Evening, Day 2, DC 3-Day For The Cure
Oct. 9th, 2010 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayfurrToday was Day 2 of the 2010 Washington, DC Susan G Komen 3-Day For The Cure. Like yesterday, it was a very hard day for me. The very hilly 23-mile route around Germantown and Gaithersburg, Maryland was very hard on a lot of people, in fact, but be as much as any. Without trying hard to go slow, I found that my tired, achy legs didn't want to go much more than 2.5 miles an hour. I exceeded that on occasion when I was trying to get to pit stops before their scheduled closing time, but my body sure wasn't comfortable each time I had to do that. My chest was rather tight all day today and anytime I tried to really speed up I got short of breath.
It's funny, in a way. I told everyone that after my speed-walking lightning-fast completion of August's Twin Cities 3-Day this year, I wanted to experience the event from the other end of the route, the one inhabited by people not in good physical shape, who for reasons of health or physical fitness simply couldn't help bringing up the rear. And damned if I didn't wind up walking at the rear for exactly that reason: being in not-very-good health. I don't know that my struggles were entirely due to the cold that's been coming and going for two weeks now, or whether the hills played a part too, but this was an exhausting event for me and I frankly don't look forward to tomorrow. My quadriceps and calves really hurt right now, ibuprofen and all... but on the plus side, my feet look great. No blisters at all of any kind.
I finished the course around 6:30 or so. I managed to stay far enough ahead of the "caboose" that even though I was really drooping over the last two miles, and even though I stopped on the route for almost fifteen minutes toward the end of the day trying to flag down a sweep van for an injured walker who was sitting down a bank out of easy view from the road (and was finally able to get one), I finished ... oh, about sixty seconds ahead of the last walker.
I guess "Project Bloop" is a smashing success so far. I've slowed down so much that if I slowed any more I'd be heading in the opposite direction.
Nancy Brinker surprised us at dinner tonight with an appearance and then went over to the 3-Day Main Street to sign copies of her new book, "Promise Me". I didn't go stand in line because I already own a copy, and besides, that was one LONG line. If it'd been shorter and if I hadn't been such a wreck, I might've.
I won't say that today was a bad day. I had a lot of good conversations with fellow walkers and took a lot of photos. (So many photos, in fact, that I think I've all but drained the spare battery I brought with me for my new Canon camera. Too bad it doesn't take AA batteries like the old one I wrecked riding a roller coaster in Montreal... without ready access to a battery charger the thing's not going to be much more use than any other paperweight tomorrow. What pictures I take will probably be taken with my Droid smartphone.) And I did have one rather surreal set of encounters on the streets of Germantown not far from camp. First, an Asian man came out of a restaurant I was passing, sized me up (dressed from head to toe in pink, complete with pink hardhat) and informed me that I was a "thunder jonquil". At least, I think that's what he said. And then immediately thereafter two kids on bikes, eight or nine years old, came zooming down the sidewalk screaming "BOOBIES! BOOBIES! I LOVE TO SAY 'BOOBIES'!"
What else could I do? I waited until they were alongside me and shouted "BOOBIES" right along with them. It seemed to be the thing to do. :)
It's funny, in a way. I told everyone that after my speed-walking lightning-fast completion of August's Twin Cities 3-Day this year, I wanted to experience the event from the other end of the route, the one inhabited by people not in good physical shape, who for reasons of health or physical fitness simply couldn't help bringing up the rear. And damned if I didn't wind up walking at the rear for exactly that reason: being in not-very-good health. I don't know that my struggles were entirely due to the cold that's been coming and going for two weeks now, or whether the hills played a part too, but this was an exhausting event for me and I frankly don't look forward to tomorrow. My quadriceps and calves really hurt right now, ibuprofen and all... but on the plus side, my feet look great. No blisters at all of any kind.
I finished the course around 6:30 or so. I managed to stay far enough ahead of the "caboose" that even though I was really drooping over the last two miles, and even though I stopped on the route for almost fifteen minutes toward the end of the day trying to flag down a sweep van for an injured walker who was sitting down a bank out of easy view from the road (and was finally able to get one), I finished ... oh, about sixty seconds ahead of the last walker.
I guess "Project Bloop" is a smashing success so far. I've slowed down so much that if I slowed any more I'd be heading in the opposite direction.
Nancy Brinker surprised us at dinner tonight with an appearance and then went over to the 3-Day Main Street to sign copies of her new book, "Promise Me". I didn't go stand in line because I already own a copy, and besides, that was one LONG line. If it'd been shorter and if I hadn't been such a wreck, I might've.
I won't say that today was a bad day. I had a lot of good conversations with fellow walkers and took a lot of photos. (So many photos, in fact, that I think I've all but drained the spare battery I brought with me for my new Canon camera. Too bad it doesn't take AA batteries like the old one I wrecked riding a roller coaster in Montreal... without ready access to a battery charger the thing's not going to be much more use than any other paperweight tomorrow. What pictures I take will probably be taken with my Droid smartphone.) And I did have one rather surreal set of encounters on the streets of Germantown not far from camp. First, an Asian man came out of a restaurant I was passing, sized me up (dressed from head to toe in pink, complete with pink hardhat) and informed me that I was a "thunder jonquil". At least, I think that's what he said. And then immediately thereafter two kids on bikes, eight or nine years old, came zooming down the sidewalk screaming "BOOBIES! BOOBIES! I LOVE TO SAY 'BOOBIES'!"
What else could I do? I waited until they were alongside me and shouted "BOOBIES" right along with them. It seemed to be the thing to do. :)
