3-Day For The Cure: Getting Ready For A Training Walk

It's Friday night. Tomorrow morning my wife, Carole, and I are scheduled to lead a 16.7 mile 3-Day training walk. Unlike some of our friends, who start their training walks at 7 am so they can get them out of the way and still have something left of their Saturday, we tend to start our walks at 9:30 in the morning. It gives us a chance to run a couple of errands, get some coffee on board, wake up, and so on.

But despite the 'late start', we know better than to get up in the morning and only then start pulling all our walking gear together. That's a sure way to forget something important like, oh, spare socks, sunscreen, a water bottle... or chocolate. Important stuff. So we've learned over the years to work from a checklist. The checklist waxes and wanes depending on whether rain's predicted, whether it'll be cold and depressing or hot and sunny, whether or not we'll be going near any soft-serve ice cream (known universally in Vermont as 'creemee') stands on the route and will therefore need to take along cash. Let's face it: we live in Vermont. We don't always train in the parking lot of a Target (which we don't have any of, anyway) and can't count on being able to buy things we forgot to take along. And besides, who really needs to accumulate forty bottles of sunscreen? (Um, us. But I digress. Never mind what's in that box downstairs by the garage door.)

Here's Carole's checklist for a typical long 3-Day training walk:

__ Camelbak backpack and reservoir (or other water source)
__ Spare water bottle
__ MP3 player (in case no other walkers show up and our route goes along a local walking path instead of a road; we don't use them if we're walking next to traffic)
__ Extra socks (we try to have two spare pairs in case of rain and puddles, and in order to change at the halfway point)
__ Raincoat and/or windbreaker (if cold or rain or both is possible)
__ spare toilet paper and/or tampons with bottle of hand sanitizer
__ Bandaids, antibiotic, moleskin, alcohol wipes
__ Ibuprofen
__ Bug repellent
__ Sunscreen
__ Ace bandages
__ Snacks

On self/in pockets:
__ Bandana or two
__ Gloves (in case of cold)
__ heart rate monitor/GPS doodad
__ Hat or visor
__ Sunglasses
__ Road ID wristband
__ Training walk leader badge

I carry almost the same stuff in my backpack, excepting only the tampons, and adding a fully stocked first aid kit and a camera. I'm not an EMT but our first aid kit has just about everything a reasonable person could possibly need and know how to use. We probably even have tinfoil in there in case aliens try to control our brains. (Around here, you never know.) And the camera would come in handy in case the aliens come down and dance the lambada for us.

You may find that we get a bit carried away with all the gear we take along... but I'll tell you, we've been very glad we've had all this stuff on more than one occasion. Perhaps it's just the old Boy Scout in me, but I think the advice is just as appropriate on a training walk as anywhere else:

"Be prepared."

3-Day For The Cure: Getting Ready For A Training Walk

It's Friday night. Tomorrow morning my wife, Carole, and I are scheduled to lead a 16.7 mile 3-Day training walk. Unlike some of our friends, who start their training walks at 7 am so they can get them out of the way and still have something left of their Saturday, we tend to start our walks at 9:30 in the morning. It gives us a chance to run a couple of errands, get some coffee on board, wake up, and so on.

But despite the 'late start', we know better than to get up in the morning and only then start pulling all our walking gear together. That's a sure way to forget something important like, oh, spare socks, sunscreen, a water bottle... or chocolate. Important stuff. So we've learned over the years to work from a checklist. The checklist waxes and wanes depending on whether rain's predicted, whether it'll be cold and depressing or hot and sunny, whether or not we'll be going near any soft-serve ice cream (known universally in Vermont as 'creemee') stands on the route and will therefore need to take along cash. Let's face it: we live in Vermont. We don't always train in the parking lot of a Target (which we don't have any of, anyway) and can't count on being able to buy things we forgot to take along. And besides, who really needs to accumulate forty bottles of sunscreen? (Um, us. But I digress. Never mind what's in that box downstairs by the garage door.)

Here's Carole's checklist for a typical long 3-Day training walk:

__ Camelbak backpack and reservoir (or other water source)
__ Spare water bottle
__ MP3 player (in case no other walkers show up and our route goes along a local walking path instead of a road; we don't use them if we're walking next to traffic)
__ Extra socks (we try to have two spare pairs in case of rain and puddles, and in order to change at the halfway point)
__ Raincoat and/or windbreaker (if cold or rain or both is possible)
__ spare toilet paper and/or tampons with bottle of hand sanitizer
__ Bandaids, antibiotic, moleskin, alcohol wipes
__ Ibuprofen
__ Bug repellent
__ Sunscreen
__ Ace bandages
__ Snacks

On self/in pockets:
__ Bandana or two
__ Gloves (in case of cold)
__ heart rate monitor/GPS doodad
__ Hat or visor
__ Sunglasses
__ Road ID wristband
__ Training walk leader badge

I carry almost the same stuff in my backpack, excepting only the tampons, and adding a fully stocked first aid kit and a camera. I'm not an EMT but our first aid kit has just about everything a reasonable person could possibly need and know how to use. We probably even have tinfoil in there in case aliens try to control our brains. (Around here, you never know.) And the camera would come in handy in case the aliens come down and dance the lambada for us.

You may find that we get a bit carried away with all the gear we take along... but I'll tell you, we've been very glad we've had all this stuff on more than one occasion. Perhaps it's just the old Boy Scout in me, but I think the advice is just as appropriate on a training walk as anywhere else:

"Be prepared."