Day 1 Training Walk

Trina & Carol

My friend, Carol, completely inspired me last year. Last October, she completed her second year of participating in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure". 20 miles per day for 3 days. 60 miles total!

Last year, I met Carol at one of the cheering stations on her first day. I was so inspired by her, and all of the other participants that I watched that I decided that I would make the leap and join her this year! I signed up and registered the week after she finished last year so I wouldn't get cold feet. :)

Carol called me yesterday afternoon to see if I was up and available for our first training walk together. We decided to meet at Crissy Field here in SF, which is actually where camp is set up for the actual event.

We met at 2:30 this afternoon, along with Carol's friend, Melissa, who had done the walk with Carol 2 years ago. The three of us have formed a team (with Carol as our leader) called "Dancers Fighting Cancer". Carol and Melissa are both dancers - I'm just an honorary dancer. ;)

We walked for 3 hours straight, and figured we covered at least 8 miles total. It was fantastic! The weather was in the low-60s and clear, which was just perfect. We walked through the Presidio, and through Pacific Heights. Carol and Melissa really wanted to tackle some steep hills - they both live in the South Bay, and wanted to be able to train on some San Francisco hills, like we'll encounter on the actual event. Luckily for me, I've been conditioning myself on SF hills for several years - between when I first moved here for school (when I would walk 1.5 miles each direction on steep hills in Nob Hill and Russian Hill 6 days a week) to my daily walks (2.5 miles in Eureka Valley and Noe Valley) and my weekend urban walks with Dick.

I know we only did 8 miles today, which isn't even half of the distance we'll need to walk for the actual event, but I feel pretty good about it. It was our first training walk, and we still have another 4.5 months to train before October 1st. We're going to meet again next week to train again!

I felt a lot better about my participation in the 3-day walk after talking with Carol and Melissa today. They were able to go into detail with me about what to expect day-to-day, and put my mind more at east

60 miles in 3 days sure is daunting, but it really helps knowing that I'll be doing it with two friends who have made it through, and who will surely help me along. :)


Melissa and Carol