Avon Walk - Part 2

13.1 Mile Mark
We reached the half-way mark early in the afternoon. Not the half-way of the entire weekend, just the half-way of the first day. I think this rest was called the Buffet Brigade of Boobs or something like that. Not really much like a Jimmy Buffet concert, but they did have margaritas, without the tequila or the sour mix. Basically it was just Gatorade with a margarita sign on the cooler.

First signs of blisters started to appear at this stop. They gave me this “mole skin” patch. It’s kind of like a tire patch for your foot. So with my foot newly patched and another peanut butter jelly bar in my stomach I laid down on the grass for a 10 minute rest before we set off again. The whole laying down thing…big mistake

When we set off on the second half of the marathon day I started to feel really stiff. It probably took me about 2 or 3 miles just to loosen up. I did pass this guy with a T-shirt that said “I love boobies” which was pretty funny. The avon walk is probably the only place you can get away with wearing a shirt like that and not get funny looks.

18 Mile Mark
One of my few complaints of the walk was something one of the volunteers said to me at this rest stop. My feet and legs were really starting to feel tired at this point. I think I told Liz that I was feeling fine except for the fact that my legs were killing me. So this lady says to me as I drag into the rest stop, “Congratulations, you made it 18 miles! You’re almost done!”

“Did you hear that!” I said. “We’re almost done!” I could feel a renewed sense of energy. I started to believe that I could actually finish this thing. I ate some snacks, took a short break and filled up with more Gatorade and then set off to finish this walk. The problem was this: there is a HUGE difference between 18 miles and 26.2 miles. Almost done? That lady had no idea what she was talking about.

1 mile to go…till the end of Saturday.
Somehow I just kept going. The rest of my team were all walking much faster than me. So I started taking shorter breaks at the rest areas so that I could keep pace. They would leave 5 or 10 minutes after me and by the time I got to the next rest stop they had caught up with me. I looked like someone who was trekking across the desert. Kind of shuffling my feet in desperate need of something, though I’m not sure what. Eventually we got to the last rest stop, 1 mile before the end. I knew I’d make it at this point. Even if I had to crawl I wasn’t going to walk 25 miles only to stop a mile before the end.

Wellness Center (camp where we spent the night) aka Stiffness Center
We finished the marathon! Now for collapse on ground and lay there for about half an hour. Then go try to set up our tent. It’s a lot trickier when you can barely move. The did have hot showers which was nice. Pretty good dinner too. I went to bed about 8:00pm. That’s even earlier than my grandparents went to bed, but I did get up at 4:00am and then walk…ALL DAY. Didn’t sleep well. Go figure. I don’t exactly fit well in tents to begin with on top of the fact that I couldn’t move my legs.

Last Day
If I was nervous about being able to finish the walk on Friday night, I was downright skeptical that I could finish on Sunday morning. The Frankenstein walk was in full effect and I still had 13.1 miles to go. Ouch. Rainy and cold describes the weather. Luckily the coffee was hot and the breakfast was good. I do so much better with a full stomach.

To get to the point, we just kept moving. The pain got more intense, more tire patches were needed, but we kept getting closer. Eventually we made it. More walking than I’d ever done before in a weekend.

Some Conclusions
I wrote plenty about some the hardships of the walk, but now that I think about it there a bunch of cool benefits that will come out of this experience:

• If my car breaks down on the interstate the next exit is 10 miles away…no problem.
• If gas prices get too high…no problem.
• If I need some extra Avon products….no problem.
• If I need a pink T-shirt….no problem
• If I need to walk for 18 hours for some strange reason…no problem!

So would I do it again? Absolutely….but not for another year…or maybe two years.