the weekend to end breast cancer

so all year long we have been walking and fundraising and walking and fundraising to be able to participate in the 60km (about 38 miles) walk around Vancouver and downtown.  In order to walk, you have to raise $2000 which is a VERY daunting number.  

These are our air-brushed tats - NICE!

We walked 35 km the first day and 25 the second.  They fed us lots of snacks, lunch, gatorade and water.  Then dinner was at the camp - where I did NOT sleep (I wasn't prepared to do that with Ophelia after having walked for 10 hours that day). Bif Naked performed (recently diagnosed as well) and the food was yummy.  The next day we walked the last 25 km.  I ended up walking with two other ladies on the second day - one was amazing on the trails (most of it was pavement and when we hit the trail, she took off!), one was amazing up hills -seriously she just flew up them, and I seemed to thrive right at the finish - I dragged them across the last couple kilometres ... I wanted to get in there as fast as I could!!!

The closing ceremony was totally emotional, they put all the survivors in pink shirts and parade them into the stadium and after walking 60 km and being the overly-emotional girl that I am - I was done for!!!

A big thanks goes out to all my donors, Cooper's foods and Harvest meats (for donating to hot dog sales which pushed our team over the top), Uncle Animal who raised 1700 or so for our team, and my dad and his wife who cooked us dinner on Friday, took the kids overnight on Saturday and fed us again on Sunday night.

Post-60 kms, waiting for closing cermonies ... and just a bit tired.

So I have 2 heros of that weekend ... one is Mike - who on the first day, tagged along - meeting us at all the rest stops with all THREE kids, just so that I could feed Ophelia periodically.  So he entertained 3 kids ages 5 and under downtown for 10 hours!!! the next day he literally followed us around stopping at each pit stop (not as big as the rest stops) which were about every 2-3 kilometers, driving Ophelia (again so I could do the feeds) and some of our team members when they took breaks!

Keidis held his sign upside-down and all the walkers cheered as they walked past my sweet family!!

Our team, minus Trish (taking the picture) and Tamsen (who couldn't make it due to major move and who we missed dearly), PLUS Jamie (who was bravely walking SOLO and we very much enjoyed).

My other hero of the weekend is Jen, Mike's sister. She is the reason this all started and one of the people in my life affected by breast cancer. She finished treatments (mastectomy, chemo and radiation) 8 months before, was prepping for reconstructive surgery in 2 weeks and still walked 40 of the 60 kilometers! She has been truly inspirational to me!

I am so glad I did it! I am already signed up for next year - although I swore before we got there that I wouldn't!!! I did get a nice training T for signing up though! I am pleased with the $$ raised (1600 walkers raised 4.1 million bucks for breast cancer) and that I was able to complete this crazy physical challenge! WAHOO!!!