Avon Walk for Breast Cancer

Carrie and I at Opening Ceremony

It was such a challenging, yet fun and inspiring weekend. Things started off really good, by lunch on the first day I was #392 out of thousands of walkers. The last half of the marathon on the first day, was so hard. There were more hills and it seemed like the miles were soooo long. Actually, I heard they were a bit longer than they were supposed to be. We were supposed to walk 26.2 miles the first day, yet peoples gps and pedometers were saying it was more like 29 miles (the second day was a little longer too).

That night after setting up our tent, taking a shower and eating some dinner, I thought I was going to die. I didn't think I was going to be able to walk the next day.

When I woke up Sunday, I didn't feel as bad as I thought. Once I started on my 13.1 mile journey I was feeling pretty good. I was amazed at how good I was doing. By lunch (5 miles from the end) I was probably in the top 300 people. When I sat down for lunch, it hit me, I started feeling really sick and light headed. I laid down for a minute and tried to get some fluids in me. Then all of a sudden I started to get really sick. They moved me to the sick tent that was right next to me and hooked me up to an iv since I could keep any fluids down. They also gave me some medicine to help me not feel so sick. The only is, it made me worse. By the time they  moved me to the finish line so the doctor could look at me, I could hardly keep my eyes open and I was getting worse. Both Kyle and I were feeling pretty scared by that point. I had no idea what was going on. They made me get transported to the hospital (yes, by ambulance). I pretty much passed out at the hospital. Really though, I had these sticky tag things all over my body and I don't even remember them putting them on me. Good thing Kyle was there to look after me. After 3 bags of fluids and a little power nap, I was feeling much better. I started getting sick at 11am and was finally released from the hospital at 7.

I'm so bummed that I was so close to the end, only 5 miles away, and I didn't make it. After walking 34 miles, I know I could have made it to the end, had I've not been sick. I know it's not really about that, but I was disappointed with myself. I just have to think that together we raised $5.5million and $125,000 was donated to our local Mendocino Cancer Resource Center. 

All in all, it was an amazing, fun and inspiring journey. I learned a good lesson for next year...drink more water!

Oh yes, that's right, I signed up again!

 The two images above were in the beginning of the walk, the first one was behind me and the other one was in front of me. There were a ton of people!
(click on the photos to enlarge)

A BIG thank you to Carrie, Kyle, the hospital, all the Avon Staff and of course everyone that supported me though this amazing journey!