To Walk Or Not To Walk

Part of the reason I started this blog last year was to share my experiences in preparing for and participating in the Breast Cancer 3-Day. It was an interesting journey, and I wish I'd actually started blogging about it back when I started fundraising and training in the Spring. I think it would have been nice to tell the story from beginning to end instead of just blogging about the end result.

When I finished the 3-Day last year, I wasn't entirely sure if I'd walk in the 2007 event. It was a wonderful experience, but not quite as life-changing as I imagined. I think this was partially because it didn't turn out to be quite as challenging as I thought it would be. Raising $2200 wasn't too hard at all thanks to my generous friends and family, and walking 60 miles was actually pretty easy after putting in 580 training miles over the course of 24 weeks. Even though I wasn't committed to participating again, I at least thought I'd have the option. Then a few weeks after the last 3-Day event of the year, the organizers announced that they were pulling Kansas City from the list of 12 host cities for 2007. Even though the K.C. event alone raised $2.5 million last year, they apparently decided the participation numbers weren't high enough.

So this year, if I do decide to walk again, I will have to travel to one of the 12 cities participating: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Seattle, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Dallas/Ft. Worth, San Diego, and unannounced cities in Michigan and Arizona. Chad thinks I would be insane to travel hundreds of miles to walk 60 miles, but I'm thinking that this might just make it a more interesting and worthy challenge!

I should probably make a decision about this relatively soon, but there are a few things that are holding me back. 1) The bulging disc in my back still hasn't recovered from last year, so that's kind of my biggest obstacle at this point. Hopefully soon I'll get some relief from the new massage therapist and acupuncturist I'll be seeing in the next couple of months, so that will no longer be an issue. 2) There could be some significant expenses in traveling to the host city, and I'm cheap. 3) It's hard to imagine myself flying to another city all alone without any friends or family members, only to walk and camp for 3 days with thousands of people I don't know. The idea just makes me so lonely! If I'm going to do this, I really need to find someone who wants to take on the challenge with me! The experience would be so much more wonderful if I were accompanied by even one close friend or dear relative. If you think you might be that wonderful person, you should check out the inspirational video on the 3-Day website to see what a cool event it is!

I tried to convince Chad that he should walk with me, but he wasn't really very keen on (a.k.a. adamantly opposed to) that idea. Now I'm trying to convince him that I should walk in the San Diego event and he should join the crew there, so that we could go together and pretend like the trip was just a vacation. I would walk and he would work, but we could camp/eat together each day and then spend a few days relaxing in San Diego after the event is over. Chad isn't too thrilled about this idea either, since he doesn't really think it would be much of a vacation at all.

Maybe in the next couple of months I will build up enough courage to take on San Diego all alone. After all, it is my favorite city in the world--at least of those I've actually visited!