3-Day Breast Cancer Walk Recap

I’ve written before about my experiences last year in the 2009 Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure and also talked about my recent involvement with the 60-Mile Men.

I walked in the Michigan 3-Day again this year and I think there’s one initial word that can summarize the whole thing: HOT. I don’t think I’ve ever felt heat like that, although, how often are you walking 20 miles a day continuously in it? If I had to bet, I was probably drinking about 3 gallons of water a day, and needed every ounce of it.

But, regardless of that little issue, it was another great experience.

Last year was the first year I walked in it and I’ll admit that I found the whole thing intimidating. Didn’t know what to expect. Was nervous about whether I’d actually be able to walk on average, 20 miles a day. I also had my cousin on my mind a lot. Thinking about what she was going through and overall just hoping everything else went okay as she was coming down the finish line of her treatments.

This year was a little different though. My cousin is free and clear, I had a better idea what to expect out of the walk, and overall was just more comfortable and relaxed.

I spent a lot of time on this walk talking to a lot of people while walking. It’s interesting but you tend to make “pit stop to pit stop” friends on this walk. You leave a pit stop (that’s a rest station where you can fill up your water, use the porta john, get medical treatment, etc), and you start walking again and you end up more than likely walking around some other people and just start talking. You do this for about an hour until the next pit stop and then pretty much find someone else to talk with after you leave the next pit stop.

When talking with people, you talk about why you’re walking and what it means to each person. Thinking back, I really don’t think there was one story that was the same between two people. Some were walking for a friend, or a relative, a mother, a sister, a daughter, and even a lot of people walking for no particular person, just walking because they wanted to do something for the cause.

But the one similarity that I found, and I saw this last year too, was just the positive energy that people had while on this walk. It’s not a walk where people are all frowns and sad.

Sure, there are sad moments. But for the most part, people are looking at this walk with determination to not let breast cancer take their spirit. Everyone seems to have the attitude of taking something bad and wanting to make a positive out of it.

The 3-Day is definitely designed around that: A true showing of what a small little group can do together when they focus on one goal and walk towards it.

I can’t say enough about this walk and how I think it really establishes a true sense of the concept of "community." When looking at what part each person is doing, and doing it because they have such passion for it, it gives you such a huge uplift in how strong the human spirit really is.

Everyone from the walkers doing the walking, to the crew that is doing their jobs at the medical stations, the food serving areas, to the safety crews out on the streets, to the personal and corporate donors who graciously gave to get people the money they needed to do the walk to the Susan G. Komen organizers who push through doing this weekend after weekend, city to city.

And then you have the support on the streets. The neighbors and people at the cheering stations leaving food out on tables and neighbors setting their sprinklers out for us to walk through. Maybe the most heartfelt are the little kids out there spraying you with water and handing you food and clapping with big smiles on their faces all while decked out in pink outfits.

All of these people, just doing their individual parts when put together makes for just an amazing community that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in any other setting.

That sense of community got me to put together a short little video using of my video camera while on the walk.

I wanted to put something together to kind of try and give a sense of what this incredible community looks like through the eyes of a walker. To give a feel for what you see for three days out on the streets, in camp, and at the opening and closing ceremonies.

Hopefully those that have done the walk can relate and I hope for those that haven’t done the walk it’ll give you a little insight into what it’s all about and hopefully give you the motivation to be a part of the 3-Day community over the coming years. It’s a great adventure, and through all the fundraising, training preparation, doing the actual walk and everything else that’s involved, it’s worth it in the end.

Okay, enough talk. Take a look and make sure you have your sound turned on:



For a direct link to this YouTube video, you can go to the link below:

Breast Cancer 3 Day