"Ahem", says my feet

Well it's done. We walked 15 today so officially our 18/15 is done. And you know what? I FEEL GREAT! It's scary really how good I feel.

For months I have been struggling with blisters on the bottom of my feet that then cause the balls of my feet to ache like they shouldn't ache. I had serious concern about how I was going to do this with the feetys hurtin like they were. But I think taking the 4 weeks off and letting them heal really was the ticket.

Anyhow, we were up and at'em with the Hotties this morning. We had about 30 walkers today. It's quite a sight to see too I must admit. It's a sea of pink. I can only imagine what the 3 Day will be like since we are just 30 versus 2500 people wearing pink.

Today we did a "HILL OF DEATH" at - wait for it - the END of the walk. I'm not sure why they think the end of the walk is where these hills should come, but they do. This was the other side of the 65th Street hill we did weeks ago with the hotties. One of the guys had a GPS thingy-ma-bob that clocked our average speed, the hours it took, and the elevation. This is a horrible picture, but you can see the elevation we took.

So yes, see that big green spike? That's the elevation. Crazy I tell ya. The best part was as we approached the HILL OF DEATH Blueberry realized she had lost/left her water bottle. So she decided to "run" into this little sketchy market in a not so good part of town, and get a new water. That put us in the dead last of the walkers. As we walked toward the HILL OF DEATH this gal we were walking with "Kathy", said "OH and the entire team will wait for everyone at the top." Great. Not only will I be hyperventilating by then, but I'll be dead. Great.

We started up. It's a nice steep hill that - thankfully - is about 4 blocks long. At the top of each block, it's flat when you cross the street, so you get a very short breather. And the team can't see you until you're on the 3rd block, which by then you can't breath - if you were hypothetically me. As we hit the flat before the 4th block, two other women were walking down to "help" us up. Great, not only are we dead last, but they think we need help. The one took my hand and said, "I'll help ya and talk you all the way up." And up we went. Two steps from the top the entire team burst into a cheer. It was AWESOME! It totally carried me the rest of the way.

Blueberry had some blistering issues today. Nothing serious, but enough that she had to bandage up during our "lunch" stop. We stopped at a Safeway and across the street was a McDonald's. All I could think about was a Hi-C Orange. Hoppin Heather at work mentioned this the other day and it stuck with me and sounded SOOOO good. And let me tell you boys and girls, if you happen to see me on the route and find yourself wondering what you could do to make my day. Be standing there with a 32 ounce McDonald's HiC Orange. And you my friend will be my favorite person at that moment.

And so I did it. 18/15. Even as I type this I'm putting my 18/15 sticker on my 3Day credentials. That "officially" completes all my stickers! Yay. I'm ready. It's all down hill from here. We're just 4 short weeks out now (well 5 if you could the actual weekend walk). It'll be done before I know it.

BIG HUGE SHOUT out to ChickenLady for her Arnica Montana advice. I swear that stuff has saved me this weekend. So ChickenLady - Thank you a million.

Oh and whilst (that's British for while) I'm at it, how about some shout outs for my most recent donors. I'm at $4530 which is 91% to my goal.

KEN AND VICKY - YOU BOTH KICK ASS WITH YOUR OVERLY GENEROUS DONATION. NEXT TIME YOU'RE IN SEATTLE, I'VE GOT A SALMON BAKE DINNER WITH YOUR NAME ON IT.

THE SANDERSON FAMILY - WHILE I SHOULD SAY IT'S ABOUT TIME, I'LL SAY INSTEAD I'M GLAD YOU'RE FAMILY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATION!