3 Day

What a great 3 Day! It was the best weather yet! Doing it with great friends who had just survived breast cancer in the last 12 months was emotional. It was August, 2009 she was officially diagnosed.

Thursday: Crew Day
Mark and Chris had to attend Crew Day to train for their crew jobs, so we went to Chicago on Thursday. Melanie and I did exciting things like buy her a water bottle, sit at Panera and eat snacks (I was good and had a low fat muffie), and found a LUSH at the mall. Woohoo! We filled up on a few goodies for Monday pampering. She is one of those people I've turned into a LUSH cult member.

We tried to go to Lou Malnatti's for pizza, but didn't realize the locations nearest the hotel were only carryout. Boo! Wish their GPS location name would've been labeled "Lou Malnatti's Carryout." Ended up just swinging into a bbq joint that was very average.

Friday: Day 1 (22 miles)
The boys had to be out the hotel door at 4 a.m. at the latest to set up hydration for opening ceremonies. We arrived around 5:30 a.m. We got our picture taken with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, all dressed in pink, and wrote our "hopes for the weekend" on a wall. Manning the wall was our Komen pit stop Staffer from Boston in 2008. We said our hellos. I saw a few other familiar crew members from past Chicago walks, including the lady that made us mad last year by giving us wrong luggage drop instructions. :-)


The boys got to stand with us at opening ceremony. I think it was pretty emotional for everyone. The walk route was great-same as last year (and MUCH better than the first year with Boo-that route sucked). It was fun knowing what to expect.

Mr. January, one of the 60 mile men http://www.60milemen.org/ (and the guy who runs the calender), had lunch with us. He's from Michigan and had done some training walks with Breezy's group. We also walked a bit together and it was nice to hear his experiences walking different cities and doing the calendar.

We were able to tell the boys when we expected to clock in at the day's finish line via phone. They were waiting to cheer us in. That was very cool! They had our tents and bedding set up, which is such a treat, if you've ever walked 20ish miles then had to set up camp (*looks at Breezy and Boo).

Melanie and I had matching side-0f-heel blisters on day one. We ate our dinner of steak, potatoes, salad, rolls and apple pie, showered (new shower trucks which at least had a private changing area this time!), dressed our blisters and listened to 3 Day idol. Breezy-the "Wanted dead or alive" soldier guy was there again and did it! He was great. He has a song online that is being sold on iTunes to raise money for the 3 Day: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/soldier-in-pink-single/id354879325. You can also find him on You Tube doing a performance at 3 Day camp (I think we missed this last year, Breezy!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbQYLkRLGXA

Saturday: Day 2 (20 miles)
My favorite day of the Chicago 3 Day! We walk through some great communities, but Mount Prospect takes the cake. It's the one where officers wear pink shirts, they have extra officers out for photo ops, the Fire Dept. is in pink welcoming us, community members sit in the yard and have "3 Day parties" (one had a sno cone machine for us this year!), they raise money, have a squad car with pink letters, and then travel into Chicago to "surprise" us at the end of a pedestrian tunnel on Day 3! The even come to camp and visit with us Saturday night. The hot officer did a tent rolling demo and it was nice. :-)

A few new blisters on Saturday, but they were pretty minor. We both had our heel blisters drained in medical at lunch (you can barf now) and Melanie was sad she didn't get a picture to scrapbook of that event.

That afternoon we got to see Frodis and co.! They got to the cheering station right when we did. Perfecto! The kiddos are growing! We dined on fruit and sat for a bit. Lauren sang Lady Antebellum for me (*snort*) and Jeff inhaled grapes. I said to Melanie after we left, "See, my online friends aren't weirdos." She completely agreed and said Fro was "very normal." LOL! Good thing she didn't meet Carey first, huh? :-) Thank you so much for coming out and bringing treats, Fro!!!

We called the boys and asked them to bring our flip flops to the "finish line" for Day 2. The tents are a long ways away. We were about .5 miles from the finish and we see them driving along the road in their Mule (like a gator utility vehicle), delivering water to route safety. Great-flip flops early! Not for me, though. Chris couldn't find mine that he'd stuck in the Mule earlier! We feared they'd fallen out. Boohiss!

That night we relaxed around camp more. Some Candy Coburn singer (official "spokescelebrity" for Susan G. Komen) performed that night and then there was a dance party. We opted to hang with the boys for a bit and go to bed.

Sunday: Day 3 (18 miles)
We were lucky to have cloud cover all morning, because the temps were soaring towards the 90s. Breezy-everyone was talking about how hot that part of the route was last year! Right before lunch it started to rain. We had a wet lunch and I developed two new pinky toe blisters (I think I was compensating for my heel blisters by putting weight more on my toes). This meant I'd be hobbling the second half of the day. It was still rainy and windy after lunch, but with about six miles to go, it cleared up and got SUPER HOT!

We listened to Lollapalooza in the background that afternoon and headed to the finish line again at Soldier Field, where lots of family and "3 Day alumni" were there cheering us on. Our boys, along with hundreds of crew and walkers were cheering people into the holding area, and my tears started. It was emotional. I think a few trickled also when we cheered the last walkers in. Melanie opted NOT to walk into closing with the survivors. She a) didn't want to put on the pink long sleeved tshirt and b) didn't want to be the center of attention and c) wanted to be by me. It was still very emotional.

If you want a peak at what a 3 Day closing looks like from above, here's a clip from last year (Breezy and I are somewhere to the middle left in that part!): http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=6956095


The boys had an amazing time crewing. If the 3 Day comes to a city near you-CREW! It costs you only the registration fee of $90 (let me know if you want a half off discount code...I'll let you know when I get one in my email) and you'll have an amazing weekend! You'll run low on sleep, but you can get assignments that match your desired activity level (e.g., can't lift? You might check people in and out, man the "info" table, etc.). Can't do the three days? You can be a volunteer! They are often done in shorter stints (e.g., Volunteers take over crew duties at noon on Sunday, so the crew can fully be part of closing ceremonies). Can't do any of those things? Get out to a cheering station...Frodis will tell you what a rewarding experience that can be from the spectator standpoint.

Thanks for all the support through the years. You all are so special. Now go give yourself a self-exam and if applicable, make sure you are current on your mammogram schedule!