One Week To Go
Aug. 12th, 2010 10:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayfurrToday is Thursday, August 12. A week from today I fly to Minneapolis/St Paul to take part in the Twin Cities Susan G. Komen 3-Day For The Cure. As anyone who's come within a light year of my LiveJournal in the last three years knows, the 3-Day is a 60-mile walk spread out over three days. There are 15 such walks each year, spread out in cities across the USA. Most events have around 2,000 walkers, with the Cleveland walk having only 900 participants and the San Diego walk having over 5,000.
This year I've already been involved in one 3-Day: I worked as crew (unpaid volunteer staff) at the Boston 3-Day in late July. And I'm scheduled to take part in three upcoming events as a walker: the Twin Cities 3-Day next week, then the Washington, DC 3-Day in early October, and finally the Tampa Bay 3-Day in late October. I originally planned to walk only the Tampa Bay walk, then added the Washington walk when my fundraising went fairly well and it started to look like I'd have enough funds raised (at $2,300 required per city) to do two... and then I got carried away and announced that I'd also walk in Minnesota. I think a large part of the reason for adding Minnesota was that I didn't want to have to wait until October while all my online acquaintances were off having fun doing their walks. Moreover, I didn't have any particular connection to Minnesota in the same sense that I do to the DC and Tampa Bay walks -- I added the Twin Cities walk solely because it would fit well into my work travel schedule. That changed a bit with the customer training engagement that was supposed to happen immediately BEFORE the Twin Cities 3-Day getting rescheduled to September, so now I'm simply flying from Burlington to Chicago to Minneapolis for the 3-Day and then afterwards going on to a customer training engagement in southern Illinois. It makes it a bit easier for me to pack for the event -- I don't have to worry about taking along all my 3-Day gear in an immense duffel AND enough nice dress clothes for TWO training engagements.
I'm very much looking forward to the walk and I think I'm in good shape for it. I've been doing a lot of solo training walks and have done a few with Carole as well. We did a 19-mile walk on Saturday and I felt absolutely fine the next day, but Carole was stiff-legged and somewhat blistered. I guess she's not as ready as I am. Last night I did an 11-mile walk after work in just over three hours, and if the weather is good I'm going to do something similar tonight. I need to stay loosened up for the walk next week, although the recommendation is that I not try to do any twenty-milers this weekend. Don't want to wear myself out in advance, you know?
I've been to Minneapolis/St Paul enough that I know my way around. I was actually there, staying in the Residence Inn in downtown Minneapolis, the day before the I-35W bridge collapsed a few years ago. I'd driven across it less than 24 hours before it went down... IT COULDA BEEN ME!!!1!! Or not.
I don't know the full details of the route at this point -- they only publish the start and finish locations and the locations of public cheering stations in advance in order to keep the route safe and secure. We're starting at a shopping center in scenic Edina, Minnesota and finishing two days later at the state capitol in St. Paul. If you'd like to see a map of the cheering stations, click here. You'll note that the Day 1 cheering stations are all far to the west of the Day 2 and Day 3 cheering stations. I checked the event information page on the 3-Day website and they explained that we'd be walking 20 miles the first day and then, when we arrive at Pit Stop 5, boarding buses to be taken to camp. The rest of the event will then take place in a fairly compact area more on the St Paul side of the area. I have some reservations about being bused into camp on the first day: it's really cool when you're tired and footsore seeing the big inflatable cubes that mark the finish line looming up in the distance and knowing that you have only a few hundred more feet to go. With a bus trip awaiting you, arrival at camp will seem sort of anti-climatic. Furthermore, there's always a big hullabaloo at the end of each day as the Last Walker on the route arrives in camp. I have no idea how they'll designate the last walker on Day 1: will it be the last person into Pit Stop 5 or simply the last person off the last bus? If you arrive into Pit Stop 5 before 30 or so other walkers and go to the back of the last bus... and are thereby the last off... do YOU become the last walker? It really makes no difference, but it's one of those odd things I tend to wonder about.
I don't think there's any chance of me being the last walker, not walking as fast as I tend to. In fact, on Day 1 I sorta plan to try to go along the route at the head of the pack if at all possible so I can get to camp early, get my tent set up (I'll be assigned a random male tentmate, but I don't know his name yet), and then happily spend the afternoon helping fellow walkers carry their gear bags from the gear trucks to their tent locations, helping them set up tents, and all that stuff that I enjoy so much.
So anyway: I'm really, really looking forward to getting my first 3-Day of the year in. If you read this and you're in the Minnesota area, I hope to see you at the cheering stations -- or better yet, out on the route as a walker or crew member!
This year I've already been involved in one 3-Day: I worked as crew (unpaid volunteer staff) at the Boston 3-Day in late July. And I'm scheduled to take part in three upcoming events as a walker: the Twin Cities 3-Day next week, then the Washington, DC 3-Day in early October, and finally the Tampa Bay 3-Day in late October. I originally planned to walk only the Tampa Bay walk, then added the Washington walk when my fundraising went fairly well and it started to look like I'd have enough funds raised (at $2,300 required per city) to do two... and then I got carried away and announced that I'd also walk in Minnesota. I think a large part of the reason for adding Minnesota was that I didn't want to have to wait until October while all my online acquaintances were off having fun doing their walks. Moreover, I didn't have any particular connection to Minnesota in the same sense that I do to the DC and Tampa Bay walks -- I added the Twin Cities walk solely because it would fit well into my work travel schedule. That changed a bit with the customer training engagement that was supposed to happen immediately BEFORE the Twin Cities 3-Day getting rescheduled to September, so now I'm simply flying from Burlington to Chicago to Minneapolis for the 3-Day and then afterwards going on to a customer training engagement in southern Illinois. It makes it a bit easier for me to pack for the event -- I don't have to worry about taking along all my 3-Day gear in an immense duffel AND enough nice dress clothes for TWO training engagements.
I'm very much looking forward to the walk and I think I'm in good shape for it. I've been doing a lot of solo training walks and have done a few with Carole as well. We did a 19-mile walk on Saturday and I felt absolutely fine the next day, but Carole was stiff-legged and somewhat blistered. I guess she's not as ready as I am. Last night I did an 11-mile walk after work in just over three hours, and if the weather is good I'm going to do something similar tonight. I need to stay loosened up for the walk next week, although the recommendation is that I not try to do any twenty-milers this weekend. Don't want to wear myself out in advance, you know?
I've been to Minneapolis/St Paul enough that I know my way around. I was actually there, staying in the Residence Inn in downtown Minneapolis, the day before the I-35W bridge collapsed a few years ago. I'd driven across it less than 24 hours before it went down... IT COULDA BEEN ME!!!1!! Or not.
I don't know the full details of the route at this point -- they only publish the start and finish locations and the locations of public cheering stations in advance in order to keep the route safe and secure. We're starting at a shopping center in scenic Edina, Minnesota and finishing two days later at the state capitol in St. Paul. If you'd like to see a map of the cheering stations, click here. You'll note that the Day 1 cheering stations are all far to the west of the Day 2 and Day 3 cheering stations. I checked the event information page on the 3-Day website and they explained that we'd be walking 20 miles the first day and then, when we arrive at Pit Stop 5, boarding buses to be taken to camp. The rest of the event will then take place in a fairly compact area more on the St Paul side of the area. I have some reservations about being bused into camp on the first day: it's really cool when you're tired and footsore seeing the big inflatable cubes that mark the finish line looming up in the distance and knowing that you have only a few hundred more feet to go. With a bus trip awaiting you, arrival at camp will seem sort of anti-climatic. Furthermore, there's always a big hullabaloo at the end of each day as the Last Walker on the route arrives in camp. I have no idea how they'll designate the last walker on Day 1: will it be the last person into Pit Stop 5 or simply the last person off the last bus? If you arrive into Pit Stop 5 before 30 or so other walkers and go to the back of the last bus... and are thereby the last off... do YOU become the last walker? It really makes no difference, but it's one of those odd things I tend to wonder about.
I don't think there's any chance of me being the last walker, not walking as fast as I tend to. In fact, on Day 1 I sorta plan to try to go along the route at the head of the pack if at all possible so I can get to camp early, get my tent set up (I'll be assigned a random male tentmate, but I don't know his name yet), and then happily spend the afternoon helping fellow walkers carry their gear bags from the gear trucks to their tent locations, helping them set up tents, and all that stuff that I enjoy so much.
So anyway: I'm really, really looking forward to getting my first 3-Day of the year in. If you read this and you're in the Minnesota area, I hope to see you at the cheering stations -- or better yet, out on the route as a walker or crew member!
