The Walk - The Long Version (the short version is the next post)

SATURDAY MORNING

Joel and I woke up at 3:45 on Saturday morning. Since Joel was a member of the crew, he had to be at his truck at 4:30. So we arrived at Washington Park in the dark. I was waiting with Joel for the rest of his team when JM appeared out of the darkness, smiling and happy as if she had been up for hours. I was so happy and relived to see her. I knew we would mentally and physically need all of the help we could get over the next two days.



I said goodbye to Joel and walked with JM to the volunteer sign-up tent in the event area of the park. JM was assigned to breakfast set-up, which took all of 5 minutes once she was signed up and ready to go.

JM and I ate breakfast together and Sean and Susan came for breakfast once the sun was up. It was good to see them. After thinking about the walk for months, it felt like everything was falling into place.

We all went to the opening ceremony together. Jackie came to the ceremony. Saturday would have been her sister's birthday and her sister's name was on my walking shirt. It was so great to be with her for the ceremony. It meant so much to have her with us all weekend.

JM, Sean, Susan, and Me.

THE WALK STARTS

The walk started with the end of the opening ceremony. The walk began with a team of motorcycles ahead of us. At first I thought the motorcycles were just part of the noise and excitement of the opening ceremonies – big burly guys wearing pink and carrying stuffed animals and petite women, also in pink, on giant bikes lead the way. These are people we saw over and over throughout the weekend. The motorcycle team directed traffic at nearly every single intersection we crossed. They stopped traffic, directed walkers, played loud music, and cheered us on at every crossroad. They were all so generous. I later found out that a number of them had traveled from California to do this event.

We walked in a fairly tight pack, over 700 of us, until lunch. So it was slow going the first several hours. We walked through some of Denver’s beautiful old neighborhoods in the morning.

Joel at the rest stop

Joel was at quick stop A (which was the second stop). When we got to the stop he looked happy, serving Gatorade, dressed like a pirate (each stop had a theme).

JM and Butch waiting for us at the first cheering station!

Susan and Sean

In the afternoon we walked by some really giant homes. Some of the areas we walked through looked like old farm areas. A quiet and peaceful walk. JM was also following us along the way with Butch. It was like a glass of cold fresh water every time we saw her. I knew we had made another milestone every time I saw them in the distance.

By about 3pm we were all getting really tired. Our conversation nearly came to a stop. Sean was having trouble with one of his feet. It was hot. And near the end of the 26 miles we found ourselves in a fairly new neighborhood in Littleton, with uninteresting homes. It was also at this point that Susan explained that we were going to be spending the night in a park adjacent to Columbine High School. There is even a space at the park that has been set aside for a memorial, because it was the park where all of the people evacuated to during the shootings. This information really dug into my mind, and the oppressive sun began to have a really foreboding feeling.

Sean having his foot bandaged.

MARATHON COMPLETE

Near 5pm we reached the park. Just before we came into the park we passed a woman with hundreds of names on the back of her shirt, her husband had his arm intertwined with her’s. He was physically supporting her the last steps into the park. People were cheering up ahead, we knew we were close!

JM and Jackie were there to welcome us into the park/Wellness Village. Susan and Sean left to find their kids and her parents. We sat down to wait for Joel to come in from the work he was doing at quick stop F.

While we were waiting, I was given a 3-minute ribbon. They are “connection ribbons” that are handed out every 3 minutes at the walk. Each ribbon represents a person who has been diagnosed with breast cancer (a person is diagnosed with invasive breast cancer every 3 minutes). Over 600 were handed out over the weekend.

TENTING IN A PARK

After sitting for a while, I decided to find our tent. JM left and Jackie went to find the tent with me. Boy Scouts were setting up all of the tents – there were hundreds. The tent in our spot was missing so we went to get one from the group setting them up. As we were waiting for the tent, we noticed a really dark storm moving in. Jackie told me to go wait in line for a shower and she would take care of the tent.

I was waiting in line for the showers and there was a lot of discussion about the storm that seemed to be coming our way. There was talk that the showers might have to close because the lightning was hitting so close. At this point – a point of total exhaustion, I just felt like crying. I was so tired and I really wanted a shower! The feeling of exhaustion would soon be burried.

I decided to leave the line of about 30 people because it really seemed like the showers were going to close. When I got to the tent, Jackie had set up everything. The therma rests were out, sleeping bags set up. All so cozy. The wind was picking up, and I suggested that we should get back in the tent so the tent wouldn’t blow away in the wind. So we got in.



Moments later the wind really picked up and the hail began. Not normal wind, not normal hail. Jackie and I were leaning against the edges of the tent, trying to keep it upright, and rain was soaking through the fabric. And every once in a while a giant wind would come up, totally flattening the tent to the ground. Jackie and I just laughed and laughed, it was so frightening and unbelievable there wasn’t anything else to do except laugh. We could hear people screaming outside and we could hear things blowing by us in the wind. The hail was beating down on our hands and heads on the tent, I was sure we were being bruised by the pelting hail. For several moments we thought we were both going to totally be picked up by the wind and carried away. The wind was stunning.



Once it stopped and we opened the door, the tent city destruction was everywhere. Tents were blown all over the landscape; piles of hail were sitting on top of luggage left outside.

The Walk people were amazing. The situation was total chaos. Everything was wet, tents were ruined, torn, broken. Walk workers were rushing around to every tent looking for people and verifying that everyone was ok. Bus service back to Washington Park was arranged for those who wanted to go home or go to a hotel. A lot of our things were wet, but I just felt this was one huge adventure. I was open to anything and everything this weekend – I had nearly no expectations (except that I would finish the walk) and I thought we should stay and just go with the events as they were given to us.

During this time, Joel was dispatched to Invesco Field to pick up boxes of emergency blankets. Before the emergency blankets arrived, the Walk workers had already begun handing out silver thermal blankets to everyone. Everyone was wet and the weather was cold. As blankets were distributed, the Walk workers were continuing to make sure everyone was ok, and were saying “we are still having fun, everything is ok.” The situation was really stressful, yet just hearing someone say we were having fun changed the mood of everything. And they were cheerfully comforting everyone, knowing their sleeping bags were totally soaked and their tents were 100 feet down the field. I have a great deal of respect for the way the workers handled the situation.

Susan and Sean’s tent was tumbled and all of their things got wet, so they went home. Sean was also having continuing problem with his foot, so they planned to not walk on Sunday morning, but come to the closing ceremonies on Sunday afternoon. (After the walk Sean went to the doctor. The doctor said his foot had a "marching stress fracture" caused by walking long distances on a hard surface. Sean walked around 10 miles with the fracture on Saturday). I was going to walk alone, which was ok. I have trained alone, and I wanted to know what it would be like to do the walk alone – because when I originally signed up to do the walk, I was ready to walk without knowing anyone.

A picture I took at dinner after the storm had passed and most of the people had gone home.

I went to the dining tent around 8pm and ate dinner. I got really cold while I was eating and went back to the tent to wait for Joel under the damp sleeping bag.

Joel returned around 9pm and we tried to sleep. Everything was damp, but we were ok. The wind kicked up in the night and there were lots of strange noises against our tent. We both had a short night sleep – getting up at 5am Sunday morning.

SUNDAY MORNING

When we opened the tent door on Sunday morning, we found that tents had continued to roll across the field and had smashed into our tent during the night. A lot of people left after the hail, and there were a lot of empty tents that were picked up by the wind in the night.

Joel was really sick on Sunday morning, but after a bit felt better and headed to set up quick stop A (the second stop – the stops are numbered then lettered 1 – A – 2 – B – ect).

I packed up our gear and took it to the truck for transport. I packed up our tent, and went to breakfast. Everyone had storm stories from the night. I think most people rode out the storm in one of the large tents – not their little tent in the middle of a giant open field. I also found that a lot of people had left for the night and may or may not be finishing the walk. Near the end of the walk I found out that 750 people had actually started the walk on Saturday and around 550 returned on Sunday. I think maybe 100 people or so stayed at the camp over night.

The route opened at 7:30 and I was one of the first people to leave. We walked in a group for the first 2 miles and then things stretched out pretty far. I met Joel at quick stop A, I was feeling great. No real soreness from the 26 miles on Saturday and an unusual amount of energy. I found JM at one of the first cheering stations soon after A. Now that I was walking alone seeing JM was the one thing I was really looking forward to. She became my total mental support system as the day became a bit more difficult.

I should take a moment to explain about the rest stops. At the numbered stops there was lots of snack food, Gatorade, water, and 6-10 port-a-potties. The numbered stops also had a medic area where people can have their feet bandaged, or have someone help them with a health concern they might have developed. About every 2 miles there was either a numbered or alphabetical stop. These were really oasis in the walk – drink and great people cheering us on.

A full rest stop near the begining of the walk.

There were also people on bicycles all along the route on both days, making sure everyone was ok and had water. One guy biked 97 miles on Saturday, riding the route back and forth. The bikers were really stars, cheering us on, talking to us, negotiating foot and car traffic – always happy. Superheroes along the way!

Bike riders and motorcycle riders being honored at the end of the walk.

With the bike riders, the motorcycle traffic directors, the cheering stations, and the rest stops – we rarely ever felt alone (except for the walk between the last rest station and the Wellness Village).

I think I arrived at the lunch stop around 10:30am. I was really tired. I had been walking at a pretty fast pace to the lunch. At the lunch stop I was one of the first 80 people to arrive. I decided to take a long lunch break and I ate a lot hoping it would give me more energy.

When I finished eating I went over to a sidewalk to stretch. I looked up and there was Joel – talking on a phone under a tree! He was still feeling sick and his rest stop crew had sent him to the medical area. After sleeping for a while he was still not feeling well enough to work, so he was trying to figure out how to get back to Washington Park when I found him.

He called JM who was waiting at a cheering station. She came and picked him up and I continued walking.

After lunch the field of walkers was really spread thin. A lot of people were walking by themselves. We would catch up with each other at road crossings, but other than that there wasn’t a lot of talk.

I felt a lot better after lunch, but my pace slowed. I saw Joel and JM at two cheering stations.

On both days, there were a lot of people cheering. There were people who were driving to cheering stations (appointed places for family and friends to cheer). We were almost always walking through neighborhoods, and there were families, little kids, big dogs – all cheering us on. Even days later I can still hear,” GO WALKERS” echoing in my ears even today It was really touching. And people just walking on the paths and sidewalks in their neighborhoods would thank us for walking or would say “congratulations” as we got into the Washington Park neighborhood.

The last miles were through beautiful tree lined streets. As I was coming into the area right next to the park I could hear lots of cheering and yelling for walkers who were entering the park. As the cheering got louder I came to a woman who had a sign on her back that said “I am walking for My Grandma Edna.” I told her I was walking for my grandmother named Edna too. We talked for a while. She seemed really tired and concerned that we were going to have to walk a long distance around the park before finishing. I assured her we were very very close. Moments later we arrived at the cheerers. Volunteers and family and friends were all waiting at the place we started the walk the day before. We finished right about 12:30pm.

Here I am right at the finish!

We walked between two lines of people cheering for all of us, and at the end there was a tent with t-shirts for all of the walkers to wear at the closing ceremony.



JM, Joel, and Butch had staked out a great spot on the lawn under a tree where we sat for the next several hours, talking about our walk experiences and watching all of the walkers come through the finishing point.



CLOSING CEREMONY

Susan, Sean, and the kids and Jackie arrived for the closing ceremony, which was very touching. Breast cancer survivors wore light pink shirts and lead the group in to the ceremony area. All the other walkers and crew followed them into the grounds. A portion of the donations we raised were awarded. It was really thrilling to hear exactly how the money we made will be spent on early detection, research, (and my favorite) to a group called Angel Care – a group in Denver that provides food to families facing breast cancer (very similar to ANGELS in Georgia – that provided food to people with AIDS).

There were stories of survival and stories about why teams and families had walked – to honor someone they know who has survived. After the honors, the giant projection screen was filled with pictures of the faces of people we were walking in memory of. The faces started out big on the screen and as the image backed away there were thousands of tiny faces on the screen (we had the opportunity to send in pictures of people we were walking in memory of). It was heartbreaking and gave a powerful image to the “why” of our weekend and why raising funds and pushing research and finding a cure is so so important.

Closing Ceremonies

The ceremony ended and we all returned to our cars, a bit tired but filled with hope.