Friday, March 5, 2010

Why Walking in the Breast Cancer 3 Day is Not Just Another Charity Walk

We know, you get those emails and letters all the time from people who are doing a 5 mile walk for a charity and they need your help. We're like you and we always donate $10 or so. We are always happy to help out a worthy cause.

We are walking in the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk in October. It's just a little longer than 5 miles. It's actually 60 miles over the 3 days. When you are walking in the breast cancer 3 day, a five mile walk is just a short training day. Training starts 24 weeks before the actual walk. Over the course of 24 weeks of training the total suggested training walks equal 645 miles, six-hundred and forty five. This is the first time we have added it up and looked at it on paper and it is very eye opening. So not only are we working hard to train our minds, bodies and soles (hehe) so we are ready for this walk we are also working hard to raise the funds in order to participate. Most walks you sign up get a few donations and then on the day of the walk you go with your friends and walk the five miles, which takes you a little more than an hour, you get your free t-shirt and go on about your day.

With the Breast Cancer 3 Day many of us start to raise funds a year before we actually walk. See, the thing is that, there is actually a minimum donation required in order to participate in the walk. It's not a small amount either, It's $2,300. If you don't raise it and you still want to walk you have to make up any difference by donating out of your own pocket. Both of us have a very hard time asking for things, including donations, it is hard to get out of your comfort zone and ask for people to sponsor you, but the Breast Cancer 3 Day has a special spot in each of our hearts, you can read our story HERE. Not only do we walk because of our own experiences but we also walk for our future, so that we don't have to fight the disease ourselves but also so that we don't have to watch someone we love fight it either.

Making the decision to walk in the breast cancer 3 day isn't an easy one. When you think of all the time you have to spend raising the money and doing the training it makes you pause. It's not easy. It takes many hours away from your family, many blisters that need healing, sore muscles, and aches that you have never felt. It's not supposed to be easy, it is supposed to mimic the fight of those women who are in the middle of the battle with Breast Cancer. Walking, something you do everyday, becomes a heroic act, we do not asking to be called heros though, we are just out to support the true heros, the survivors.

Stay tuned til next time when we tell you about last years walk.

2 comments:

  1. Great post! You said it well. You will do great!
    ~ a five time walker :)

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  2. Absolutely awesome!!! Thank you for putting in to words what every walker feels! :-)

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