The Big Walk DAY 3

Me at Greenlake in the rain.
Downtown Seattle isn’t easy to walk in even when not going too far. It is all up and down. We met at camp in Everett, got scanned in after waiting 20 minutes in pouring rain to get onto busses, and then were dropped off at Northgate at the hospital there. Still a little confusion on finding all our team together, but we finally did find each other and began walking in the downpour. It rained hard for fifteen minutes or so and then slowed to that soft misty familiar Seattle rain for most of the morning.

It was hard to talk because rain hood muffle sound. Also, when in pain, I get quiet or chatty. I spent the first half of the day trying to mask what I was really feeling by being stupid chatty about nothing really. I was just trying to stay positive for something I felt pretty negative about. Not the cause, but the idea of walking all those miles---I just wanted to quit and go home and forget all this non-sense. I really was hating it.

I kept telling Kelly and Heather to enjoy it, because I wasn’t ever doing this again. I really don’t feel the need to or want to. I know to some people that sounds awful, but I don’t think you have to go to that extreme to make a point or get healthy. I now know I can walk 5 or 10 miles and feel good. I don’t need to walk 20 three days in a row. I can give money to breast cancer or cancer research without walking. I think there are many reasons people do this walk and for some it is their life and that’s fine, I have too many other things that are also important in my life and causes without training for something like this over and over.

I know many of you are reading this to know what it is like. People ask me questions like “Did you have fun?” That is a hard question to answer. I find it interesting and some people and moments “fun” and the feeling of accomplishment is wonderful. So in that I am proud of what I did, but…

We went from Northgate down to Greenlake to the Wallingford steps. We ran into the Oktoberfest 5K run and had to wait a while. We eventually hit Gas Works Park as one of the pit stops, but we were having to make up time so I didn’t get a picture of that foggy morning. It was really beautiful as the rain had just cleared and the fog was starting to clear, but the light was gorgeous!
Picture of us crossing Mountlake Bridge.
After Gasworks we headed towards that big Greek Orthodox Church and up Capitol Hill up 10th that winds up to Volunteer Park. Now, at this point we had the choice of riding a van or walking it. They were shuttling people up in vans to lunch that didn’t want to walk the mile and a half climb straight up, but this was my last day and I was determined to walk the entire thing. See? This is the mentality everyone gets in and how injuries happen. Your pride gets the better of you. But I am proud to say I made it all the way up! Picture of me hugging one of our joy filled 3 Day Stalkers. I was so happy to see a happy face at the entrance to Volunteer Park. When we got to lunch we only had 10 minutes to spare though to make it back on the trail in order to walk the planned route to the Seattle Center that day.

From there we headed down to Pike Place Market and the waterfront.
My knees really were screaming at this part. Picture of Heather with Hammering Man by the SAM. She kept me going at this point as my knees were screaming loudly. You were pulled along by gravity mostly. After a pit stop at the waterfront the course turned back up a steady climb up to the Seattle Center through the new Sculpture Park. Picture of Kelly at the waterfront pit stop at this point she was ready for it to be over too. Me at sculpture park saying to myself only a mile and a half to go!


I do like the last day as I don’t get to see Seattle by foot much and you do see a lot more. The weather held and we got to walk the last bit in the dry. I walked or hobbled the last couple of miles with a gal in a walking boot (cast). She had a stress fracture she got on the first day and had insisted she wanted to walk the majority of this day. I shudder to think how she felt after it was all over. I had met another gal on crutches who sustained an injury on the second day as a lady behind her grabbed her backpack on the way down a hill as she fell. The grabber was fine as her fall was broken by the grabbee. The grabbee unfortunately had torn ligaments and muscle because of it, but she decided to crutch the last mile or so. Ouch! Our lovely drum lady that stalked us all 3 days. She kept me going with her infectious smile and energy!

When we all walked in and down the stairs into holding, that is when I broke down. I sobbed because we were done and the pain was overwhelming. I sobbed out of exhaustion. I sobbed because we made it. I sobbed because it is emotional with a huge crowd of people cheering you on and deep down you feel like “what have I done to deserve this praise?”

When we got into closing ceremonies after they gave us our t-shirts and roses. It is always overwhelming the sheer numbers of people and how loud everything is. We stand there waiting to finish. Stand and stand and stand. Not the thing you desire to do after walking all that way. Some people are energized by the emotion of it all. I wasn’t this time. Me at the closing ceremony.

I was moved by seeing all the pink shirts of how many survivors walked. I am grateful they are here and can participate and that is moving to an extent. Everyone is instructed to take their shoe off and hold it up to the survivors and kneel. I felt bad, but I didn’t do this out of sheer practicality. I didn’t think I would be able to get my swollen foot back in a shoe or get down and up from the ground. I held up my roses instead and still felt very grateful that they were there. The survivors that walked at closing ceremony.

I am grateful to this organization that they raise so much money for the cause. They said a little over 6 million dollars was raised by Seattle walker this year alone. There are something like 25 cities this walk takes place in and San Diego is the largest with twice the walkers we have here. This all came from a promise a sister gave another sister. Now men, women, and I saw a few teens walk in these every year honoring those that didn’t make it through this disease it is a way to work out grief. Honoring those that did make it and those still walking through it. It is a walk to remind all us women to get healthier habits, get checked regularly, and to lift up those along the way no matter where they are on this road.

I decided I will do this walk again if I need it or someone close to me needs it as the symbol that it is to empower you to walk on in this fight. It has a power to it. But, until then I’ll gladly cheer those on that need to walk and walk and walk.