The Lumbar pack, training and the Energizer Bunny

So I received my new lumbar pack (as opposed to back pack) from the Shop3Day.com and got to try it out the very same day. I must say that it has its pros and cons.

Pros

• It's smaller than my back pack but bigger than a fanny pack. Very important when you like to carry a jacket and a few other things.
• It has a nice little case that will hold my cell phone so that I don't have to go digging for it.
• It has little compartments on the side that I can put my lip balm and other little things in and I can reach it without taking my pack off
• I like how it sits lower on my back but not on my rear like a fanny pack
• It can be used without the back pack straps or with. I think I prefer with

Cons

• I'm not especially fond of the fabric the back pack straps are made out of as I'm use to my soft padded ones.
• My current water bottles do not stay in the two water bottle holders. Amy S. also has one that she is trying out and her water bottles
  fit and don't fall out. I will try different ones

I have now used it 3 times and it is growing on me. Like all things sometimes it just takes some getting used to. Here is a picture of me

taking a picture of my lumbar pack. Don't laugh, it is hard to take a picture of your back. Also please disregard the binder clip as I was using that until I determined if I was going to keep it. You will also notice the tag is still attached. Funny thing is Amy had left her tag on too! Always good to make sure you like something before taking off the tags:)

I got 16.45 miles of training walks in this week and not the 21 that I was planning on. Sometimes life happens or in this case work and I just couldn't do the 5 today. Something is better than nothing though so no need to beat myself up over it. Saturday, my teammate Sheila led her first walk (5 miles) as an offical 3-Day trainer. She did a great job. Here is a photo at the end of the walk and I'm still all smiles!

Energizer Bunny has started announcing the bloggers they have chosen for each of the 15 Susan G. Komen 3-Day walks. I will actually be walking 2 walks this year (DC and Dallas) and have put in my application to be the blogger for Dallas. I'm keeping my rabbit ears crossed. Stay tuned.

Walking and Fundraising

Dar and I started training together this past Thursday and will continue to do so every Tuesday and Thursday. We live fairly close to each other so it will be great to have each other to walk with on the week days. It really helps to keep you honest and walk the miles even when you don’t really feel like it. Believe me I have had several days (I’m probably not alone) that I talk myself out of walking even though I know how important it is to train. I think sometimes I get in my head that I’m still 18 weeks out from DC and 22 weeks out from Dallas and I feel like I have all kinds of time to train even though I know that it will be here before I know it! So I have to give a big shout out to Dar for helping to keep me honest and focused in the coming weeks!

Of course on Saturdays and Sundays we will be having our team walks! I look forward to those as it gives me time to catch up with my teammates and find out what they have been up to. We had a 4 mile walk this past weekend hosted by Run On in Coppell, TX. I really like this store! It’s the place I first went 3 years ago to get fitted for my very first 3-Day shoes. It’s when I learned that I had been wearing 1.5 sizes too small. I have one foot that is an 8 and one that is a 9 so I should have always been getting at least a 9.5 as you should wear athletic shoes that are a half size to a size larger. I had been stuffing my foot into an 8 for all my many years:( Not a good thing!

This past weekend we (PSIM) also worked the concession stand at Texas Motor Speedway for the Indy Car Race.
I’m not sure how smart it was to walk 4 miles that morning and then go stand on my feet for 10 hours but I survived and it was well worth it. There were about 20 of us that manned a concession stand, beer stand and what they called a Hot Rod booth. I learned that a Hot Rod is a hot dog with pulled pork on it? I guess instead of a chili dog it’s a BBQ dog. Not sure I will ever try one of those. Kelly B. and I were in the beer stand. We have it down to an art now that we have done it twice. The two of us together make a pretty good team! I’d work with her anytime!!

I ordered a new backpack from Shop3Day.com. It should be here tomorrow so I can try it out when Dar and I go walking. I decided that my backpack I’ve been using is much larger than I really need so this one is not only smaller but it has the 3-Day logo on it! Now when I’m out walking people will know why I’m walking instead of just thinking I’m some goofy girl out walking around aimlessly with my backpack on.

A Weekend of Joy and Sadness

JOY
This Memorial day weekend was one of Joy and one of Sadness. I drove to Syracuse Kansas for my 20 year class reunion and spent Saturday with 15 of my classmates. Syracuse is a small town in Western Kansas very near the Colorado boarder. My graduating class only had 35 students so to get almost half of us there I thought was great. It was a great joy to see them all. The best part of the day however was seeing my classmate Chris Englert Sukach on Skype from Afghanistan. For me to be able to give her a little glimpse of our reunion while she is over serving our country was the greatest honor I could have. The smile on her face will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I must say it proved to be a harder task than I had thought it would be. I had procrastinated and not downloaded or setup a Skype account until about 8pm on Friday evening. I sent her a message on Facebook and asked her what time she thought might work for her on Saturday. When I woke up Saturday I checked my messages and she had sent me one back saying to try for 10:30am (Syracuse time). The trick was at 10:30am the parade for alumni and old cars was going to be starting and our class was riding in the parade. I didn’t let that stop me though. Thanks to classmate Kyle and his Verizon wireless I had my laptop all set up to take along with us in the parade. I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to visit with Chris.

I’m sure the community thought I was nuts riding in the parade with my laptop in hand. We went all through the parade and Chris never logged in. I was a little bummed but told myself I had tried. We then went to the school for the picnic. When I sat down to eat, something told me to check my email on my blackberry and sure enough Chris had sent me a message saying “Just finishing up. Be in my room in about 15 min” but the message had been sent about 45min ago:( I ran to the car, got my laptop, Kyle got the Verizon wireless and I logged in just in case she was still there and sure enough she was!!!

The next trick was getting a Skype connection long enough to say a full sentence. It got rather frustrating but the short glimpse of Chris and her smile made me keep trying. We finally were able to string enough connections together that I was able to allow her to see about 6 other classmates and even her father and brother. I looked like a crazy woman carrying my laptop around the picnic and talking to it. I’m sure I made Chris dizzy but I was trying to find our scattered classmates before I lost connection! I actually sent out a few apologies yesterday as I pretty much just blew some people off as they didn’t realize what I was up to.

Chris was able to show us around her small little hut that she shares with 6 people. She was whispering as she said some of them work days and some work nights and she didn’t want to disturb them. Her surroundings were a little difficult to make out but I clearly saw she did have a towel, a mirror and a big gun. She said that it “makes me a bad ass.” If you know Chris, it’s really hard to imagine her with a gun.

I hope Chris knows how much it meant to me to help bring her our class reunion. We are so proud of her and want her to be safe. She brought me more joy in that short little time span than I could have ever imagined. Thanks Chris! When our conversation ended my laptop battery was down to 9 minutes. Perfect timing!

SADNESS
I drove back to Texas on Sunday and on my trip home I got a text from one of my best high school friends, Kim. Kim didn’t make our reunion as she had something way more important to attend to. You see her mom’s Ovarian Cancer returned a few months ago, stronger and worse than before and was now terminal.

I remember Kim telling me back in 2008 that her mom, Julie, had beaten Ovarian Cancer when I told her my mom, Sherrie, had lost her life to it. The survival rate for ovarian cancer is 30.6% when not found early so I was so excited to hear her mom had won the battle. Little did we all know that the cancer would come back and take Julie’s life. She fought a long hard battle and suffered much pain but on Sunday that all ended and she joined my mom in heaven.

I feel great sadness for the Collins family and will keep Kim and her family in my prayers. I hope and pray that one day we will find a cure for cancer so that no one else has to lose a mother. I hope Kim knows that when I walk 6 days and 120 miles this year that I will be walking for her mom, Julie. We will find a cure! Love you Kim.