The walk

This past weekend was the big event that I have been training and fundraising for for the past year, The Weekend to End Breast Cancer. Our team, The Monkey Sisters, raised $20 398.63 so far for the fight against women's cancers and the money is still coming in. Thank you!! The focus of the Weekend in the past has always been breast cancer, this year they changed it to all women's cancers and next year they are changing the name of the event to The Weekend to End Women's Cancers.

I still haven't figured out how to put the experience into meaningful words. 'It was amazing!' doesn't quite seem to cut it. Inspiring, uplifting, moving, hard, exhausting, worthwhile, draining, emotional. These are all applicable words but they are still just words. The Weekend is an experience like no other I've ever had. My biggest thank yous are for the crew and volunteers who supported us and cheered us on throughout the two days. When times were tough, they were positive, energized, enthusiastic and kind. They high-fived us, sang to us, danced for us, handed us drinks and food, told us we were doing great, and made us feel proud to be walking. We couldn't have done it without them.

We got so much love and support from other people too. People driving past would honk and wave. People walking past would sometimes clap or simply say 'thank you' as we went by. In residential areas people tied pink ribbons to their fence posts or doorways. They had signs out saying things like "Thank you! A 9-year survivor lives here!" or "You are walking for me, thank you." These signs always made us teary. People wrote "You can do it" and "Go walkers" in chalk on sidewalks. Families set up lemonade stands and kids handed us dixie cups of pink lemonade. A family in east van set out tables of watermelon, homemade donuts, pakoras and juice for us. When we thanked them for the food and drink they just thanked us back.

I don't think I had any idea before walking how much of an impact this weekend really had on people. I always thought of it in terms of the money that we were fundraising and how that helped people. I had no idea the walk itself would garner so many thank yous. I had thought it was was a cruel joke to make us each raise $2000 and then force us to walk 60km as our reward. The reward, it turns out, is seeing the impact that doing this event has on people and you see that by walking through the city.

Our team of 9 all crossed the finish line arm in arm with tears streaming down our faces. I am so proud of my Monkey Sisters! I can't quite believe I did it! Before the walk, I knew that I wouldn't be doing it two years in a row. I had thought that I would instead volunteer next year to help out on the crew. During the walk, when my knee was aching and my hip was throbbing and the bottom of my foot was blistered and sore, I knew still that I wouldn't be walking again next year. After the walk, I thought to myself, 'I could do this again next year'. So you never know. I may very well sign up to do this all over again in 2010. If I do, I'll be looking to recruit some new team members so start training!