Remembering the Why

In the spring, after I had already made the commitment to do the Avon Walk to End Breast Cancer a second time one of my teammates at work was diagnosed with breast cancer. She's the second person in my office currently battling the disease, and among double digits of women in my life to be faced with it. 

Shortly after she started treatment my whole team got these bracelets, and got one for her. We all wear them often and as of a few weeks ago I've been making sure to wear it on my training walks as well. 

It's been helpful for me to look down and see the visual reminder of why I'm putting in all of this effort and why you, my generous friends, family and colleagues are donating money to the cause. 

This weekend I'm headed to the mountains and will be taking a break from the structured training schedule, but I'm still feeling so confident that I'll be ready to walk 39 miles on October 15 & 16, with all of the encouragement and support from wonderful people near and far and the reminder on my wrist the whole time of my reason why. 

Pushing On!

Yesterday's plan was to walk 17 miles. But somewhere around mile 14 I got the idea that I should do more and ended up wrapping up the day with 19.

Waking along Rock Creek Parkway

There's something about having to cross one of the bridges into DC that makes the walk mentally more challenging, especially at the end, so I decided to eliminate them from the route altogether this week.

I drove in to the city and parked in East Potomac Park and then headed down around Hains Point, along the Tidal Basin and into Rock Creek Park. I've driven Rock Creek Parkway countless times, but had never been through on foot before. It's a really cool space, and I'm sure the trails that aren't along the busy roadway are even nicer. When I exited the park, along the VERY steep hill onto Calvert Street by Woodley Park I was 7 miles in to my route.

The Ecuadorian Embassy at my
half way point... well, what I
thought was my halfway point.

I stayed along Calvert into Adam's Morgan and then over to Meridian Hill Park. This was another area of the city I hadn't spent time in before and it was nice to walk through. There were hundreds of people doing a work out class in Meridian Hill Park which was also cool to see. From there I headed east on W to 14th Street and then down into Logan Circle, where I shifted to Rhode Island Avenue and walked through Shaw, another DC neighborhood that is new to me. Once I reached 7th I headed south, back to Massachusetts and onto a route pretty similar to last week's.

I went a few blocks further into Capitol Hill this time, and ended up walking past Eastern Market where I did a bit of browsing and came up with a few ideas for holiday presents as I walked by the artisans set up there. Yay for multitasking!

I stopped in the Capitol Hill Starbucks for a snack and to refill my water and ended up taking a decent break and reading a chapter of a book on my phone. Once I snapped out of reading mode and realized I needed to keep moving was when the idea of making the walk even longer came to me.

Last year I followed a 16 week training plan and that had two weeks between the two longest (20 & 22 miles) walks. The 12 week training plan doesn't do that, and has me walking 20 miles next week and 22 the weekend after. I decided if I could push on and do 19 or 20 this week then I could make next week a short walk and give myself a bit of a break. The idea of skipping a crazy long walk next weekend was incredibly appealing, so I did some quick rerouting and decided I could do 19 miles.

Walking by Jefferson during the last LONG mile

Back down Pennsylvania, past the White House and down 17th to Constitution and then on to my bestie Lincoln who I seem to walk by on a very regular basis these days. From there it was just over a mile back along the Tidal Basin to my car.

And yet again, the last mile was ROUGH. I really do think it's completely mental. I'm moving along at a decent pace, with sore feet but not terribly so and then I realize I only have a mile to go and my feet hurt SO much. And my pace slows down. And it's hard. Really hard.

But then I'm done! And back to my air conditioned car where I can sit and not walk.

Once I got home I rested for a few hours, but then actually made it back out later in the evening to visit some friends at their house and then get some errands done at Target. I was happily amazed that I was mobile and not really in pain last night!

Today's plan called for 9 miles, but improptu free Redskins/Cowboys tickets called for a revision! I got up this morning and did a short, 2ish mile walk just to make sure I really could keep walking. My FitBit unfortunately was left behind so I didn't capture how much walking I did today at the game but between the parking lot and the long hike to the upper level I definitely feel like I got a good bit of walking. And again, I feel good. Not even sore!

I am definitely so much more confident about this event now. And I'm really happy it's 2 weeks before I had to attempt another super long training walk!

Nice Day for a Long Walk

This weekend I was supposed to do 15 miles yesterday and eight today. Yesterday I was in Richmond for an Alumni Board meeting and it was NOT a nice day for a a long walk.

I decided early in the week  after seeing the forecast the 15 miles was happening on Sunday and this is the route I ended up settling on:

This time I decided to take the bus to Crystal City and then join the Mt. Vernon Trail there. This was a good way to eliminate some of the boring trail walking! I took the trail to Memorial Bridge and then crossed into DC and basically played tourist. I went past the Lincoln Memorial (twice today!), down Constitution to the White House, over through Chinatown and then down Massachusetts Ave past Union Station and into the Capitol Hill neighborhood. From there I came down Pennsylvania, to Independence and over to L'Enfant Plaza.

The weather was SO nice, with a breeze that made it difficult to keep a hat on, but felt great. And while the sun was out it never really felt too hot as I was making my way around the city.


For the first 9 miles I kept myself entertained by tracking what I was listening to starting when I started walking and taking a screen shot of the song playing at each mile mark. Here's my diverse collage of songs:

I was actually feeling great, making good time with very few breaks and with no pain (thanks Advil!) when I reached L'Enfant Plaza, about 9 1/2 miles into my 15 mile walk. But I was still SO happy to have company meet me there to finish the walk! Last night I was pleasantly surprised to get an offer from Mike to join me for the second half. I didn't make him do quite that much, but definitely appreciated the offer as I knew the last few miles were going to drag for me and company would make them so much more tolerable!

Mike and I set out from L'Enfant Plaza over the Case Memorial Bridge (395 by the 12th Street Exit/over the SW Waterfront) and into East Potomac Park. We went along Ohio Drive back towards the Tidal Basin and walked along the water down towards the MLK Memorial and then made my second trip of the day to Lincoln and then down along the reflecting pool to the WWII Memorial. I took a break in the shade on a bench for a few minutes while Mike took in the Memorial, then we continued on, up past the Washington Monument and down Madison Drive along the National Mall.

Still smiling, while the wind whips my hair around, at mile 13 1/2. 

 At this point I was definitely starting to move slower and feeling the effects of the Advil wearing off. We walked to 4th street and then followed it over to Independence and started making our way back to the car. My knee was starting to hurt at that point and my feet were definitely making their presence known. I definitely believe that there's a mental element to the struggle at the end too. Just knowing there's only a few blocks to go tends to make them feel SO much longer.

In the end we returned to L'Enfant at 2:15, exactly 2 hours after Mike met me there and 5 hours and 45 minutes after I set out for my walk. I'm definitely happy with my pace, which was clocking at just under a 20 min mile for the most part, and the limited number of breaks I took (4 total, 2 around 10 minutes, 1 a lot shorter and 1 longer).

And I feel pretty good now, a few hours later. I'm a little hobbly, and my feet hurt a bit, but, I'm about to head out and run some errands and the fact that I can do that feels great!

Last weekend I was feeling pretty apprehensive about the Avon Walk and if I was going to be able to do it again. But today, my confidence is back and so is my optimism!

Goal: 20 miles Reality: Close to 20 miles

This weekend I set out to walk 13 miles on Saturday and 7 today. Reality didn't quite meet those expectations.

Saturday

I set out from home and walked 1.2 miles to the Braddock Road metro where I hopped on and rode for 45 minutes until I ended up in Friendship Heights, MD. Then I walked home. Yup, yesterday's walk took me from Maryland, through DC and back to Virginia.

That's the short version of the story.

The longer version is... I started off walking south on Wisconsin, thinking I was all in the downhill parts, but nope. Between Friendship Heights and the Cathedral there is still plenty of icky hills to go up when heading south! Once I hit Massachusetts I shifted to it and came all the way down Mass Ave, past the Naval Observatory and into Dupont Circle. One of the cool things about this route is that in many parts it was the same path I walked during the Avon Walk last year. I was heading south through Tenleytown where we went North there last year, and the part near the Cathedral had us more on neighborhood streets than I was on, but still, seeing some of the same spots while training for another Avon Walk made me happy. And, a large stretch of Mass Ave was the same as our route on Day 2 last year, heading into downtown so that helped give me some momentum.

Once I hit Dupont Circle I shifted on to Connecticut and took that through Farragut Square and past

the White House. I swung by District Taco to grab a few fish tacos and then headed to my office (around the corner from DT) where I took a 15 minute lunch break and refreshed my water bottle.

Back on foot my route was the same as a few weeks before, down 15th street past the Washington Monument and Tidal Basin and over the 14th Street Bridge to the Mt. Vernon Trail. This time instead of my car waiting for me a mile over the bridge, I still had about 5 miles to go once I crossed.

At various times when I mapped out my route I kept getting slightly different mileage, to the point where the preferred route I had planned would have actually had me doing 14 miles yesterday. I was good with upping things, so that was my intent. Then around mile 7 my hip started to hurt, then shortly after that I realized it was actually my knee that hurt. I'm not sure which was the originating pain and which was the compensating pain, but either way, there was pain. I started shaving the walk back as much as I could, making my route slightly less scenic and slightly more direct and it was going to be 13.5 miles when all was said and done. But by the time I made it back to Alexandria and was a half mile from home I was done. So very done that I took the bus the final 6 blocks. Oh well, I still did make it 13 miles so yay me!

Sunday

For today's walk I was lucky enough to have a friend offer to join me. This was fabulous because without her I'm 75% sure I would have blown it off. I woke up with my legs feeling pretty sore today, but luckily no real pain. After taking some advil I set out with a plan for doing 7 miles. We were walking in Patapsaco State Park along the 2.5 mile Grist Mill Trail. The plan was to start at the west end of it and follow the length of the trail and then keep going heading towards the park entrance another mile and then turn back, bringing the total to 7 miles. Unfortunately my pesky hip/knee issue returned when we completed the first 2.5 mile stretch and I decided I'd be really ok doing 5 miles and not 7. I mapped it when we got home and based on the walk to and from the car we actually got 5.5 so I'm only 1.5 miles off target for the weekend and right about now that feels fine.

Reality

I was completely exhausted when I got home and pretty sore. I'm definitely worried about how things will go for the Avon Walk if only 13 then five miles beat me up this much, Add to that the fact that next Saturday they are calling for it to be back in the high 90s and I'm not sure I can handle the 15 mile training walk I'm supposed to do with those temps. Ugh.

While I still am so incredibly happy about how my fundraising is going, I'm feeling kinda bummed about the walking and how tough it's been this time. Today definitely isn't a high point for me in feeling prepared or optimistic about the Avon Walk.

I'm trying to stay confident, that the weather will get cooler, that the training plan will work and the walks will get easier and all will be well.

And trying is the best I can do right now.

When You Achieve a Goal, It's Time for a New One!

Yesterday I was really feeling the donation love!

It was 45 days from the event and my fundraising total was at $1668, just $132 away from the fundraising requirement for the Avon Walk. I sent a few targeted emails to friends who I knew were planning to give - "Hey, sorry to be a pest, but would it be possible for you to donate today? I'm really close to my goal and want to get there!"

Then when I was at 98%, just $25.10 away I turned to FB and asked who wanted to be the one who got me to 100%. My cousin Allison made that gift, and then immediately after another gift came in and another, and another. They were coming from coworkers, family and long time friends - people from all aspects of my life. Within a few hours of reaching $1800 I was already at $1920. So I returned to FB with another plea, for a few more donations so I could reach $2000.

A few minutes later I got an email alert and was blown away when I opened it and saw a $500 donation had been made. Unbelievable!

A few more additional donations ended up coming in last night, bringing my total up to $2489!

I am completely floored and so happy to have raised so much, this far out from the event. And now am more determined than ever to top last year's fundraising goal. When I did the Avon Walk in DC I raised $3400 and for some crazy reason I was doubtful I could match that this year. All doubt is gone.

In fact, I decided to set my new goal at $3600. Twice the required amount and symbolic as in the Jewish religion the number 18 represents life, and often gifts are given in multiples of 18 to symbolically bless someone with a long life. Raising $3600 to help prevent and cure a terrible disease that has taken too many lives would be more than just symbolic. It would be truly amazing and I thank you all for your part in helping me to achieve this goal.

Expect a walking update post this weekend as I keep "walking forever"