jayfurr | Walking Washington, DC 3-Day

I was able to raise $2,660 by April for the Tampa Bay Susan G. Komen 3-Day For The Cure (and thank you kindly to everyone who donated). The minimum that permits one to actually take part in the event is $2,300, so I was $360 over the minimum with six months left to go until the event!

With that much time left to fundraise and with my total raised already over the minimum, I considered which option would be more likely to raise more funds for the cause of finding a cure for breast cancer:

1) I could see how much I could raise, in all, toward my Tampa Bay total, or,

2) I could sign up to walk a second 3-Day city in 2010 and thereby have to raise a whole 'nother $2,300.

The 3-Day staff used to make doing this kind of thing sort of awkward by telling you that if you registered for two or more walks it was up to you to steer donors to the right donation page for the right city, but if you were below the minimum for "City B" and donors kept donating to your "City A" total (for which you'd already made the minimum), well, too bad.

Now they suggest that you simply direct all your donors to one donation page for one of the cities you're walking, and they'll take care of the rest. If you're walking two cities and raise $4,600 in all, there you go.

So I've updated my Tampa Bay fundraising page to state that I'm actually also walking DC as well and I've changed my goal to be $4,600 (twice $2,300) so my progress bar will accurately reflect the amount I still have to raise to walk DC.

I chose to walk Washington DC instead of one of the other 14 cities because I know quite a few people who will be walking or crewing DC, because it's easy and quick to get to compared to, say, San Diego or Seattle, and for a third reason that may require a bit of explanation.

My first 3-Day walk was in Washington in 2008 -- but because it was the first DC 3-Day walk held in several years and because of some bad luck in the planning, the route for the walk was almost entirely located in the Virginia suburbs. On the third day of the walk we did get into the District proper, but because the Army Marathon was taking place on the same day and was going right down the Mall, we were routed onto side streets north of the Mall and didn't get close to any of the legendary monuments and museums and governmental buildings. As a native Virginian who's often been to DC, I wasn't too broken-hearted about that, but I had to admit that the route wasn't all that scenic.

Last year, 2009, the DC walk had a much better route: they started at the Washington Nationals baseball stadium in DC proper, passed by a lot of cool stuff, and ended with the closing ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial. When I heard that, I went "ARGH". Not that I begrudged last year's DC walkers their scenic route, but I would have loved to have gotten to do that kind of route. Instead, I walked Philadelphia where cold, rain, and wind caused the outright cancellation of Days 1 and 2. (Not the organizers' fault, obviously. Things happen.)

But in the end, if the 2010 route is anything at all like the 2009 route, I want to be there. It'll be like doing a whole different city compared to what we did in 2008. Nothing against Northern Virginia strip malls and suburban woodsy subdivisions, but when one thinks of the "Washington DC 3-Day" that's not what you think of. You think of marble and statuary and, well, historic stuff.

So that's the story. I'm already good to go vis-a-vis walking Tampa Bay over Halloween weekend, but now I've got $1890 to raise so I can walk DC at the beginning of October as well. In the end, it's all about raising the money to find a cure, no matter how many cities we walk, but I'm hoping that my willingness to give up even more of my time and spend even more miles pounding the pavement will entice people to support generously. Thank you in advance if you're able to contribute toward my total!

My donation page can be found here: http://www.the3day.org/goto/jayfurr -- thanks again, everyone!