Usually not much for cheerleading, rah-rah events. Our daughter participated in a three day, sixty mile cancer walk this past weekend. Did what we could to help her. It was an emotional and moving event.

Contribute some, whatever is convenient, to fundraisers each year. Need to be solicited by someone significant. Learned something new this weekend. Need to contribute more than “is convenient”.

Watching the walkers, cheering them on, seeing them appreciate our dog because they had left theirs to do the walk, reunions with babies, husbands, families cheering along the walk. As I said, emotional and moving.

At the finish line, we watched a bunch of them come across. So many with ace bandages, knee and ankle braces, limps and shuffles, including our daughter. Almost could see the bloody footprints. But all of them cheering and yelling. 2400 walkers, 300 crew members, countless volunteer police traffic controllers, business contributors, cheerers, horn blowers. It was a big deal. And it raised 7.3 million dollars. As I said, emotional and moving.

Laura collected from friends and relatives, baked for a week to give a bake sale, held an afternoon happy hour at a city bar.

Below is her account. She and her friends Jo and Shannon were the “Walking With Winos” group and Mo is Jo's husband and was a crew member.

"I wanted to thank you all for everything that you did to help me accomplish our walk this past weekend!  It was tough!  60 miles is a really long way and I definitely feel like I really accomplished something by finishing every single mile.  Believe me, if it hadn't been for Shannon and Jo and Mo, I would have opted for the pick-up van around mile 10 every day.

For those interested, here is a recap of what the weekend was like:

Friday: We woke up at 5 I think, my parents made us breakfast and drove us to Potomac Mills.  There was a very moving opening ceremony that introduced us to survivors and reinforced in our head that this walk will be tough but nothing compared to chemo.  It was an incredibly long wait to get started and so I don't think we actually started our walk until 9.  They had pit stops every few miles so we were definitely not left wanting for food or fluids or port-a-potties.  Our route took us around the Potomac Mills area and we ended up in Occoquan and camped at the Occoquan Regional Park.  We saw Mo at the last pit stop and he lightened our load both physically and emotionally by taking our jackets that we no longer needed and by being dressed up as a prince (each pit stop had a theme and theirs was Cinderella?).  We didn't come in until about 6:00 that night!  We were appalled!  We came in 2300 out of 2400.  We immediately set up our tent, showered, ate, and went to bed (asleep by 9).  No time for relaxing at all.  Lesson learned from day 1: no need to stop at every pit stop and don't lolly-gag behind the slowpokes in front of you.

Saturday: We started walking soon after sunrise.  Our route today took us around Lorton Prison (now closed but pretty cool to walk by) and briefly into Fairfax.  At about mile 12, there was a cheering station where my parents came and brought my dog Callie.  My feet were REALLY hurting at this point but it was so great to see Mom and Dad and Callie that it definitely brightened the rest of the day.  At about mile 14, I realized I wasn't going to make it unless I had a serious change in attitude so I became the most optimistic person out there (all forced of course) and to alleviate the pain in my feet danced for a good portion of the remaining miles.  Sounds weird I know but seriously your feet can take only so much of the same repetitive movement and dancing definitely made use of different parts of my feet.  Shannon and Jo helped by singing.  I think we made quite a spectacle.  :)  We saw Mo again at the last pit stop…that day he was Fonzie for their 50's theme.  Lesson from day 2:  negativity gets you NOWHERE and being positive and silly really lightens the load and either gives your fellow walkers some enjoyment or at the least gives them something to talk about.  So it's all good!  And we came in at around 1080 so a BIG improvement from the day before AND it was about 3:00 so we had time to relax!

Sunday: We had to pack and take down our tents and board a bus to take us into Arlington.  As we sat on the bus we watched as we went on 395 (looking familiar), took King Street (looking really familiar), went into Fairlington (okay, this is getting ridiculous!), and stopped at the Fairlington Community Center where I vote and is less than half a mile from my home.  So I quickly called my parents and had my Dad walk Callie to us…the perfect start of the day!  The night's rest had alleviated a lot of my pain (for the moment) so we were able to enjoy the walk through Arlington and across Key Bridge into Georgetown.  It was about Georgetown that my feet started hurting again.  I couldn't muster up the same amount of positivity as the day before so discovered that walking really fast makes you not realize just how much your feet hurt.  That helped a lot and made the miles just whiz by.  That worked until we were 4 miles from the end.  I didn't know how I was going to make it.  So close!!!  But so far.  Then Shannon and Jo mentioned how if we finish early enough we could get wine after finishing.  OK there was the incentive I needed.  We finished (after seeing Mo dressed as the Statue of Liberty at their patriotic pit stop) at about 4 (ranked around 1200 I think) and went to the Renaissance Hotel for the use of a lovely bathroom!!!!! And to partake of a bottle (and some extra) of wine.  That made us feel good for the closing ceremonies where our lateness from drinking put us at the front of the procession into the ceremonies.  Since we were drinking we hadn't changed into the shirts that everyone else was wearing so we really stood out.  The closing ceremonies were great and life-affirming and made us cry (or was that the wine?).  We definitely realized how much we can accomplish and how much pain and effort we can stand when we have people that mean a lot to us nearby.  Oh and that wine oh so helps all the painful things in life just disappear.  :)

Thanks again for everyone's help!  I couldn't have done it without every single one of you!

Laura, Shannon, and Jo Team Walking With Winos"

Just reading it brings the lump back. When you get the opportunity, cheer, honk, contribute.