SUCCESS!!!! (and omg the pain)

On night one, before the walk begins, Keith got Tom and Kaelin to join him, Justin and Kendall for a wine and pizza event Brown-Forman was hosting locally followed by dinner at a biker bar Keith knew of. When they were leaving to get the train back to the hotel, the owner of the biker bar insisted they take his limo back to the hotel. Here are the kids partying in the limo with the daddy's. The next day, while the women walked 26.2 miles, the dad's took the kids to Carowinds Amusement Park where they had a blast riding all kinds of rides.

Day one, 6am, in the rain and in the dark, team tiny ta-ta's waits for our team captain, Wendy (also my next door neighbor) to give her survivor speach during opening ceremonies. We also did jazzersize in the rain on this morning to warm up!

The view from opening ceremonies.

Wendy (in the middle) with two fellow breast cancer survivors.

And here we have day one, about mile 12. The rain has cleared, the weather is great. This is "moo" from the "moo crew" who travels to most of the avon events each year. He is basically a cheerleader in a cow suit, but he gives a mean massage with one of those vibrating hand held massagers...if you are willing to moo for him.

This is at mile 20, day one. This is where it became very difficult to stop and start. Getting off this bench was so hard. From this point on in the day, we didn't stop moving because it was too painful to start again.

Day two starting point, 7:30 am. Everyone was gimping, limping and suffering, but we suffered together. Only 13.1 miles to complete today. I thought it would be easy compared to day 1, but I couldn't have been more wrong. We had day one's soreness and blisters to contend with. Everyone was moving slower. Slow, but steady!

Arriving at the finish line; elated, in pain and so relieved it was over!

Here are those of us who finished the whole 39.3 miles.

Kendall trying out my new shirt!

Event Eve; the Solo Strutters hosted a pre-walk dinner Friday night. Here are some of our Tiny Ta-Ta's team members.

Crossing the finish line, day two...39.3 miles walked! Today was a difficult day. After 26.2 miles yesterday, everyone was either mildly sore with blisters or severely crippled this morning. Most of the walkers came out to complete todays 13.1 miles, but several couldn't or didn't. Two of our team-mates were injured bad enough to keep them off their feet today. I was hurting, but not bad enough to not walk. The woman to my left, Alana, and I had some significant foot bone pain today and it became a major issue by Sunday's fifth mile. By our lunch break at 7.5 miles, I was almost in tears. The break did wonders for me and the next three miles were pleasant. The last three were tough, but we weren't about to stop at that point and we did succeed in making it to the finish line. Wendy (on my right, my next door neighbor) had severe blisters on her feet, and wrapping them seemed to keep her comfortable. As we approached the finish line, Justin, Kendall and Alana's daughter Kaelin, ran to meet us to cross the line with us. Alana and I lost it. I think it was because of the discomfort we were experiencing mixed with a little awe that we were able to make it. 39.3 miles is a L-O-N-G way to walk in two days.

Now that I've talked about pain so much, I have to say what a blast this was and what a great experience. Our walkers (1500 of us) raised two and a half million dollars for breast cancer research! I thought that was amazing. We enjoyed walking together, sharing stories and making each other laugh as well as meeting all sorts of other ladies and hearing their stories. One of my most memorable and touching encounters was a man who walked with a pair of sneakers attatched to his backpack. When asked why, he told us that he lost his wife to breast cancer two years ago and now walks in her honor and always with her running shoes in tow. I thought that was awesome. I can say I now know my seven neighbors that I walked with a whole lot better. I laughed til I thought I was going to fall over. I enjoyed so much sharing this experience with them and would call each and every one of them great friends and amazing women!