Wednesday, May 7, 2008

My Avon Walk for Breast Cancer

About two mouths ago, I told you all I wanted to do the Avon Walk and I asked you to help me raise $1,800 to go to the Breast Cancer foundation...we did it!! You guys are awesome! Thanks you so much for your support and donations.
The walk was such a cool experience, there was great energy there with 3,500 walkers all walking for the same purpose. I didn't know any other walkers to start with, witch was really cool because I was able to talk to lots of different people and get some amazing stories.
By about mile 4 one of those people that I meet turned out to be Heather, and we totally hit it off! We talked pretty much talked the entire time about everything, and by about mile 13Th I realized that I had made a great friend. She turned out to be an unexpected bonus to the experience.
We didn't really feel the miles until after mile 20, and we started to really feel it about mile 24! But we had awesome support the entire way, people were cheering us on, and dressed up in crazy pink outfits for our viewing pleasure. When we were going through neighborhoods people sat outside there house and passed out water, juice, and food, but the ones that really made us misty were the little girls who set up lemonade stands for us, and the dad who sat outside with his two daughters while they picked wild flowers and gave them out to us telling us thank you.
By the time we made it into the wellness village (the camp grounds at the end of day 1) we were done! Heather's shins were killing her, I didn't really feel it until I sat down and then I started to hurt everywhere! We were some limping fools! Heather had to get her shins checked out by the medic and go back to her hotel, and I showered eat, and sat in the message chair with the foot vibrator for a bit. I hung out for a bit, but I needed a good stretch and bed, but before I did I had to stop and write something for Cindy Clark (my friend Alia's sister) on the support poll, she has recently been diagnosed with stage two breast cancer so her and her family can use all the thoughts and prayers you guys can spare.
The next day I was feeling great again, I thought I was going to be in bad shape, but I felt great...Crazy! I packed up, took down my tent, grabbed some breakfast and started walking again. The miles went by really fast, before I knew it we were almost there! We crossed the finish line at 11:45 cheering and yelling almost as much and they were cheering and yelling for us! Ish, Aidan and Ava where waiting for me which was really cool! On the downside, we made such great time that day that we had over 3 hours until the closing ceremony was starting, and you all know how that is with two young kids! So we took off early, oh well!
The support from you all touched me, then getting to the walk and seeing 3,500 other people who also had amazing friends and family that supported them as well, and all of the hundreds of supporters all along the way that sat out there all day to offer cheer and nutrition made this a really great birthday! Thank you all for your support!!

5 comments:

Abbey said...

Nana-
I am so happy that you got to do this! I am looking into doing it as soon as we get back stateside. Talk about invigorating, doing something with a purpose! How awesome! I'm glad you made your goal, and I could kinda be a part of it with you!
You Rock!

"Nana" said...

Thanks Abbey, you were definitely part of this with me! I couldn't have done it with out the support! Thank you!

spice2116 said...

good job briana!!! glad you were able to be a part of this wonderful event

SugarBells said...

Great job, Nana! I can understand why you were doing alot of training and preparation for that HUGE walk! You are AWEsome! and it sounds like you had a phenomenal time doing this!! You have so much heart and we all love you for it!!

*Massive Hugs! Tons of Love!*

Lis xx

"Nana" said...

I wish I had trained more then I did...my feet needed some TLC for a bit after all that! Thanks for the support!