Since I started yesterday with who I was thankful for, I decided to do it again for day two. Today I am thankful for all the other walkers who participate in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure. Let’s face it, if it weren’t for all of you this event wouldn’t be nearly as awesome as it is. Yeah, I would still be walking and raising money, but it would be a little boring!

Today was a really good day for walking. I’m gonna jump right into the re-cap now becaue it’s already past when I should be going to bed.

The Weather

Talk about a major change from yesterday! Instead of being cool and raining for over half the day it was hot! It got up to 93 today (or 90 depending on who you asked), which is cooler than some of the training walks, but I was out in it for a lot longer. Yesterday I said that I would prefer hot to wet and I still stand by that but it was rough going with sweat in the eyes.

The Companionship

I got to walk with a lot of teams, solo walkers and near solo walkers. For those of you that follow this site fairly regularly, I got to walk for several miles with Kristen Cincotta (who shared her favorite 3-Day moment with me a couple of months ago). She was great company on the walk and I was really glad to meet her in person.

At lunch I met a team named Punk Walkers (now one of my favorite team names!) and walked with them on and off through the rest of the day. Their team captain, Lisa, was unable to walk when she was 13 and now walks in the 3-Day! This year was her fourth walk!

At the final cheering station, I ran into Jen Hammel, who has also done a 3-Day moment video and is doing a fund raiser tomorrow night. I also ran into Lisa from Whining Causes Blisters, the awesome blog that gave me the idea to try and get the men of the 3-Day nominated for the Sexiest Man Alive.

I’m sure I’m forgetting someone, but it’s getting late and I should really go to sleep. I hope you enjoyed this recap!

 

I was out walking today and I was thinking about how fortunate I am to have the wonderful friends and family that I do that helped me raise an AWESOME amount of funds going towards breast cancer research, edutcation and awareness initiatives. I really wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU. With that said, I also wanted to get started with a recap.

Wake Up Wake Up!

4:30 comes early. Very early, but if you’re not in your own time zone and it’s like getting up at 3:30 in your home time zone it’s even earlier! But I did get up and ready in plenty of time, and I was greeted by numerous smiling faces. The pink hair and bra was really popular and I had three or four people want to take pictures with me as we waited out in the lobby. Lots of fun!

To the Ceremony!

We took a bus from the hotel loaded our gear on the gear trucks and then went to the opening ceremonies. Great setting on a lake (pond maybe?) and the thing that I noticed significantly fromt he times that I have done the Dallas walks is that it was actually light outside when I got there! Since the Dallas walk happens in November it’s dark at that time.

Solo Walkers

There was something that really stuck with me from the 3-Day moment that Lauri Yanis showed with me. I remembered her saying that she tries to seek out solo walkers and befriend them so that they don’t have to walk alone. I really liked that thought so I went ahead and followed it through. I approached several walkers and walked with them for a good while. A couple of times they weren’t solo walkers, but they couldn’t do the pace that their team required. I walked with several walkers with and without teams and we all had great conversations, even in the rain.

The Rain

Now that the rain has entered the conversation, I guess I have to address it. It started sprinkling on and off at about lunch time and continued to rain well after I got to camp. I will admit, I didn’t do any rain training and I was a little concerned. It was fine and it turns out that walking in the rain is just like walking without rain, only a little wetter. To be honest, it didn’t rain too hard and it was or a good portion pretty nice to walk in the rain.

When I got to camp was a different story. Luckily my tent mate had set up the tent already when I got there, but there was still a difficulty of getting everything into the tent. I was standing outside of the tent looking at it and wondering how on Earth I should proceed. In the end I got everything in and it was all a bit wet.

I went to take a shower without thinking about the fact that there was no tarp on the tent and when I got back my sheet was VERY wet. There was a leak in the roof. I’m sleeping on the air mattress with a blanket so it’s fine, it was just a hassle.

Sleep Time

That’s all for me tonight. I’m headed to sleep now. Hopefully there will be no rain tomorrow. I’ll try and get some pictures on the web site as soon as I can, but if you want to see them pretty quick, check out the Twitter feed and I will be posting there along the way!

 

I originally planned on writing this post about what I packed for the 3-Day. I thought about it and thought about it and didn’t really think it was that interesting. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people that need some help thinking of what to pack for the 3-Day for the Cure, but I think that there are quite a few sites that have all sorts of lists of what you should bring and it doesn’t really make for much reading. I promised a list last week and I will not go back on what I promised, but I’m going to start off a little differently. I want to start off with how I pack my bag because I think it’s equally important to know how to get all of that stuff into your bag as it is to know what to put in there.

Are You Going to Put a Body in There?

Last year, Ryan Sparks, one of my teammates had this MAMMOTH bag that everyone called the body bag. It was huge and that’s saying something, because I always thought my bag was big. Making sure that you have the right bag for your packing is one of the most important pieces of being able to pack. I prefer a bag with a large main compartment and decent sized front and back compartments. Also, wheels are an absolute must. There is nothing so fantastically bad as finishing a 20 mile walk and then having to lug your bag half a mile to your tent. I may exaggerate when I say half a mile, but after 20, it seems like that.

When I bought my bag a couple of years ago, I had a hard time finding one that I thought was adequate for all of my criteria. I was probably looking in all the wrong stores, but where I ended up was at the luggage section of Academy Sports and Outdoors. I never new there was a luggage section there and it took some looking, but they had several large duffel bags to choose from when I found it. I’m sure that there are plenty of places that I just missed, but if you find that you are having trouble, then take a look there.

It’s Kind of Like a Nesting Doll

Now that you have your bag, it’s going to feel kind of like you are putting together a strange nesting doll with all of the other types of bags you will be dealing with. Keep in mind that moving forward, just about everything you put in your bag should be in another bag. A plastic bag. Here’s a rundown of the different types of bags that I use:

• Garbage Bags: great for storing your large items like sleeping bags and air mattresses. If there is not room in your tent to put your duffel bag when you get to camp, you can also use two of these bags to put your duffel in outside of your tent so that it doesn’t get wet over night.
• Gallon Ziploc Bags: Ziploc has in no way compensated me for talking about them in this post, but if they would like to make a donation, I think it would be great. I use the gallon Ziploc bags to store medium sized items like clothes and toiletries. I recommend the bags with the actual zipper mechanism in them, I’ll explain why later.
• Sandwich Bags:

I use sandwich bags for storing all of the sandwiches that I take on the walk. Not really. I use them for smaller items like electronics: flashlights, battery packs, etc.

Make sure that you have plenty of bags and I always pack an extra few just in case I forgot a bag for something.

You Can’t Go Naked

You will need to pack clothes. That goes without saying. When I pack, I choose to put each walking day of clothes in a separate bag. So, for Saturday I will have a gallon bag with underwear, walking shorts, bra (because I’m wearing one as part of a fund raiser) and if I were wearing a shirt it would also be in there. It may seem like a lot of stuff to put in a gallon bag, but I assure you that it can be done. I did it last night. The key is in the rolling. I roll up everything I can so it takes up the absolute least amount of space. Underwear, great. Shorts, great. If you’re taking a bra with underwire, not so much. Once you have everything in the bag, zip it most of the way up and then squeeze it. As long as it is zipped up most of the way this will squeeze out and keep out most of the air, making the bag take up less space in your duffel, which is a very good thing. When you get to camp, you can pull out the bag for the day and keep it in the tent with you overnight so that in the morning you are ready to go without having to search for anything.

You probably noticed that I didn’t include socks on the list of things for walking day clothes. That wasn’t a mistake, thought I make plenty of them. I put my socks in one bag. This is personal preference. Since socks are a very important part of walking in the 3-Day for the Cure, I put them in one bag so that I can select and not forget them.

Let’s Get Packing

Hopefully by now, you have everything in their own respective bags, bet it garbage, gallon or sandwich. I recommend waiting until all this is done before you really start packing. It’s never fun to pack everything and then realize that you need to put something in a bag that is at the bottom of your duffel. When I started this, I mentioned that I had a duffel with a large compartment and two decent sized pockets. When I pack, I try to keep related items together. So, in the main compartment I will put my air mattress, the battery operated pump for that (both in the same garbage bag), my sleeping bag (or sheets/blanket), and pillow. In one of the pockets, I will try to put all my walking clothes. In another pocket, I will put miscellaneous items, like extra panchos, tarps, flashlight, toiletries, etc. Then I finish off the main compartment with my extra shoes (sometimes these will fit in the miscellaneous pocked), camp clothes, after shoes, and this year a plush Energizer® Bunny.

The List

As promised, now that I have shared some of my thoughts on packing, here is the list of things that I will bring in my duffel bag on the 3-Day for the Cure. Keep in mind, this is what is in my bag and may not be suitable for you but will hopefully give you a good starting point.

• Air mattress – I prefer this to camp pads or thermarest and you can get one with a battery pump for $15 at Wal-mart.
• Sheet and Blanket – This is the first year I am not packing a sleeping bag. The weather in Boston promises to be much hotter than when I have walked in Dallas, so I’ll take a sheet and blanket here and a sleeping bag to Dallas.
• Camp Pillow – found one from Coleman that folds up pretty nice
• Flashlight – I use a normal one, but most people recommend a headlight so you don’t have to worry about dropping it in the potty.
• Energi to Go Charger – I’ll use this to charge my iPhone overnight.
• Two Tarps – one for on top of the tent and one for under.
• Emergency Blanket – and let’s hope you don’t have to use it
• Extra panchos – I use the cheap wal-mart kind that doesn’t take up much space, but they are pretty much single use
• After Shoes
• Second pair of walking shoes
• Toiletries – toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, conditioner, body gel (I hate carrying soap in those little containers), deodorant, etc.
• Socks – at least six pair of walking socks, but if it plans to rain, maybe more
• Walking Clothes – I’m including shorts, underwear and bras in this.
• Camp clothes – Probably a short sleeved shirt, some jogging pants. Really something comfortable and weather appropriate for you to wear around camp.
• Batteries – extra batteries doesn’t hurt if you’re bringing an air pump for your bed.
• Clothespins – to hold the tarp to your tent
• Energizer Bunny – if you haven’t looked that the gallery on the site you should and then you’ll understand what this is

I think that’s it, but I really don’t have my bag sitting in front of me right now. If I get home later and notice that I’ve missed something I will definitely add to the list. What about you, what packing methods or items do you use that you think people should know about. Comment below!

 

The first Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure of the year is less than two weeks away, so I thought I would use this week and next week to talk about packing things. This week, I’m going to write about what to pack for the actual route of the 3-Day for the Cure. This would be stuff that you keep in your camelback, fanny pack or anything else. Next week, I’ll write about what I packed in my duffel bag for the event. I’ll actually be writing it as I pack or I would put it out sooner. Sorry Boston walkers, I know that it makes it a little late for you guys. Without further delays without apologies let’s get to what I carry in my Camelback when I’m walking on the route.

First Aid is the First on My List

I have a first aid kit that I carry around at it is probably bigger than it needs to be. I bought a cheap camera carrying case for a small camera and filled it with everything that I need. It has sunscreen, band-aids, ibuprofen, chap stick, and Nexcare padded adhesive first aid tape. The Nexcare tape is what I use to take care of my blisters. I realize that the first aid tents have blister treatment items, however I recommend bringing your own. I have mentioned several times over the course of this blog that you train with what you walk with. This is not at all different with your blister care. You don’t know what the first aid tents will have for blister care and if it will work for how you like to treat your blisters. You should take what you usually use so that you can prevent and treat in the way that you are accustomed.

Socks! Socks! Socks!

There should really only be one socks up there, I don’t actually carry three pairs of socks with me, but that doesn’t make this point any less important. You will need to change your socks at least once during the day so you need to ensure that these socks are with you in your pack. During my first 3-Day walk, I didn’t really know why I should change socks. I figured that by lunch time, my feet would have adjusted well to my socks and that the last thing that I would want to do would be to take them off. I still changed them at the urging of many people and I was thankful for it. It was great to have a fresh pair of non-sweaty socks on my feet for the second half of the day.

Pancho, Not Villa

It does rain on the 3-Day. You keep walking in the rain unless it is dangerous, so if you don’t like getting wet, then you should bring a pancho with you. I think the one that I have I got at Wal-Mart and it was packaged up nice and small so it doesn’t take up much space. Don’t open it unless you are going to use it, I speak from experience that you will never get it packaged up that small again if you do.

Phone

You’re not supposed to use your phone on the route. Everyone, repeat after me: I will not use my phone on the route. Even though you will not use your phone on the route, I find it handy to have for a number of things. I’ll stop (or do it at pit stops) and take pictures with mine and upload them to Twitter or Facebook. I use it to let family and friends know how far I am from cheering stations so that they know when to look for me. I also use it to help locate my teammates if we happen to get separated. Please keep in mind that when I do any of these things I will step off the route, do what I need to do and then step back on. Technology is useful but be smart about it.

Flip It

I have a Flip video camera that I carry with me. I use it to take video several places along the walk. Maybe there’s an awesome group of school kids that are cheering everyone on during Friday, maybe a pit stop is really cool or maybe I want to video how my team is doing at lunch. I also film opening and closing ceremonies. I keep my Flip with me for all of these reasons.

Zip It

The last couple of things I have mentioned are technology related items and don’t really like to get wet. With that in mind, you need to bring plenty of ziploc bags. That way, if it starts to rain, you can bag anything that will be sensitive to the wetness. I also recommend putting your socks in a bag and anything that would be water sensitive in your first aid kit in them (the packaging on band aids gets kind of soggy).

So that’s, for the most part what I carry in my pack. You could also say stuff like water and Gatorade, but I figured that was probably self explanatory. Please comment with anything else that you carry in your pack!