WooT!

Well, I did it !  I manage the walk, even came across the finish line ahead of the majority – not that it was a race or anything, of course.

What a great day that was. Not only did we have a fantastic weekend of sunshine and perfect weather, but then the Walk to Empower fundraiser walk was amazing good fun. My Mother and Sister acted as cheerleaders while my Stepfather and I participated in the Walk. Got up at o-dark thirty in the morning to get into the city by 7:30 sign-ups, then wandered around the participating sponsor booths to pick up swag and eat apples and bananas and bagels (oh my). Then after some warm-up exercises in a group of wild women (and some supportive dudes), a few moving motivational talks and a high-five to Ronald McDonald, we were off!

Like a herd of pink turtles for a few minutes as the crowd tried to manuever through some unfortunate tourists, but then we were off.  Jerry and I were up front and only got seperated from the leaders when we stopped for a red light.

Somewhere around the half way mark we got passed by a few, but I also noticed some of the leaders popping in to Starbucks and Subways to use the potty, but we soldiered on! Grabbed some water and bananas at the halfway and kept marching. Managed the hills of my beloved Seattle streets, waved at some cruise ship passengers, confused a lot of tourists, the sweated back up the hills to the finish.

After that it was pass-out on the grass time, while the DJ kept spinnin’ tunes, and applauding all the finishers coming in after me. That’s when I realized I’d managed to stay out in front the whole time after all.

Then it was closing ceremonies with a local news personality, Dennise Whitaker of KOMO 4 News, and a pledge to do this again next year !  Honestly, I’m hooked. I’m signing up to do the Relay for Life 24-hour walkathon in June, and then it’s on to bigger and better walkies!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s an Aleve calling my name !