Too Many Rules?
Sep. 22nd, 2010 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayfurrEarly this morning I was doing a Google search, looking for discussions online about the Denver 3-Day that was held this year. It had a relatively small number of participants -- 520 walkers. By comparison, the Twin Cities walk held the previous weekend had 2,400 walkers. The Denver walk in 2008 was similarly rather small -- 700 walkers, when none of the other 14 cities had under a thousand. I have some worries about whether the organizers of the 3-Day will continue to hold a Denver 3-Day with such (comparatively speaking) sparse turnout. It's been known to happen -- there was a Kansas City 3-Day a few years ago that was held once and then not held again the following year because so few walkers signed up. Some people say that there won't be a Denver 3-Day in 2012 if 2011 is again lightly attended, but who knows what the future will bring?
But that's by the by. The reason I comment is because of what I found when I was Googling. I came across a discussion forum for someone's blog in which one person noted what a menace cell phones are. Then someone replied saying "A friend who is doing the 3-day walk for breast cancer research Komen foundation just told me the walkers are forbidden from listening to music or radio or talking on cell phone while walking. Penalty: picked up on the course and no more walking. Are the donations refunded? No."
FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE.
And the poster continued: "She sd. it was for safety reasons. One thing I learned--could never do that walk. Too many rules."
Sigh. Big weighty massive "ARGH" and then another sigh.
First: you are requested NOT to listen to your MP3 player or radio or talk on your cell phone while walking a 3-Day. Yes, it IS about safety. But no, you are NOT kicked out of the event. You are politely reminded that walking while listening to an MP3 player in a crowd of people, crossing streets that can at times be busy with drivers, is NOT SAFE. But the 3-Day does not have patrol vans out looking for walkers who are breaking the rules, filled with security staff just hungering to ruin someone's weekend by kicking them off the route.
You know who is in charge of that rule?
Me, that's who. Not metaphorically. Me, specifically. Me and a small number of other walkers who got trained as official Komen 3-Day training walk leaders. In return for agreeing to follow policies and lead scheduled training walks in our communities, we're given little orange tags to wear around our necks along with our credentials, little orange tags that read "SAFETY MONITOR: STAY ALERT, STAY ALIVE." If we see someone walking along on the route chattering away on their cell phone, or walking along with earbuds in both ears, listening to their tunes and ignoring walkers and traffic and basic safety, we're supposed to politely ask them to step off the route until their phone call is finished and to leave texting and MP3 players and stuff for when they're not walking.
Most people understand the reason for the rule. Those people who really have to have music while they're walking a 3-Day generally invest a few bucks in external speakers for their MP3 players, speakers they can hang on their belts or on their packs. A little music can be nice -- but if you must have it, listen via speakers. Not earbuds. It is about safety.
I would have replied to that message thread but it appeared to be closed to new comments. And I doubt it would have done much good; some people are more interested in appearing knowledgeable by spreading half-truths and untruths than they are in actually knowing what the heck they're talking about.
Instead, I sat back and tried to think "What other rules are there on a 3-Day? What rules, especially, would someone complain about?" I checked the walker handbook (available for download to any registered participant from their Participant Center on http://www.the3day.org) and the fact is, the word "rule" only appears once in the entire handbook: "The golden rule of fundraising is: You raise money when you ask for it. You don’t when you don’t." That's it.
Yet from time to time I keep hearing people say "The 3-Day? No, I don't want to do that. TOO MANY RULES."
What rules? I always want to ask.
Yes, starting on page 49 there are some safety policies. But there is only one that explicitly states that violating it will lead to expulsion:
"All walkers must stay on the official Komen 3-Day for the Cure route. Unsafe behavior is cause for immediate expulsion from the 3-Day for the Cure. If you are expelled, you will be responsible for your own transportation home." You might point to that and say "See? See? They can kick me out for wearing an MP3 player." But a few lines above that policy, you find: "Komen 3-Day for the Cure walkers are not permitted to wear headphones or use radios, walkie-talkies, cellular phones or texting devices while walking. It is extremely unsafe. We know that a lot of you may like to listen to music to pass the time, but we recommend chatting with your neighbor as you walk instead." That's it. Nothing about goon squads out on the route looking for violators of the rule. And trust me, if I see you talking on a cell phone the worst that's going to happen is I'm going to watch to see if you're getting in the way of other walkers or stepping out in traffic while on the phone, and if you do, I'm going to politely ask you to finish the call before continuing on the route.
So what are all these other rules that people are worried about? If we take a very liberal definition of the word "rule", I guess you can say we have some rules.
There's the rule that all walkers must be in good health. Yes, if you start weaving and fainting and passing out on a 3-Day, you will be prevented from walking any more. If the staff and crew let an obviously ill walker continue on the route, they'd open themselves to all kinds of lawsuits. But they don't make the walkers leave in shame and go home. They can ride to lunch and ride to closing or to camp and continue to cheer their fellow walkers on. There will be other 3-Day events, after all -- it's not the absolute end of the world. I've known people who got stress fractures while walking a 3-Day -- and promptly started walker-stalking or showing up at cheering stations to cheer on their fellow walkers ... and had a great time doing so. Again, this "rule" is a rule with a human side.
There's the rule that walkers must stay on the route and ahead of the caboose rider. The "caboose rider" is a 3-Day staff member, riding a mountain bike with an orange flag on the back, verrrrrrrrrry slowly at the extreme rear of the pack. If the caboose rider catches up to someone who is walking so slowly that they've dropped far, far behind the other walkers, and simply cannot continue, or is walking so slowly that they'll be arriving at pit stops after they've closed, a sweep van will be summoned to take that walker on to the next pit stop, or to lunch, or to camp, or whatever. Again, it's a safety thing. It has nothing to do with the 3-Day being a race. The support infrastructure of a 3-Day is not something you can keep open all day. Sites that agree to host pit stops agree to the pit being there for a certain amount of time. Then too, there's a lot of work involved in operating a pit. You get there to set up hours before the pit is scheduled to open in order to set everything up, mix all the Gatorade, erect all the tents and things, hang decorations, and so forth. You run the pit for four hours or so. Then you break it all down again. It's a long, long day. Much as we'd like to be able to be there from dawn until dark, we simply can't ask the crew to work 12-hour days three days running... nor would the local towns and cities that we walk through be interested in having the route stay open all day long, tying up traffic.
So, yes, you must maintain a certain minimum pace to take part in a 3-Day -- but again, it's a rule with a human face. You are not kicked off the route in shame if you can't. You get taken on to the next pit. Frankly, I wonder how many times the official 'last walker of the day' actually walked all 20 miles. It seems quite possible that they walked two miles, got swept to a pit. Walked two miles, got swept to a pit. Etcetera... until the final pit, when they walked the rest of the way to camp and got the huge public welcome that awaits the last walker. And you know what? No one cares at all how many miles that last walker rode in a sweep van. All we care about is that they stayed out there, gamely doing their best, whatever their best might be.
There's the rule that there's no running on the 3-Day route. Some people sign up for the 3-Day after years of taking part in charity runs, or after years of running for enjoyment as a form of physical fitness. They show up for the 3-Day, thinking that it's a "race", and take off at a dead run the moment the route opens... only to have a staff member go "ah ah ah" at them. Speaking as someone who enjoys power-walking, and who finished the three days of the 2010 Twin Cities 3-Day in 11th place each day (averaged), I know where you're coming from. But the 3-Day is not a race, and the pit stops won't be open when you get to them if you try to show off your mad marathon skillz by running six minute miles. You'll get there and there'll be a bunch of bemused crew members just getting out of their crew van to set things up, and they won't have anything ready for you, and they won't let you leave the pit to continue on the route. So, yeah, if you really must run a 3-Day I hope you enjoy hours-long periods sitting watching teal-shirted crew members setting up pit stops, because that's what your event will mostly be.
But you know the only rule that actually specifically states that you'll be kicked off the event and sent home? Blatantly unsafe behavior. Use your imagination. If you decided to visit a bar on the afternoon of Day 2 and then spent the afternoon darting in and out of traffic going "WOO WOO WOO," I imagine you'd find yourself face to face with local law enforcement first... but yes, the 3-Day staff would take your credential away from you and see to it that your belongings were packed up for you and waiting for you at camp. Let's just not go there, okay? That's not a harsh rule, that's just sanity.
No, when you really get down to it, I think I know what people who say "The 3-Day has too many rules" are really generally thinking of.
Money.
Some people think the 3-Day is a mercenary grab-for-cash, nothing more, nothing less. And of course, they couldn't be more wrong. A quick glance at the form 990 for Susan G Komen For The Cure, available at http://www.guidestar.org, shows that the Komen organization has an extremely laudable track record where charitable giving is concerned. Or if the 990 is too technical for you non-accountants, simply consult the simple Komen charitable giving report card, available here.
The most common complaint I hear from non-walkers about the 3-Day is that participants have to raise too much money. And yes, I know that some people sign up for a 3-Day and then are unable to walk because they're simply unable to raise enough money to take part in the walk. I feel extreme sympathy for them -- it would drive me nuts to train my legs off getting ready, only to find myself staring at a fundraising deficit of $1000 with two weeks to go before the walk. The Komen folks do permit participants to do what's called a "delayed self-donation", essentially allowing them to walk in the event and receive one more month post-walk to raise any funds short of $2,300 that they're missing... with the stipulation that the walkers' own credit cards will be charged for any shortage.
Some people really really hate that. They hate that there's a minimum fundraising amount. They say "Similar events don't have a fundraising minimum. The Race for the Cure doesn't. The ACS Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk doesn't have one. It's WRONG WRONG WRONG for there to be a minimum."
I respectfully disagree. The fundraising minimum is there for a reason -- a two-part reason. It's calculated to bring in the most money for the fight against breast cancer while keeping the event to a manageable size. If the San Diego walk, for example, which can have around 6,000 walkers on route, had no fundraising minimum, the number of participants could easily top 20,000 -- and yet, most of those participants would have brought in less than $100. You'd have taken an event of manageable size that brings in a lot of money and turned it into an absolutely unmanageable event that didn't bring in appreciably more money if you said "never mind the minimum, EVERYONE'S WELCOME."
Take a look at the fundraising pages for the OTHER events I referenced above. Many of the walkers on the "top teams" have zero donations ... but they walk anyway, walking next to their co-workers who brought in $300 with a bake sale or canning event at their local Wal-Mart. While we appreciate the money the people who DO put in some effort raise, what about the people who pay a registration fee, collect a t-shirt, walk the event, but do absolutely nothing else? At that point, you really have to question what good their participation is really doing. You can say that they're raising public awareness by taking part, but let's face it -- a 5K walk or run through a local park isn't going to have a huge awareness impact. Sure, the walk may be important for those we're trying to honor, those we've lost and those who are still fighting the disease, but it's a far greater accomplishment to do something that holds out the hope that one day there won't be a need for any more memorials and tributes.
So, yes, there's a fundraising minimum. And exactly what that minimum should be is up to the organizers and the professionals at Susan G. Komen For The Cure. It's not for me to say, much as it pains me to spend a summer cheering on a friend or an acquaintance as they train and train and train for the walk only to fall far, far short in the area of fundraising. A friend of mine here in Vermont held a big, widely publicized fundraiser at a local ice rink this summer... and the only people who showed up were some immediate friends and family and my wife and me. I think all in all there were fewer than 10 people present. I just felt ill when I saw how hard she'd worked and for so little return. Fortunately, by sheer desperation and calling and writing everyone she knew, she was able to scrape over the $2,300 line and by all accounts had a marvelous time walking the Boston walk this year. But if she hadn't been able to raise enough -- yes, she'd have been thanked for her hard work fundraising and she wouldn't have gotten to walk. I'm sorry, but those are the rules.
"What???" you say. "If she doesn't raise enough to walk the donors don't get their money back?"
Right. The donations are for the fight against breast cancer. They are not pay for the walkers. The donation page states this: "All donations are non-refundable and non-transferable. Net proceeds from the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure are invested in breast cancer research and community programs." And in many cases those donations are already being allocated and spent on research grants and prevention and treatment and so forth before the walks have even been held. The $50 you donated to a friend in March of 2010 may have been spent on anti-cancer efforts in July of 2010 even though your friend isn't walking until October of 2010. The money can't simply be "given back".
So yeah, there's a rule that no one really much likes, but there's no way around. If you want to walk in a 3-Day, you've got to raise the $2,300. But if you can't, there are other ways to play a part. We always need crew and we always need volunteers. No one who cares is forced to stand on the sidelines... and frankly, we need people on the sidelines as well, as anyone who's ever been flagging a bit while out on the route on a 3-Day only to get a big burst of energy from a cheering station packed for blocks and blocks with enthusiastic supporters.
Let me sum if all up this way: no, there aren't "too many rules". The Komen 3-Day organization wants people to be happy, to be healthy, and to be free of cancer. That's what it's all about. Remember: the only explicitly stated, printed-in-the-handbook rule that matters is "Be safe." Stick to that, and you'll do just fine on the 3-Day. :)
But that's by the by. The reason I comment is because of what I found when I was Googling. I came across a discussion forum for someone's blog in which one person noted what a menace cell phones are. Then someone replied saying "A friend who is doing the 3-day walk for breast cancer research Komen foundation just told me the walkers are forbidden from listening to music or radio or talking on cell phone while walking. Penalty: picked up on the course and no more walking. Are the donations refunded? No."
FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE.
And the poster continued: "She sd. it was for safety reasons. One thing I learned--could never do that walk. Too many rules."
Sigh. Big weighty massive "ARGH" and then another sigh.
First: you are requested NOT to listen to your MP3 player or radio or talk on your cell phone while walking a 3-Day. Yes, it IS about safety. But no, you are NOT kicked out of the event. You are politely reminded that walking while listening to an MP3 player in a crowd of people, crossing streets that can at times be busy with drivers, is NOT SAFE. But the 3-Day does not have patrol vans out looking for walkers who are breaking the rules, filled with security staff just hungering to ruin someone's weekend by kicking them off the route.
You know who is in charge of that rule?
Me, that's who. Not metaphorically. Me, specifically. Me and a small number of other walkers who got trained as official Komen 3-Day training walk leaders. In return for agreeing to follow policies and lead scheduled training walks in our communities, we're given little orange tags to wear around our necks along with our credentials, little orange tags that read "SAFETY MONITOR: STAY ALERT, STAY ALIVE." If we see someone walking along on the route chattering away on their cell phone, or walking along with earbuds in both ears, listening to their tunes and ignoring walkers and traffic and basic safety, we're supposed to politely ask them to step off the route until their phone call is finished and to leave texting and MP3 players and stuff for when they're not walking.
Most people understand the reason for the rule. Those people who really have to have music while they're walking a 3-Day generally invest a few bucks in external speakers for their MP3 players, speakers they can hang on their belts or on their packs. A little music can be nice -- but if you must have it, listen via speakers. Not earbuds. It is about safety.
I would have replied to that message thread but it appeared to be closed to new comments. And I doubt it would have done much good; some people are more interested in appearing knowledgeable by spreading half-truths and untruths than they are in actually knowing what the heck they're talking about.
Instead, I sat back and tried to think "What other rules are there on a 3-Day? What rules, especially, would someone complain about?" I checked the walker handbook (available for download to any registered participant from their Participant Center on http://www.the3day.org) and the fact is, the word "rule" only appears once in the entire handbook: "The golden rule of fundraising is: You raise money when you ask for it. You don’t when you don’t." That's it.
Yet from time to time I keep hearing people say "The 3-Day? No, I don't want to do that. TOO MANY RULES."
What rules? I always want to ask.
Yes, starting on page 49 there are some safety policies. But there is only one that explicitly states that violating it will lead to expulsion:
"All walkers must stay on the official Komen 3-Day for the Cure route. Unsafe behavior is cause for immediate expulsion from the 3-Day for the Cure. If you are expelled, you will be responsible for your own transportation home." You might point to that and say "See? See? They can kick me out for wearing an MP3 player." But a few lines above that policy, you find: "Komen 3-Day for the Cure walkers are not permitted to wear headphones or use radios, walkie-talkies, cellular phones or texting devices while walking. It is extremely unsafe. We know that a lot of you may like to listen to music to pass the time, but we recommend chatting with your neighbor as you walk instead." That's it. Nothing about goon squads out on the route looking for violators of the rule. And trust me, if I see you talking on a cell phone the worst that's going to happen is I'm going to watch to see if you're getting in the way of other walkers or stepping out in traffic while on the phone, and if you do, I'm going to politely ask you to finish the call before continuing on the route.
So what are all these other rules that people are worried about? If we take a very liberal definition of the word "rule", I guess you can say we have some rules.
There's the rule that all walkers must be in good health. Yes, if you start weaving and fainting and passing out on a 3-Day, you will be prevented from walking any more. If the staff and crew let an obviously ill walker continue on the route, they'd open themselves to all kinds of lawsuits. But they don't make the walkers leave in shame and go home. They can ride to lunch and ride to closing or to camp and continue to cheer their fellow walkers on. There will be other 3-Day events, after all -- it's not the absolute end of the world. I've known people who got stress fractures while walking a 3-Day -- and promptly started walker-stalking or showing up at cheering stations to cheer on their fellow walkers ... and had a great time doing so. Again, this "rule" is a rule with a human side.
There's the rule that walkers must stay on the route and ahead of the caboose rider. The "caboose rider" is a 3-Day staff member, riding a mountain bike with an orange flag on the back, verrrrrrrrrry slowly at the extreme rear of the pack. If the caboose rider catches up to someone who is walking so slowly that they've dropped far, far behind the other walkers, and simply cannot continue, or is walking so slowly that they'll be arriving at pit stops after they've closed, a sweep van will be summoned to take that walker on to the next pit stop, or to lunch, or to camp, or whatever. Again, it's a safety thing. It has nothing to do with the 3-Day being a race. The support infrastructure of a 3-Day is not something you can keep open all day. Sites that agree to host pit stops agree to the pit being there for a certain amount of time. Then too, there's a lot of work involved in operating a pit. You get there to set up hours before the pit is scheduled to open in order to set everything up, mix all the Gatorade, erect all the tents and things, hang decorations, and so forth. You run the pit for four hours or so. Then you break it all down again. It's a long, long day. Much as we'd like to be able to be there from dawn until dark, we simply can't ask the crew to work 12-hour days three days running... nor would the local towns and cities that we walk through be interested in having the route stay open all day long, tying up traffic.
So, yes, you must maintain a certain minimum pace to take part in a 3-Day -- but again, it's a rule with a human face. You are not kicked off the route in shame if you can't. You get taken on to the next pit. Frankly, I wonder how many times the official 'last walker of the day' actually walked all 20 miles. It seems quite possible that they walked two miles, got swept to a pit. Walked two miles, got swept to a pit. Etcetera... until the final pit, when they walked the rest of the way to camp and got the huge public welcome that awaits the last walker. And you know what? No one cares at all how many miles that last walker rode in a sweep van. All we care about is that they stayed out there, gamely doing their best, whatever their best might be.
There's the rule that there's no running on the 3-Day route. Some people sign up for the 3-Day after years of taking part in charity runs, or after years of running for enjoyment as a form of physical fitness. They show up for the 3-Day, thinking that it's a "race", and take off at a dead run the moment the route opens... only to have a staff member go "ah ah ah" at them. Speaking as someone who enjoys power-walking, and who finished the three days of the 2010 Twin Cities 3-Day in 11th place each day (averaged), I know where you're coming from. But the 3-Day is not a race, and the pit stops won't be open when you get to them if you try to show off your mad marathon skillz by running six minute miles. You'll get there and there'll be a bunch of bemused crew members just getting out of their crew van to set things up, and they won't have anything ready for you, and they won't let you leave the pit to continue on the route. So, yeah, if you really must run a 3-Day I hope you enjoy hours-long periods sitting watching teal-shirted crew members setting up pit stops, because that's what your event will mostly be.
But you know the only rule that actually specifically states that you'll be kicked off the event and sent home? Blatantly unsafe behavior. Use your imagination. If you decided to visit a bar on the afternoon of Day 2 and then spent the afternoon darting in and out of traffic going "WOO WOO WOO," I imagine you'd find yourself face to face with local law enforcement first... but yes, the 3-Day staff would take your credential away from you and see to it that your belongings were packed up for you and waiting for you at camp. Let's just not go there, okay? That's not a harsh rule, that's just sanity.
No, when you really get down to it, I think I know what people who say "The 3-Day has too many rules" are really generally thinking of.
Money.
Some people think the 3-Day is a mercenary grab-for-cash, nothing more, nothing less. And of course, they couldn't be more wrong. A quick glance at the form 990 for Susan G Komen For The Cure, available at http://www.guidestar.org, shows that the Komen organization has an extremely laudable track record where charitable giving is concerned. Or if the 990 is too technical for you non-accountants, simply consult the simple Komen charitable giving report card, available here.
The most common complaint I hear from non-walkers about the 3-Day is that participants have to raise too much money. And yes, I know that some people sign up for a 3-Day and then are unable to walk because they're simply unable to raise enough money to take part in the walk. I feel extreme sympathy for them -- it would drive me nuts to train my legs off getting ready, only to find myself staring at a fundraising deficit of $1000 with two weeks to go before the walk. The Komen folks do permit participants to do what's called a "delayed self-donation", essentially allowing them to walk in the event and receive one more month post-walk to raise any funds short of $2,300 that they're missing... with the stipulation that the walkers' own credit cards will be charged for any shortage.
Some people really really hate that. They hate that there's a minimum fundraising amount. They say "Similar events don't have a fundraising minimum. The Race for the Cure doesn't. The ACS Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk doesn't have one. It's WRONG WRONG WRONG for there to be a minimum."
I respectfully disagree. The fundraising minimum is there for a reason -- a two-part reason. It's calculated to bring in the most money for the fight against breast cancer while keeping the event to a manageable size. If the San Diego walk, for example, which can have around 6,000 walkers on route, had no fundraising minimum, the number of participants could easily top 20,000 -- and yet, most of those participants would have brought in less than $100. You'd have taken an event of manageable size that brings in a lot of money and turned it into an absolutely unmanageable event that didn't bring in appreciably more money if you said "never mind the minimum, EVERYONE'S WELCOME."
Take a look at the fundraising pages for the OTHER events I referenced above. Many of the walkers on the "top teams" have zero donations ... but they walk anyway, walking next to their co-workers who brought in $300 with a bake sale or canning event at their local Wal-Mart. While we appreciate the money the people who DO put in some effort raise, what about the people who pay a registration fee, collect a t-shirt, walk the event, but do absolutely nothing else? At that point, you really have to question what good their participation is really doing. You can say that they're raising public awareness by taking part, but let's face it -- a 5K walk or run through a local park isn't going to have a huge awareness impact. Sure, the walk may be important for those we're trying to honor, those we've lost and those who are still fighting the disease, but it's a far greater accomplishment to do something that holds out the hope that one day there won't be a need for any more memorials and tributes.
So, yes, there's a fundraising minimum. And exactly what that minimum should be is up to the organizers and the professionals at Susan G. Komen For The Cure. It's not for me to say, much as it pains me to spend a summer cheering on a friend or an acquaintance as they train and train and train for the walk only to fall far, far short in the area of fundraising. A friend of mine here in Vermont held a big, widely publicized fundraiser at a local ice rink this summer... and the only people who showed up were some immediate friends and family and my wife and me. I think all in all there were fewer than 10 people present. I just felt ill when I saw how hard she'd worked and for so little return. Fortunately, by sheer desperation and calling and writing everyone she knew, she was able to scrape over the $2,300 line and by all accounts had a marvelous time walking the Boston walk this year. But if she hadn't been able to raise enough -- yes, she'd have been thanked for her hard work fundraising and she wouldn't have gotten to walk. I'm sorry, but those are the rules.
"What???" you say. "If she doesn't raise enough to walk the donors don't get their money back?"
Right. The donations are for the fight against breast cancer. They are not pay for the walkers. The donation page states this: "All donations are non-refundable and non-transferable. Net proceeds from the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure are invested in breast cancer research and community programs." And in many cases those donations are already being allocated and spent on research grants and prevention and treatment and so forth before the walks have even been held. The $50 you donated to a friend in March of 2010 may have been spent on anti-cancer efforts in July of 2010 even though your friend isn't walking until October of 2010. The money can't simply be "given back".
So yeah, there's a rule that no one really much likes, but there's no way around. If you want to walk in a 3-Day, you've got to raise the $2,300. But if you can't, there are other ways to play a part. We always need crew and we always need volunteers. No one who cares is forced to stand on the sidelines... and frankly, we need people on the sidelines as well, as anyone who's ever been flagging a bit while out on the route on a 3-Day only to get a big burst of energy from a cheering station packed for blocks and blocks with enthusiastic supporters.
Let me sum if all up this way: no, there aren't "too many rules". The Komen 3-Day organization wants people to be happy, to be healthy, and to be free of cancer. That's what it's all about. Remember: the only explicitly stated, printed-in-the-handbook rule that matters is "Be safe." Stick to that, and you'll do just fine on the 3-Day. :)
