March - Day Three

I had a pretty restful sleep - considering my bed was one inch thick. I was definately warm enough as I had a pretty good sleeping bag and with two bodies in those small tents, there was enough heat to keep you warm inside your sleeping bag. Outside of it was a different story. I had woken up at around 4 which is when they turn on the big lights for the crew to start getting breakfast ready and although it wasn't in our tent area, it still woke me up. I brought my clothes into my sleeping bag with me to warm them up and then I got dressed that way. When I got out of the tent at around 5:30 - there was frost everywhere.

We packed up the rest of our stuff into our bags as quitely as possible because not everyone was up yet. They turn on the tent area floodlights around 6:00 a.m. Once we were packed up, we threw our packs into this big truck as they would be transported to our pickup place at the finish line. Then we headed for breakfast (the picture is the dining tent). Today we could take our time because we didn't actually get to start walking until 8:00 a.m. so we had plenty of time to waste.

Which had its good points and its bad points. Bad is that the grass was pretty wet and since we were walking around trying to keep warm, our feet got pretty wet. This isn't good when you are about to walk for the day. One of our morning rituals was to coat our feet with vaseline and baby powder. Worked wonders for me in keeping my feet in pretty good shape. Good thing about waiting around is that Uncle Tom decided to show up when we were about to leave and although my pack was stored, I was able to hop on the truck and get what I needed for the day. Had we been out on the road when he showed up, I would not have been a happy camper. (Sorry for the extra info guys).

So we headed out at 8:00 a.m. and our first pit stop had 7 porta potties - they finally had it right. It was a very nice day, cool but you could tell it was going to warm up as it looked like the sun might actually shine a bit that day. And it did....

We turned off the main highway and headed up this secondary road. From the starting point, all it looked like was one long hill. And quite frankly it was. Mr. Sandra figures we climbed 800-1000 feet that day. From the picture in the right, you can see the end of the road (or rather where we started to walk). It was a steady climb for most of it.

Just before one rest stop, there were 4 young kids standing there cheering everyone on. They were singing cheer leading type songs, and dancing and slapping our hands. And then there is the other direction, there was one crazy cyclist that wouldn't move over and brushed by everyone on our side of the white line. I was so close to sticking out my elbow just to knock some sense into him... but I didn't. Bad enough I thought about it :)

I walked right to the end (Kim took a break for the last 6Km). I ached a bit more than normal this day due to Mr. Tom showing up but I was putting one foot in front of the other with visions of my own bed in my mind :). When I finally got to the top of the hill and started to walk into the city, the feeling of accomplishment was very strong. I was darn proud of myself. I was even walking faster, with more purpose and I enjoyed my final walk in.

Kim met me at the last pit stop and we walked to the finish line together. They had a huge half circle of red and black balloons and everyone cheered everyone in. It was great!

They then handed new red tee shirts to everyone and the plan was for us to walk the last 1.5 K down a winding road to the bottom of the ski hill to where all our friends and family were waiting. It was a sea of red.

At the bottom of the hill, Mr. Sandra was there to greet me and the look on his face said it all. He was very proud of us as well.

They had a closing ceremony in a large tent where they talked about how this march started, why it started and showed some highlights of the walk. We had a camera man following us around for three days and he put together a quick slideshow. I can't wait to see it online. There was a lot of standing applauses from us walkers for the crew and the medical staff and for each other. The speaker made laughing comments on how funny it was to watch 300 people stand up over and over again after walking for three days. Let me tell ya, it wasn't easy :)

It was one of the hardest things I have done in a very long time (if not the hardest), but not the last. I now realize how much I can push my body and how little effort I have shown in getting fit up to this point. I am a LOT stronger than I was giving myself credit for.  I also know that my mind can play a lot of games with me and I am stronger than it is. I was able to not listen to that voice that wanted to give up and push through it and felt better because if it. IAM Strong!

On Monday I was very tired and stiff but not sore. I napped in the afternoon because my body was exhausted and I had a massage that night. By Tuesday I was almost feeling normal. I am very impressed with my body as within a day you would not have known that I had just spent three days walking. Granted I am still very stiff in my hip joints and calves but I will just continue to work those kinks out. When I went to Hot Yoga the other night there were some poses I just couldn't get fully into because my hips are so tight but it just means I have to get stretching and get them back to where they were and better!

I am more determined than ever before to get this body into better shape as I am going to walk this walk again next year only I will be stronger and faster!

Hope you enjoyed the show!

ttyl

Sandra