Author Archives: john

Keep Going With Balance

August 10th, 2010 | Posted by john in Uncategorized - (6 Comments)

I’ve come to realize lately that I need to somehow tap some of the Keep Going® spirit of the Energizer® Bunny.  Let me assure you that even though I am the Keep Going Blogger, this is not a shameless promotion.  I find that Keep Going is a perfect term reflecting the state of mind that I need to be in right now, but over the past couple of weeks have found it a little harder to maintain.

As many of you know, I’m walking in two 3-Day for the Cure events this year and they are pretty far apart.  Over three months apart if you want to get down to it.  As my fund raising is more than done for both walks, it would be easy enough for me to just coast to the next event.  I could stop fund raising and I could probably greatly reduce my training and still do alright.  On the surface, that seems like it wouldn’t be a terrible thing, I have set my goals and achieved them.  That’s a good thing, right?

Over the past couple of years I’ve listened to a lot of stories about how people have fought breast cancer and sometimes won and sometimes lost their battles.  I hear these stories and am brought to remember why it is that I walk and do the fund raising.  I have said before that I walk for my wife, so that she never has to fight breast cancer, but I also walk for all of these people that have shared their stories with me.  These stories keep me going and make me want to continue on with what I’m doing without a break.  Maybe you feel like this too.

But if I were to do that, it wouldn’t necessarily be super great either.  I mean, what good is working so that my wife doesn’t have to fight breast cancer if I don’t get to spend any time with her?  I love walking in the 3-Day and I love what good Susan G. Komen can do against this disease, but I love my family too.  This is where the balance comes in.

A good friend of mine named Dale Chiapuzio told me a while ago about a running discussion that he has with his son.  His son just went to college this year and before he went Dale told him, “If you want to party that’s fine, you’re going to college I expect you to party some.  But don’t overdo it.  The same thing goes for studying.  Study so that you can get good grades but don’t study so much that you become a hermit.  Life is all about balance.”  And it is a balance.  If you do one thing too much it will always be to the detriment of others, no matter what part of your life it is.

That’s why when I haven’t done training walks for almost two weeks after the Boston walk I’m not concerned.  I’m taking my son to an amusement park this weekend instead of walking, but on the flip side of that I just sent out invites to a charity poker tournament that I’m doing at the end of the month to help my sister with her fund raising.  I know that I will get back into training soon enough, but I need to remember to enjoy the time I am taking off instead of stressing about how many miles I have walked.

I’m not saying that you should stop whatever you are doing in your efforts for the 3-Day, quite the contrary!  Keep doing this immensely good thing, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I know that there will be months where it seems like there ar more training walks and fund raisers than regular life, and occasionally that’s ok.  There are some of you that will want to do more than one event a year, some that may want to do more than 5.  I’m not going to say you shouldn’t do that, you’re awesome for doing so much in this battle.  That being said, regain that balance where you can, don’t stress about missing a training walk every now and then.  It’s ok to take a little bit of time off, we’re all in this together and one of us will jump in and fight for you while you maintain your balance.

Remember, you’re walking for all those embraces, anniversaries, and other cherished moments with loved ones.  Keep Going so that you can still have those wonderful moments with loved ones in years to come.  Keep Going with balance so that you can enjoy those moments right now.

 

Housecleaning

August 5th, 2010 | Posted by john in General - (Comments Off on Housecleaning)

Hi everyone.  I just wanted to put out a quick note to let you know that the rss feed for the site has changed.  If you have been using http://60miles3days.com/xml-rss.php?blogid=12 please change your feeds to http://60miles3days.com/feed

Sorry for the inconvenience.  I’m making some changes over here to make managing this page a little easier.

 

Warrior

August 3rd, 2010 | Posted by john in General - (1 Comments)

My wife makes these awesome signs to hold at cheering stations. This year, she had a sign that said, “My Husband: Sexiest Man You’ll Ever See Wearing a Pink Bra!”. In 2008, she made a sign with a picture of my head at the top and then a drawn body wearing a real bra. I guess you could say it was foreshadowing of this year and actual me wearing a bra at the 3-Day. Also in 2008, she made a sign for my son to carry that said, “My daddy is a warrior against breast cancer!” It didn’t really hit me until later what that meant. At the time, I didn’t feel like a warrior. Maybe it was because of how tired I was from all the walking, maybe I had just never thought about it in that way, but over the weeks and months that followed that 3-Day I realized that I am a warrior against breast cancer, and chances are that if you are reading this then you are too.


What Makes a Warrior?

Whoa, wait a minute, that last sentence might have startled you a little bit like it did me. You may be wondering how you could possibly make you a warrior against breast cancer and I think it’s probably more subtle than you think. While I think that it would be pretty easy to say that people who do these walks and raise all sorts of money for the fight against breast cancer are warriors, I also think it’s more than that. You can be a warrior against breast cancer without ever lacing up the shoes.

I personally believe that each and every person that made a donation to my 3-Day for the Cure efforts is a warrior against breast cancer. They could have very easily said that they didn’t have the money that month or they could have just done nothing and not made donation. But these awesome people decided that it was more important to make a contribution to the fight against breast cancer than it was to get their latte or buy that video game or any other number of things that they could have spent their money on other than a charity.

The next group of warriors against breast cancer make contributions that are more than money can buy. These are the people that support all the walkers and crew in their endeavors. They cheer us on at cheering stations, they push us out of bed for training walks (ok, while that might not seem so supportive at 5 in the morning, it got me out on the training walks which was a big help), they put up with us being away from family for so long because of training. They do all of these things to help keep us on course and keep us motivated for our training and our fund raising. Without them, this event would be a whole lot harder. Without them, we would not make such strides in our fight against breast cancer.

I guess that what I’m saying with all of this is that everyone that goes out of their comfort zone or out of their daily routine to make a difference in the fight against breast cancer is a warrior. Some may think that this is a little hokey, but this has been on my mind for a good while now and it’s something that I felt needed to be said.


Battle Call

Now is the time where I call you to action. If you haven’t ever been involved in the 3-Day for the Cure this is your chance. As I said above, there are many ways in which you can participate and bring out the warrior that I know you can be. Maybe walking is the right choice for you, did you know that the 2011 3-Day for the Cure registration is now open? You could start a team of friends or you could join a team. If you’re really dedicated you could join on your own! Maybe you don’t want to do all that walking, I admit 60 miles is a bit daunting. You can still be involved in the event by being a crew member. Registration for the 2011 3-Day is open for that too! (to register, go to http://the3day.org) Ok, maybe you don’t want to participate in an event. Make a donation to someone that you know that is walking in the walk. We all have to raise $2300 to do this and the more money that we raise the closer that we get to a cure! Don’t have the funds? Look into supporting a walker or crew member in another way. Send them a letter at the 3-Day camp (if you go to spectator info on the 3-Day page and select the city it has instructions to do this) or come cheer them on at a cheering station!

Whatever you do, know that you are doing it for an amazingly good cause. Thanks for reading and thanks for all that you do to be a warrior against breast cancer.

 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

July 30th, 2010 | Posted by john in At the Walk - (8 Comments)

Ok, I know that at the beginning of the week I said I would do a post on the differences between the Dallas and Boston walks and which I liked better, but it’s just not coming out right. I honestly thing I would probably upset people in both cities. So, I’ve changed focus a little bit and instead of comparing the two cities, I’m going to write about some of the changes from last year to this year. As many of you know, in the past year the event has changed from the Breast Cancer 3-Day, a National Philanthropic Trust to the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure. In addition to the name change came quite a few other operational changes. Here’s the few that I noticed, I’m sure that there are a lot more that I missed. We will start with the changes that I know for sure happened and end with one or two that I think may have happened, but I’m not sure if they were on purpose or not or even if they were changes.


Dinner Time!

The first real change that made me start thinking about things and how they were a-changing was dinner. Over the past three years, I have become accustomed to and even grown to expect spaghetti on the first night. I do have to admit that I was a little disappointed to find that Friday night dinner was not spaghetti, but steak. Ok, so I do admit that the steak was pretty good and the chicken with spaghetti sauce the next night wasn’t all too bad either, but spaghetti was kind of like an institution for me. Friday night spaghetti just kind of said “3-Day” for me.


Get Clean.

Ok, next up in the differences department is the showers. I can wholeheartedly say that I like the change in the showers. Where in years past, there was a public changing area with one large bench to put your stuff on, this year each of the shower stalls had their own attached changing area separated by a curtain. I heard some say that they didn’t like the new arrangement, that they thought it made people take longer in the shower (I can see that, your shower time is now more than just the time in the shower, it’s also getting dressed and undressed) and I heard a couple of people say that it was harder to adjust the water to rinse off the soap. I’m tall, and a guy so I didn’t really experience any of those two gripes since there are far fewer men vying for the showers.


Lunch Time

OK, so far the changes have been good right? Or at least mostly good. Lunch is the first change that I don’t think I’m fully behind. It seemed like there were a lot fewer options when it came to lunch this year. I remember in years past having the regular fare of sandwiches, but in addition to that there was chips, fruit, big soft cookies, fruit cups (which on the year I had it were a little ill fated with the bees in the area) and more. This year seemed more sparse, with a small wrap or sandwich, chips and an apple. I guess when you look at the list that I have presented, maybe I’m just talking about the cookie, but it just seemed like there was more there in previous years. What I had was good, there just wasn’t a bountiful amount.


Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

I can’t believe I waited this long to mention this news. The biggest piece of information that I can pass on to you from this year is that the Peanut Butter, Jelly and Graham Cracker sandwich things are back. Last seen in 2007, these morsels of delight were sorely missed in the following years until now. I was extremely excited about these, so much so that I took a picture to commemorate their return:


So now I will also be totally honest and say that not everyone was thrilled about the change. Just as I had become accustomed to spaghetti Fridays,some people had come to expect crustables (uncrustables? I don’t know). The only thing that I will say I missed about those is that they were more filling, so I could feasibly have them for lunch instead of lunch. But all in all, my opinion is that this is an awesome change!


Route

This is the item that I am not sure of if it was a change and if so, if it was intentional. As we were walking we came across some of the pit stops that were only 1 mile away from the previous pit stop. I don’t know if this was intended or if there was a last minute cancellation on a place that they had originally had staked out for that pit stop, but it was really weird to have them that close together.


Entertainment

I wasn’t present for it at dinner, but I was there at closing ceremonies and I understand that Candy Coburn sang her song “Pink Warrior” at both of these. I heard it was great to have her at dinner. Pretty neat that Susan G. Komen can bring in recording artists like that and have them perform for the walkers.

OK, so that’s what I am pretty sure is different. How about you? Did you notice something different in your 3-Day walk this year that I missed? Share it in a comment!

 

Boston Day 3 Recap

July 25th, 2010 | Posted by john in At the Walk - (2 Comments)

Day 3 of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure is done. Today I’m thankful for all the crew that were involved in making the event happen. Without all the safety, camp and medical crew there is no way this event would happen. Thank you to all the crew! So here’s the recap of the final day of the Boston 3-Day for the Cure.


It Starts With Some Pain

The day started unlike most that I have had on the 3-Day, with a pain in my shin. I think that all of the hill walking from the previous day finally had a bad effect on me. I was still able to walk, and that is exactly what I did. As I walked, I’m pretty sure that I was trying to compensate for the pain and as a result my knee on the other leg started to hurt. Adding one thing to another!

I was able to finish despite the pain, and I have to admit that it was pretty minor compared to the pain some other people are in. Plus, as anyone on the 3-Day will tell you, it’s better than chemo. A nice hot bath after the walk helped with things and I’m feeling much better now.


Parts of Boston

We finally got to walk into some of the locations that Boston is really known for: Boston Commons, Harvard, MIT and the Boston public gardens. Was great to see these locations that I hadn’t seen before. Was a really great day to end the walk.


More People From the Internet!

Met two more people in person that I had previously only met on the Internet too! I saw Lauri Yanis and her husband Matt Goggin, both of whom did interviews previously on the site. As you know, they are both veteran walkers, but in Boston they came out to cheer on the other walkers and do a littler “walker stalking”. They were a welcome relief with their spray bottles to cool us down on a hot day!


Holding and Closing

If you haven’t participated in a 3-Day event before, holding is where the walkers go to wait for everyone to finish the walk so that we can all walk into closing ceremonies together. This year was a little different in that the holding area was actually indoors, with air conditioning. I don’t know if it was because of this, but the victory tunnel, that’s where the walkers that have already finished line up to give high fives and cheer on those who finish after them, was entirely awesome. Tons and tons of people it seemed were participating and it was altogether a great experience.

After we got through the victory tunnel, one of the staff grabbed our team. We were pretty easy to pick out from a crowd because we were all wearing pink cowboy hats and I guess because of that she wanted us. She grabbed us and took us to a small platform and asked us to dance there. Pretty strange, but also kinda fun. I’m sure there are videos that I can post later with this.

We went from holding to the closing ceremonies. Everyone lined up and our team was pretty close to the back of the group which meant that by the time we got into the closing ceremonies area we didn’t have to wait very long. The closing ceremony is always an emotional things, especially the parts where they bring the flag bearers on stage with their loved ones and where the survivors circle raises the final 3-Day flag. The ceremony ended with everyone tired, but what an amazing job. $4.3 MILLION raised!

That’s all for tonight, I’m going for some much needed rest! Stay tuned and I’ll do a whole event overview with some details that I missed in my rush to get these online. I’ll also do a little comparison between the Boston and Dallas walks and let you know what I think. Thanks everyone!