Naomi
10-20-2003, 12:38 PM
I wanted to post about my 5k since this is where I've come to get such good advice on walking.
I signed up to do the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Dallas. I knew that there would probably be a fair amount of people there, but I was astounded by how many turned out. More on that later - but here's a blow by blow of how my day went.
5:30 - alarm goes off. DH groans, so I hit snooze.
6:00 - we finally get up. This is still ok, as I think the race starts at 9.
6:30 - finally getting out the door with the kids. Babysitter fell through at the last minute yesterday, so the 2 little ones are in tow. They're NOT happy. DH can't figure out if we're supposed to wear the company sponsored shirt or the race shirt. I wear race shirt over company shirt.
7:30 - make it downtown, only to find the main roads just closed. Ugh.
7:45 - find out from DH (as we're looking for parking) that the race starts @ 8. Wait - 8??? You told me 9!!! We park at least a half mile from where the race is due to start. As we walk up, we're given a towel and hear on the speakers that the start of the race has been pushed back a few minutes. Yeah! Little boys decided they don't want to walk. I convince them to wait for me & Charlie (oldest son) at the finish line. I think that long of a walk would've been too much for my 5 yo who had his appendix out 2 weeks ago. However, this sounded like an acceptable plan b since the babysitter bailed on us.
8:10ish - the race starts. I'm astounded at the number of people. One of the radio stations announce that there are over 30,000 of us. It was incredible. We moved like a river, ebbing and flowing down the course. At various times there would be groups of people (often teenagers) cheering us on. People held up signs encouraging us. My son wanted to jog part of the way, so he moved forward. I found I enjoyed the people too much to try to jog. There were twin sisters there that were walking in celebration of their mom, cancer free for 17 years. They had pink silk poinsettas in their hair. There was a cancer survivor who brought her radio. We walked a long time to 50's & 60's classics. It was fun to walk along and sing "you ain't nothing but a hound dog" with her. One man marched in honor of his wife, who was too sick battling cancer to walk himself. He called her at every mile marker. I saw 2 different women (at different times) walking the 5k with their walker. I was humbled by the determination and spirit that moved them to be there. When I asked the first lady why she was here, she told me that "every step mattered". How very true. I kept thinking as I walked that I had never walked with that many people before. There was no way to focus on my time - it was too hard to move that fast among that many people. There were too many stories to hear, to many faces to greet. I periodically thought of all my tapping buddies, that I knew where walking too. You were never far from my thoughts on that walk.
Someone had handed out flags to the crowd at the finish lines. We were greeted with loud clapping, cheers, and flags waving. I've never experienced anything like it.
My son had finished a little ahead of me. When I asked him how it went for him, he asked me if it was too early to register for next year. I was so proud of him.
We ended up doing a lot more walking. I figured up that we walked between 5 and 6 miles that day. I'm still a little sore, but it was worth it. Next year, I'm taking my camera with me, to capture some of these incredible spirits.
Naomi
T-Tapping: Next Best Thing to a cure!
I signed up to do the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Dallas. I knew that there would probably be a fair amount of people there, but I was astounded by how many turned out. More on that later - but here's a blow by blow of how my day went.
5:30 - alarm goes off. DH groans, so I hit snooze.
6:00 - we finally get up. This is still ok, as I think the race starts at 9.
6:30 - finally getting out the door with the kids. Babysitter fell through at the last minute yesterday, so the 2 little ones are in tow. They're NOT happy. DH can't figure out if we're supposed to wear the company sponsored shirt or the race shirt. I wear race shirt over company shirt.
7:30 - make it downtown, only to find the main roads just closed. Ugh.
7:45 - find out from DH (as we're looking for parking) that the race starts @ 8. Wait - 8??? You told me 9!!! We park at least a half mile from where the race is due to start. As we walk up, we're given a towel and hear on the speakers that the start of the race has been pushed back a few minutes. Yeah! Little boys decided they don't want to walk. I convince them to wait for me & Charlie (oldest son) at the finish line. I think that long of a walk would've been too much for my 5 yo who had his appendix out 2 weeks ago. However, this sounded like an acceptable plan b since the babysitter bailed on us.
8:10ish - the race starts. I'm astounded at the number of people. One of the radio stations announce that there are over 30,000 of us. It was incredible. We moved like a river, ebbing and flowing down the course. At various times there would be groups of people (often teenagers) cheering us on. People held up signs encouraging us. My son wanted to jog part of the way, so he moved forward. I found I enjoyed the people too much to try to jog. There were twin sisters there that were walking in celebration of their mom, cancer free for 17 years. They had pink silk poinsettas in their hair. There was a cancer survivor who brought her radio. We walked a long time to 50's & 60's classics. It was fun to walk along and sing "you ain't nothing but a hound dog" with her. One man marched in honor of his wife, who was too sick battling cancer to walk himself. He called her at every mile marker. I saw 2 different women (at different times) walking the 5k with their walker. I was humbled by the determination and spirit that moved them to be there. When I asked the first lady why she was here, she told me that "every step mattered". How very true. I kept thinking as I walked that I had never walked with that many people before. There was no way to focus on my time - it was too hard to move that fast among that many people. There were too many stories to hear, to many faces to greet. I periodically thought of all my tapping buddies, that I knew where walking too. You were never far from my thoughts on that walk.
Someone had handed out flags to the crowd at the finish lines. We were greeted with loud clapping, cheers, and flags waving. I've never experienced anything like it.
My son had finished a little ahead of me. When I asked him how it went for him, he asked me if it was too early to register for next year. I was so proud of him.
We ended up doing a lot more walking. I figured up that we walked between 5 and 6 miles that day. I'm still a little sore, but it was worth it. Next year, I'm taking my camera with me, to capture some of these incredible spirits.
Naomi
T-Tapping: Next Best Thing to a cure!