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jayfurrThanks to everyone who supported my wife and me in the Philly Breast Cancer 3-Day last weekend. Actual real thank-you cards will be going out soon -- but I was home for about eight hours after the walk and then had to jump on a plane to Portland, Oregon. This weekend I'm going down to Los Angeles. Hence: the cards will go out when I get home later next week.
All told, my wife and I raised around $7,000 for breast cancer research, prevention, and education. We're extremely grateful to everyone who donated.
The event itself was sort of a bummer -- the organizers waited until late Thursday afternoon and saw the weather get worse and worse and worse, 40 degree weather, driving rain, gusty wind, and so on -- and realized that there was NO WAY they'd be able to take care of 2,500 hypothermic women and men who might not be dedicated camping-out types and who might not be able to just drop everything and go buy a complete set of heavy-duty cold-weather rain-gear, the sort you'd expect to see people wearing to go squat in a hunter's blind for ten hours on a rainy November day. And they outright cancelled the first two days of the walk. First time they've ever had to do that -- seven years and 15 events a year, and they've never had such bad weather for a walk.
So, to make the best of a bad situation, a lot of people took part in informal walks around inside the King of Prussia Mall and the Willow Grove Park Mall for two days, confusing the hell out of some shoppers, but at least getting to bond and stuff, and the "3-Day" turned into a one-day. Sunday, thank God, wasn't too bleak; it rained in the morning and then let up in the afternoon and the temperature never really got above the mid-40s, but only a few people got hypothermic.
My little team had a good time, but nonetheless, we really wished we'd gotten to do the full distance. Six months of training walks and all we wound up doing was around 16 miles. :( In the end, though, the event raised something like seven MILLION dollars for Komen's programs and research grants and that's got to help -- and when you add in the other fourteen cities it's gonna be a LOT of money. We hope it makes a big impact.
We're already planning for next year, though. My wife and I are both gonna crew the July 2010 Boston 3-Day, and we've signed up to walk the October 2010 Tampa Bay 3-Day (http://www.the3day.org/goto/quicksteppers will take you to our team page if you want to sign up to walk or want to sponsor us). I've got lots of relatives in that part of Florida and maybe we'll do some diving beforehand and turn it into a little vacation. 'Course, with my luck a late October hurricane will come through.
If ya care, you can see our photos from the Philly walk here: http://www.tinyurl.com/philly3dayphotos -- and, again, THANK YOU.
All told, my wife and I raised around $7,000 for breast cancer research, prevention, and education. We're extremely grateful to everyone who donated.
The event itself was sort of a bummer -- the organizers waited until late Thursday afternoon and saw the weather get worse and worse and worse, 40 degree weather, driving rain, gusty wind, and so on -- and realized that there was NO WAY they'd be able to take care of 2,500 hypothermic women and men who might not be dedicated camping-out types and who might not be able to just drop everything and go buy a complete set of heavy-duty cold-weather rain-gear, the sort you'd expect to see people wearing to go squat in a hunter's blind for ten hours on a rainy November day. And they outright cancelled the first two days of the walk. First time they've ever had to do that -- seven years and 15 events a year, and they've never had such bad weather for a walk.
So, to make the best of a bad situation, a lot of people took part in informal walks around inside the King of Prussia Mall and the Willow Grove Park Mall for two days, confusing the hell out of some shoppers, but at least getting to bond and stuff, and the "3-Day" turned into a one-day. Sunday, thank God, wasn't too bleak; it rained in the morning and then let up in the afternoon and the temperature never really got above the mid-40s, but only a few people got hypothermic.
My little team had a good time, but nonetheless, we really wished we'd gotten to do the full distance. Six months of training walks and all we wound up doing was around 16 miles. :( In the end, though, the event raised something like seven MILLION dollars for Komen's programs and research grants and that's got to help -- and when you add in the other fourteen cities it's gonna be a LOT of money. We hope it makes a big impact.
We're already planning for next year, though. My wife and I are both gonna crew the July 2010 Boston 3-Day, and we've signed up to walk the October 2010 Tampa Bay 3-Day (http://www.the3day.org/goto/quicksteppers will take you to our team page if you want to sign up to walk or want to sponsor us). I've got lots of relatives in that part of Florida and maybe we'll do some diving beforehand and turn it into a little vacation. 'Course, with my luck a late October hurricane will come through.
If ya care, you can see our photos from the Philly walk here: http://www.tinyurl.com/philly3dayphotos -- and, again, THANK YOU.
