. I'm really looking forward to this. Thank you for coming with me on my journey.

(9/24/10)
Fundraising: $310.00 Total: 4,000.00
Training: 4.4 miles in 1 hour 42 minutes
Total miles to date: 244.1 miles

(9/23/10)
Fundraising: $50.00 Total: 3,690.00