The Final Day #3

Alarms going off all over camp……Everyone trying to get their tents down, breakfast eaten, walking clothes on, stretching done, bags packed and taken to the loading trucks and then up to the top of the hill by 7:30am to board the bus to the beginning of the route for day #3! Woo Hoo! The final countdown has begun! Breakfast today: Scrambled eggs with cheese, seasoned fried potato wedges, oatmeal, Danish, fruit, yogurt, bacon. Beverages: coffee, hot tea, coke products, milk, orange juice and cranberry juice. After our alarm sounded, we emerged from our tent, much warmer that Saturday am and headed to breakfast in our sweatpants and sweatshirts. After breakfast, we went back to our tent to change into our walking clothes and to pack up our sleeping bags, mattresses and sleeping clothes. Then, to get our tent taken down and packed up. Now, off to the loading truck to load our luggage and tents. WOW! Can this finally be the last day of our walk? My body tells me yes, but we are having such a great time, it is hard to believe it is almost over. After we have loaded our bags and our tents, Erika & I tell our team mate good bye and head to the top of the hill for the last time to board the bus. Our team mate will ride the bus to lunch so she can be sure she is able to make it over the finish line! We will meet here there! As we board the bus to head to the beginning of the route, it is a sad time! We say good bye to the crew who has served us breakfast and dinner for two days and the crew who has helped us around camp with anything we needed while we were there. This bus ride is a fun time, with us cheering on our bus driver to pass the other busses and get us to the starting line first. Woo Hoo! We passed 4 busses. We arrive @ the pit stop for the beginning of the route and grab a couple of bananas and some water and of course never pass up a port a potty without using it! Cardinal rule #1! Erika checked her blisters and we head out. Today is the shortest walking distance, but it seems to be the most difficult due to the soreness of our bodies and the blisters on Erika’s feet. We stretch at every intersection we come too. As we approach each pit stop the end is closer in sight. At a pit stop, Erika checked on her blisters only to learn they had spread to her other foot! OUCH! And the original one on her pinkie toe was getting worse too. I bet you never knew blisters were contagious. Well when you walk 60 miles they spread like wild fires! I also checked on my feet only to discover I had 2 blisters starting as well. This is the first one I have had since I started training…..What in the world?....... So, we did some surgery on the blisters. Did some band aiding, taping and airing out of the feet for a few minutes. Now, we had to try to put our hurting feet back into those shoes of ours and get back to walkin! That was the trick! Before we left that pit stop we learn that we are about to tackle what Atlanta calls “Cardiac Hill” Why you ask? Well, just let me tell you…….it was the longest hill of the entire weekend. The grade was not the steepest, but the distance was the thing that would kill us. Just when you thought you were done, we looked up only to discover we still could not see the top level off! We pushed through that obstacle onto the next pit stop and then to lunch. The hill that lead to lunch was a real bugger too! Why, oh Why, must the lunch stop always be up hill? All three days……we have had a hill to conquer before we could have lunch and rest! Today’s lunch: Turkey and cheese or ham and cheese or chicken sandwiches, chips, oatmeal raisin cookie, peanut butter cookies, choc chip cookies, and an apple. We meet up with our team mate, eat lunch, use the potty, stretched and try to freshen up/pep up as much as possible to be able make the last 4 miles to Turner Field. Erika’s dogs were really barking by now! Sheer determination was what kept her going! She is amazing! As we got closer the cheering crowd got larger and larger. There were supporters everywhere. We were also saying goodbye to all of the safety crew as we went along as well. Those volunteers have been wonderful. Keeping up motivated with music, dance and just good ol’ southern hospitality! Wonderful set of people. As we approached the Olympic torch, the rest of the safety was all lined up for our last goodbyes. It was emotional! They had family members they had lost too and we were walking for them! They were thanking us for walking the entire way. Turner field only 500 yds away. More cheering………fantastic! I could see the entrance. As we entered all of the other walkers who had made it in before us were cheering us on and a lot of high 5’s! It was wonderful. We were scanned in for the last time, receiving our victory shirts and a flower and then off to get our pictures taken in front of the finish line banner. WOW! What an accomplishment, but nothing like beating cancer! As we waited in the holding area to do our victory walk to closing ceremonies, we talked with friends and said our good-bys for the last time. As the last walker came in we all cheered! Way to Go! Then, to our surprise a couple who had walked together was on stage and the guy was proposing to her. We were all crying! Of course she said “YES!” What a wonderful thing for them to share. Now, it was time for us to line up for the Victory walk. We lined up in rows of 6 and headed out the gate across the street to the ceremony. Closing ceremonies was very emotional as well. As we lifted up a shoe to the survivors when they paraded in we all cried, hugged and cheered them on. We raised the flag one final time and said good-bye. Now, to head out and collect our luggage then board another bus back to Lake Lanier to get our car. An hour bus ride back to the car! Very long day! At the lake, we loaded up our stuff and began our journey back to Alabama. We stopped for food @ Zaxby’s. We were hoping that nobody was offended by our stench! LOL! We smelled horrible. But, what can you expect after all that walking and sweating! LOL! There were several other walkers in there too. All of us were limping and moving very slowly. The other customers could not believe we walked 60 miles! It is still hard to imaging! But we did! WE WALKED 60 MILES!!!!!! We were still so pumped from the ceremonies; we talked the entire way home. I arrived back home about 3:15am, grabbed a shower then off to get 3 hrs sleep before heading out to work on Monday. I will never forget my experience and the time I have had with my close friends. This is truly a life changing experience. Take a moment and tell somebody you love them! Do something for someone else, because “Everyone Deserves a Lifetime!”