The 3 Day: Week Nine Progress Report

It's a long one: I've got a lot to share with you!

Training
I had my followup visit with the doctor and feel a little more reassured that plantar fasciitis really is what I have. I was questioning the diagnosis because my symptoms are so vastly different than what I've heard from so many other people. My problem is really in my arch and what he explained to me is that the plantar fascia ligment really is the only thing in the arch that could cause the pain that I experienced. Apparently, I'm not normal since everyone else's pain is in the heel. I guess it's all about the mechanics of how I'm built and how I walk. It seems that this is a condition that I may have had previously, but it just got aggravated & inflamed from overtraining (if 9-16 miles per week was overtraining, I wonder what's going to happen when I start doing 30-40 miles per week) and unsupportive shoes (thanks a lot New Balance).

For the time being, I'm still following the icing, splint, stretching, anti-inflammatory, resting routine... at least for another couple of weeks until my next visit with him. He prescribed a semi-custom orthotic to see how my feet respond to it before we go all out and order the custom orthotic. I really hope that the one I have now fits the bill! It cost handsomely and the custom one will cost even more. In addition, the one I have right now is just big enough that I really need to go buy some new shoes so that my feet aren't cramped. Apparently, if I have to get a custom orthotic I will have to get yet another new pair of shoes for it to fit into. Sigh... I hope after the inflammation goes away, I can wear some shoes other than sneakers...

The crazy thing about all of this is that my feet have felt worse this week than they did before I went to see him (and before they were taped up!). Ah, well... I can only imagine it's because they are being stretched so often. Here's to hoping that they start to feel a bit more normal soon.

Even though I can't go walking, I've decided that I can at least continue to stretch and strengthen with my yoga and pilates. I think that the yoga can only help at this point and I think that the pilates is going to be a huge benefit for strengthening my core for the event. I do hope that the inflammation calms down soon: training officially starts mid-May!

A woman that lives less than two miles away from me contacted me through the 3 Day's share list to see if we can do some training walks together since we live so close. She sounds like a nice lady & I'm looking forward to doing some walking with her, but I had to tell her that I'm holding off on any more training until I see the doctor again. Needless to say, she totally understood.


Fundraising
People are still offering to donate goods to my raffle! I'm so thankful for the generosity of the handmade community, but I've had to stick with the beginning of the raffle as my cut off date for item contributions. I have 23 amazing artists contributing $600 worth of products and am now working on selling tickets (aka getting donations). The handmade raffle has already raised $80 to find a cure & there's still three weeks left! I'm hoping to do a couple more markets or tables outside stores in that time, too, but more on the market later. It's just $5 for your chance to win one of these amazing goodies, so please check it out!

The lovely ladies at The Herb Society allowed me to set up my fundraising goodies at the meeting this week. It wasn't a huge success, but I walked away with $15 more towards the 3 Day than I had before the meeting. I also got to talk to one woman who has participated in the event and another who's considering doing it. It was also nice to be able to set up my goods in a fairly casual setting before doing the market on Friday.

The Tampa Downtown Market was a lot of work both getting ready for it and doing it, but it was also a lot of fun. I spent countless hours printing out breast cancer awareness literature, being crafty with banners and signs, figuring out my table set up, etc. So the time spent preparing for it isn't necessarily commensurate with what I raised but I have to say that I really enjoyed it!


I had quite a few sales of the Pink Ribbon Accessories that I got specifically for events like this. You can also get a little sneak peek of the Pink Warrior Chain Maille Collection that I've been working on in this photo. I'm hoping to have the beginnings of the collection listed for sale online this week.


I also had two raffles going: one was the handmade raffle and I also had another to see Cats at the Straz Center in Tampa. The handmade raffle was quite popular with many people wanting to buy the items outright!


I have to give a big old thanks to the Tampa Downtown Market who actually donated the space for me to use for my fundraising tent! They were also nice enough to include a blurb about me and what I'm doing in their weekly newsletter. One woman came to my tent to support me after reading that blurb. Every little bit helps and it does not go unnoticed!

I also am SO grateful to Scott who is by far my #1 supporter. After working crazy hours for the past couple of weeks, he could have slept in Friday morning, but instead he was up with me at 6:00am loading the truck for the market. He helped me set up the tent, ran back and forth to get the truck, made sure that I had something to eat, covered the table so I could run to the bathroom, and was just my overall rock.


When all was said and done, my tent at the market raised $119 to go straight to my fundraising for the 3 Day for breast cancer research and breast health programs!

Including the cash that I raised at the Herb Society and the market this week, I've surpassed 75% of my goal!! I had hoped to get to the 75% milestone by the time training starts simply because I knew that with what's been going on with my feet I was going to have to stay focused. I'm just thrilled that I was able to meet that goal! That got me to thinking about where all of the money has come from. Turns out that the majority of the money that I've raised to date has been from letters, Facebook, and word of mouth. Here's an approximate breakdown of where my donations have come from so far:

$1,390 Letters, Facebook, word of mouth
$55 twitter
$120 raffles (handmade & show tickets)
$60 pink ribbon accessories
$10 silicone bracelets

My goals for the 3 Day this week will include attempting to get a couple more market dates & finally listing my Pink Warrior Collection!!!

Mileage to date on training walks: 41
Goal: $2,300
Achieved: $1,754 or 76%
Remaining: $546
Countdown: 187 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!!

Don't forget to check out my raffle benefitting the 3 Day!