So excited!

Tomorrow at this time we will have gone through the opening ceremony and will be a couple miles into our first day of the 3-Day 60-Mile Walk for the Cure journey!  I can already feel the excitement in the air, see through the tears, feel the hugs, and sense the camaraderie among the participants - walkers and crew alike - of this great event!  I have been jittery all week with excitement!  I have packed, repacked and packed again!  The weather has changed and it looks like we might get rain on both Saturday and Sunday... hopefully not but at least it will not be hot.  The temps are going to be in the mid to upper 60's, which is perfect for long walks.

At the bank yesterday I was talking to the teller, Terry, while doing my banking.  I currently have VERY PINK and VERY  NOTICEABLE  fingernails, of which I am VERY self-conscious about!  They are BRIGHT.  In fact, they are so bright I will not need to use a flashlight at camp! I told Terry I was walking in a breast cancer walk this weekend and flashed my nails at her with a big grin on my face.  (I felt the need to make an excuse for the color of my nails!)  She asked if it was in Portland and I said no, it was in Seattle.  She said, "Oh! Is it the 3-Day?!  I have always wanted to do that event!"  She said she just didn't have anyone that wanted to do it with her so she had not signed up.  You can guess what happened next!  I told Terry my team was always open to her and anyone else that wanted to walk and she should totally sign up and do it in 2012!  I gave her my contact information and the web link to read about the 3-Day.  I told her she could certainly train during the year with me and my friends.  As it turns out, Terry is a five-year breast cancer SURVIVOR!  She is a floater with the bank and just happened to be at my branch and I just happened to be self-conscious enough about my nails to make a statement about them!  I truly believe we were meant to meet and I really hope Terry decides to join us next year!  We will certainly embrace her and make her the VIP of our team.  After all, that's what this walk celebrates the most ... the SURVIVORS.

My teammate and friend, Ginger, and I will be leaving this afternoon to make our way to Lynnwood.  I can't wait!  We will spend the night at my relatives' house with my sister-in-law, Edith, who is also my tent mate this year.  The three of us will get up VERY early tomorrow morning, drive to Seattle and check in by 5:00 AM!  It sounds awful right now but I know we will be so excited that the time won't bother us.  We will meet up with our other teammate, Pam, at the event and will start what promises to be an amazing, wonderful, emotional, exhausting, rewarding, memorable journey together!  All three of my walking teammates this year are first-timers.  It will be such a joy for me to have them along.  I will miss my daughter being by my side this year but hopefully she can walk again next year, or at least be on the crew.  Unfortunately, Brittany's job wasn't able to let her or Michelle (they now work together!) take the time off to be on the crew as they had planned.  However, both of them, as well as my mother and my friend, Linda, will be at the closing ceremony on Sunday evening!  Closing is another very emotional part of the journey and being a part of it forever etches a special place in your soul.

Here's to a fantastic weekend ahead! Go Pink Thunder!

Thanks again to all of my supporters for enabling me to take part in this amazing journey once again!  xoxo

A Week of the Lazies!

Since walking the half marathon last Sunday, I have done NOTHING at all towards my walking goals or my weight management!  In my defense (although it is a bit sketchy - I could have at least done weight training or the bike!), I was walking in the real heat last Sunday, which is something we really aren't accustomed to around here, and got my first blister in well over a year.  I knew I was getting a "hot spot" on the outside area of my heel but I ignored it and kept going, naturally!  By the end of the race, I knew it was more than just a hot spot.  I took my shoe off once I was safely sitting in the car and haven't had one on SINCE. THAT. TIME.   I didn't have a blister ANY MORE ... it had already come and gone!  It had burst and then rubbed raw enough to bleed.  Needless to say, it HURT.  In fact, it hurt all week.  I wore flip flops everywhere and it STILL hurt.  Today it is a lot better so I think I will "dress up" and actually put on some shoes.  :)

Okay... so it is Sunday again and I was supposed to walk 21 miles this morning with Vancouver Fit in preparation for the Portland Marathon coming up on October 9th.  Key words here: SUPPOSED TO.  I decided against it after a bit of help with my decision making skills from my husband, daughter, mother and friend!  You see, I have my favorite event coming up on Friday - the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure!  In other words, I have 60 miles to walk next weekend!  I am perfectly capable of walking today's 21 miles and I know it.  And if I really needed the practice walking long miles, I will get plenty of it at the 3-Day event.  I didn't walk today because I want my "blister" to be totally healed by the weekend and to start the event with happy feet!  My fear of walking today was that I would irritate that spot all over again and I just couldn't take that chance.  As I sit here typing though, I envy my buddies out there doing the big miles and wish I was there with them (I'm such a junky!). However, I know in my heart I made the smartest decision even though I wasn't happy about making it.

As for my weight management this week (or lack thereof), I have no excuse.  Not even a sketchy one.

I will do better this week.

Lesson learned: Don't ignore a hot spot... ever.

Fact about me: I would rather walk 20 miles in the rain than 3 miles in the heat!

UPDATE: My friends, who never get blisters, GOT BLISTERS TODAY! It was hot and humid out there! Whew... glad I missed out on that! Great job ladies on the miles!

While they were out getting their blisters, I was getting my toenails painted PINK in honor on next weekend! heehee ;)

Running Scared

Someone, as in "Anonymous", informed me that I will not be "jogging" a half marathon, I will be RUNNING it!   After reading that, I did a lot of thinking about why the statement had me shuddering with fear.  "Run" and "Jacqueline" have never been in the same sentence together unless there was a negative in there as well, such as "Jacqueline can't run!"  I remember always being picked last (you-are-stuck-with-me last) to be on the various teams during P.E. because... "Jacqueline can't run!"  "Jog" sounds like a much safer word to me.  "Jogging" sounds so much easier and sounds less of a commitment than saying I am going to "run".  Honestly, running is something I have always dreamed of doing but thought I never could.  In fact, I was told by my neurologists (back surgeons) that I wasn't ALLOWED to run.  (Well, of course, if you tell me I can't do something, I will get right out there to prove you wrong!)  I admit, when I first started trying to run it hurt my lower back for a couple of days after each attempt.  It would worry me that I was hurting myself but then when the pain went away, the "I will do it if I want to!" attitude came back! And the pain eventually disappeared.  The furtherest I have been able to run without stopping is 3.8 miles.  It took me 43 minutes but I did it!  As I try to move from being "a walker" to being "a runner", my self-doubts start kicking in.  They hold a very tight grip on me.  Self-doubts are like cement in my shoes.  They scream out, "Jacqueline can't run!!". They make my feet heavy and legs tired. Well... I am going to beat that too!  The word can't is no longer a part of my vocabulary and is no longer used to describe me in any way.

I. AM. GOING. TO. RUN!

But don't worry my friends and fellow walkers... I'm not giving up my love for walking! I will continue to be "a walker" but I just need to spread my wings and fly a bit! :)


"It’s very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit." ~ George Sheehan

"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not."