Spring 2012 Training

It's been awhile since I joined back in the blogging fun. Jules took off for Seattle, we met up in Atlanta and somewhere in between we continued meeting some more amazing Pink People!! So we are back at it again for a new city and an old favorite. This year we hope Chicago will welcome us with good weather to walk in August and Atlanta will keep us humble as we crew and work all hours in October.

I am continuously honored by my survivors through their unconditional generosity and support. I have to share one with you. She smiles at me daily down the hall and supports me with her words telling me how amazing it is that I walk such distances. This has been another rebuilding year of sorts for her (literally and she looks fabulous!!!) She isn't made of money. She has a family to help support and yet she just gave me a gift card to help with getting a new pair of shoes for training. Now of course I'm all weepy, happily weepy no doubt.

My point being, I worry about the fundraising and the training and staying healthy and traveling and I constantly have my pink peeps on my mind - survivors, angels, fellow walkers, fellow crew, friends and family who help out. I never know how it will turn out until all the money is counted and my bags are packed, zipped and labeled with my name and tent number. I worry until glimpses of hope walk through my door and lift me up to say, take this, walk for me because I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you.

Julie, I'm borrowing your words: I am pro-cure. I walk for a future without breast cancer. I walk because I am able. I walk to support women and men like this who offer all they are in return for a healthy life.

Here's to a healthy 2012 training season!
Val

Pink Pic Friday -Unfinished Fundraiser Quilt

Oooooh...pixel-y.

This is just the top. I know...it looks done, but anyone who's ever made a quilt knows that there's still a lot left to do once the top is done. I wish someone had told me that before I jumped into the project!! Now, I do have to say that I made 2 tops, and one actually did become a finished quilt. But this one, well...

I'd like to finish it. But where to find the time? I was able to do one last year because I wasn't training as much. I did a decent job (as first quilts go), but I'm not so sure it was worth the trade-off with all those training miles. I'm pretty sure DC would have been an even better walk without my blisters.

So this year, no finished quilt, but I have logged well over 135 training miles. And something tells me that I'm going to be better off because of it. ...I'll let you know for sure come November when I'm done walking Tampa.

The time will come when I finish this quilt. And hopefully many more. But for right now, training for this walk and curing breast cancer are just gonna have to come first.

Until next time, Happy walking!

Be blessed-
Julie

Two Chicks, Fo(u)r and from Whince They Came . . .

Julie made mention of coming back to fill in the blanks of how our team came to be at a later date. She has done such a great job so far with pictures and design - told you J, you'd be the one to make it pretty. I thought I'd add my two cents worth or at least my side on how we bumped into each other, literally.

So, some of you may or may not have heard the story of that early Friday morning, standing in the drizzle, before the sun came up of October 4, 2008. Little did we know as thousands of people gathered in the dark, in a parking lot, drawn to lights and a stage like loggerhead turtles crawling to sea what we were about to embark upon. Did I mention it was dark? And starting to drizzle? Gear dropped off, id hanging around our necks, a bunch of random people jumping up and down to crazy music at o'dark thirty and pink everywhere! I am by myself thinking that I must be crazy and hoping that I'd meet someone who is nice but not overly chatty with whom to walk. Standing all by my lonesome staring blankly at unknown faces, I of course start listening to all the conversations around me. Two women started talking behind me, "Oh, are you here by yourself?", "Oh, wow, me too!" and introductions ensue. There went the too chatty thought. Then if that wasn't random enough, they sucked in a third, "Oh, you're by yourself!!", "We are too!!" I'm thinking, I haven't had enough coffee for this and these are the days my mom warned me about. Oh well, she also told me, throw caution to the wind, have fun and go meet some people! Sooooo, I turned around and said,"So, y'all are all by yourselves? Oh, me too." AND the kicker was, we were all first-time walkers. Well, we all introduced ourselves and in the meantime, added a fifth and the original Quint Sisters were born. We stuck together through 60 miles of cold, rain, flooded camp site, office building sleeping, injury stops, blister repair, sunshine, tears, laughter, singing, very few silent moments, a few more blister repairs, and lots of dancing along the way. Julie and I have both said, if it hadn't had been for that first experience in Atlanta with Margaret, Lyn, and Carla, I'm not sure we would have gone back to endure it again. It's true, first impressions are everything!

Atlanta made a footprint on our hearts that will live on for quite some time and we are better women for it. Margaret Moore, the oldest one of us all, walked all 60 miles that weekend. She helped us sing in Sunday morning as the sun came over the tree tops and reminded us all that we are young at heart, mind, and soul. Carla Moore, our cheerleader and turbo-boost. The one who made those hills flatter, the sun brighter, and all those raindrops smaller. She kept us dancing, laughing, and cheering even past those 60 miles. Lyn Tatum, a smile and quiet presence who kept us together physically and mentally. She floated back and forth when we would get separated and start up conversation to check in and make sure we were doing okay. So, that was our Atlanta "team" and how Julie and I met. First-timers and 60 miles down, all five of us vowed to walk again the following year. We emailed back and forth for a little while and December rolled around. As 3-Day walkers know, the end of December is usually when the "special" rate of signing up for another walk the following year goes back up. So the frantic emails go around - whose signing up, where are we going, what are we doing????? In the end, it becomes Lyn, Julie and I signed up for D.C. Lyn eventually made the decision to crew the event which left Julie and I walking. We knew we couldn't just sign up for the walk and share a tent together. We needed to join together as a team!! Little did Julie know what amazing talent I lacked in coming up with viable team names. I say viable because we almost became many sorts of pink footed, tennis walking boob teammates. After many days of deliberating, eventually Two Chicks were born wanting to save second base in a politically correct manner so as to be sold and worn on t-shirts so that others would be proud to say, "Hey, look at my shirt!" thus, Two Chicks Fo(u)r Boobs.

So, as others know me, that's my long-winded story - give or take a few sentences.
Walk on . . .
Val