The 3 Day: Week Four Progress Report

As of today, I am eight weeks away from the official start of my training. I would love, love, love to be at 75% of my goal of $2,300 by the time training starts. In order to do that, I just have to receive a donation of $31 per day until then. Will you help me reach my goal?

Lots to share with you, but first: I had a few random thoughts about the 3 Day this week...
-A funny visual: imagine having to put on a sports bra in a small two person tent with your tent mate trying to do the same.
-Who knew that doing a 60 mile walking event would require new styles of underwear?

In other news, one of my co-workers is thinking about registering to do the 3 Day! That would be so awesome to actually know someone on the walk!!


Training Update
So the sneakers that I got from New Balance were not working. I put about ten miles on them before I finally gave up and decided that I needed to bring them back. They did give me a blister, but more than that they were simply WAY too big. You are supposed to get shoes for the event that are a half to a whole size bigger than your norm to allow for foot expansion and swelling. Well, I typically wear a size 9 shoe, but the guy at New Balance said I should really be in a 10 so he fit me for a size 11 for the event. Needless to say, my feet were sliding all over the place, felt raw on the bottom, and did not feel secure. I brought them back to my buddy Ken at New Balance Westshore Mall in Tampa and he spent an hour working with me to find another pair of shoes. He totally hooked me up and even said that if these give me problems to bring them back again, no questions asked. Right on. I haven't tried them out yet, but I'm hopeful!

For some reason, it was very important to me to be able to walk a 4 mile hour. I think the average is 3-4 miles so really anything in there is perfectly acceptable so I guess it was just a little goal that I set for myself. I'm 5'9" so I have height on my side and I'm a fairly quick walker to begin with, so hitting that goal was actually easier than I thought it would be. Once I reached that goal and knew I could do it, I reminded myself that this is a walk NOT a race. If I feel like walking fast then great, but there's no reason why I have to. Turns out, walking 4 miles/hour has been my norm so far; we'll see if that keeps up on the longer walks.

Once I realized that, my walks started to turn into a meditation almost. I walked a very similar route a few times in a row and it was interesting to see the subtle changes each time: the green on the trees, new wild flowers. I'm also pretty sure I saw a hawk or falcon or something similar one day. I was close enough to see that it was huge, but not to identify it.

The weather has alternated between gorgeous and really windy and rainy this week and I walked in both. Breast cancer doesn't wait for the rain and neither will I.

Don't forget, you can keep up with how my training is going at Daily Mile.


Fundraising
One of my co-workers sent in a check and it cleared this week bringing me up to $780 or 34% of my goal! I need to send out reminder letters to the people that I originally e-mailed and see if I can maybe drum up some more donations from the folks that maybe forgot or are procrastinating.

Next step: approach the general public. One thing that I plan to do is sit outside stores with my donation jar and some fund raising goodies. I spent some time this week shopping around for said fund raising goodies including the classic silk ribbons and silicone bracelets but I also found a kit with all kinds of fun stuff in it! Things left to do for this project: receive the fund raising goodies in the mail, decorate my jar, approach stores (not necessarily in that order).

I also thought to approach local businesses about keeping a donation jar at their register. In order to keep costs down, I went to Freecycle to see if I could get some coffee cans to decorate. I had a few people reply with the massive plastic Folgers containers which isn't exactly what I had in mind. One of the women that offered was conveniently located near the Green Fest that I attended on Saturday, so I picked them up from her in case I couldn't find anything else. She was so sweet: she put a few dollars in one of the containers to get me started!

Another fund raising idea I'm playing with is doing an auction or a raffle right here on my blog. I know quite a few teams do a silent auction at a restaurant and make an event out of it, but I just can't do that right now. This virtual version is my take on it. After talking to a few people, I think I'm actually favoring the raffle idea... I'll keep you posted on how this progresses.

I talk about my FAE friends often on my blog and they really are such a loving, supportive family. Needless to say, I've been talking about the 3 Day incessantly since I registered for it and the wonderful Faes on the forum thread have donated to the cause, supported me through their own blogs, and are now helping me fund raise! There are a few members who are talking about creating a custom piece and donating all proceeds to my fund raising efforts! Are these amazing people or what?! I'm so touched by their kindness and support and so very excited to see what they come up with. I can't wait to share their work with you!


Teams
When I went to the Green Fest on Saturday, I saw a booth filled with pink and had to check it out. After some chatting, I was invited to join a team for the 3 Day: Bikers 4 Boobs or Bikers Raising Awareness (BRA). I don't ride but I think I'd fit in. The other team that I heard a lot about (recommended by my field coordinator at the Getting Started Meeting) and wanted to check out was Viva Las Chicas. I think I'll do training walks with both & see where I fit. I have a feeling it's going to be a tough call. From what I can tell, everyone involved in this event has a heart of gold.

Mileage to date on training walks: 30
Goal: $2,300
Achieved: $780 or 34%
Remaining: $1,520
Countdown: 222 days until the event!

If you're enjoying keeping track of my progress, please consider supporting me in my effort to eradicate breast cancer. No amount is too little or too much. Thank you!!