Our 18 Mile LBI Training Walk

Two weeks ago today, I along with 3 of my team members embarked on an 18 mile training walk across Long Beach Island, in southern NJ.  Another team member, Tricia, who is happily expecting a baby boy in December, was our sweep van person and mile marker.  She was amazing and we could have NEVER done it without her.  She met us every 3-4 miles with plenty of water and Gatorade, snacks, and was the best cheerleader we could have asked for. 

I have lots of photos and some great videos that I took towards the end of the walk.  Truly we became almost delirious towards the end.  Not sure how I'm gonna do that 3 days in a row, but we'll see what happens.

From left, Lisa, me, Cherrill, Christine and Tricia on the end.  This is by the Barnegat Lighthouse, right before we started the walk.  It is 9:30 in the morning and the air is filled with excitement and anticipation. 

These two pics are from mile 3, all our shoes on the left, and Tricia waiting for us across the street with the van.  At this point, we're all feeling great and the walk seems to be going quickly!  As we walked further down the island, through Loveladies, Harvey Cedars, North Beach, Surf City, our pace started slowing down a little bit.  We needed food, and we needed it quickly!

 

At around mile 8 and a quarter, we stopped at a great family restaurant called Scojo's.  Here we could use the bathroom, get some sandwiches, water, and Cherrill could soak her hand in ice so that her rings would come off.  (I don't recommend wearing rings if you're going to walk all day).

 

 

And then our waitress told us something.  I will never forget her as long as I walk this earth.  She was going in for a mastectomy on Monday.  She thanked us for doing the walk.  She started to cry.  Cherrill, a 4-time cancer survivor, hugged her.  The reality of what I am doing hit me like a ton of bricks.  Holy shit.  Until I started on this journey I never realized how many women and men are affected by breast cancer every day.  I will carry this woman's story with me in my heart every day.  How could I possibly not?  It was fate that our paths all crossed on that day.  I hope that she realizes that no matter what, she is not alone.

 

 

These pictures are almost 3/4 of the way through the walk.  At one point Lisa, (above, on the right) was actually heard to say, "You know, this concrete is pretty comfortable," as she lay down on her back on the sidewalk.  At that point, we are starting to run out of steam.  Christine is here on the left, wearing a flower on her hat, in honor of her friend Kathi who passed away from breast cancer a few months ago.  We will all be wearing her picture on a pin during the walk. 

 The picture here on the right doesn't need much of a caption.  Lisa is lying on the sidewalk, I am sitting with my head down and cap pulled over my face.  And Cherrill and Christine are stretched out like they might be trying to sunbathe but probably are passed out from exhaustion.  Imagine if it had been mid summer.  Boy would we have been screwed :)

The picture here at the bottom is us near the end of the walk.  I'd say about mile 16.  We are almost at the end of Beach Haven here.
Below right is us stopping at Fantasy Island to use the restroom, and ended up being high fived by several employees, and given free pink glitter ribbon tattoos (I still have mine!)  What fantastic ladies that we met there.



The video here above is titled "Are we there yet?"  This features Christine and me babbling about the weather, how long this walk has taken us, and not believing we are not done yet and it's already almost 7 at night!  Yes believe this, we didn't finish the walk until 7:45 at night!

 

To the right is the sign for Holgate, the last town of the island.  By the time the walk ended it had started to rain and was pretty much pitch black.  One last video image I will leave you with depicts our last quarter mile.  It is something to see!

I know this is an extra long post.  I'm hoping you read/watched until the end.  It was a great experience for our team and I'm so excited to be walking with these wonderful ladies two weeks from now!  Even though I know it's going to be an emotional weekend, I couldn't have asked for a better team to share it with!  Along with 3,000 other great people, many of whom I have yet to meet.  But I can't wait!

Faith, Hope and Love,

Angela