2011 Tampa 3 Day
~In the Life of a Walker-Take FIVE!~
1,500 Tampa Walkers raised $3.9 Million!
The Breast Cancer 3 Day for the Cure is a three day 60 mile walk that takes place in 15 cities across the nation hosted by Susan G Komen for the Cure. Thousands of walkers in pink costumes walk together along a path that goes on from sunrise to sunset to raise breast cancer awareness in the communities.
This was to be my fifth anniversary walking, all in Tampa, except for the one crazy year I decided to wander to Atlanta in freezing rains (see 08 Blog). I was about to have completed 300 miles and raised over $11,000 all for The 3 Day! How fast the time has gone by! This walk was going to be a weekend of reflection of how far I have come, mentally, physically, emotionally.
The week leading up to the Tampa Breast Cancer 3 Day I was battling a cold that wiped me on my butt. Sore throat, fever, and no energy to work out, which leaves Melissa cranky! The medicines left me sleeping, whenever I wasn’t working, so packing, and planning costumes were not going as planned. All I wanted at that point was to just get better before Friday, even if I just showed up with a pair of sneakers and nothing else.
Luckily I woke up Thursday AM feeling almost 100% for our road trip to Tampa. The team this year consisted of Jillian coming back from Chattanooga (this was my 3rd year walking with her), and the I Love Lucy Team from Jacksonville-Barbara, Chris, Anthony, Kristina, and of course Lucy, our breast cancer warrior! Oh, and lets not forget Sabrina! She was unable to walk this year at the last minute due to work, but Barbara still carried her picture on a stick with us everywhere we went!
Jillian and I had our driver Michelle (she has driven us around for 3 years now) who would take us between hotels and camp each day, while everyone else stayed in pink tents at ‘camp’. No, I don’t do little pink tents ever since my very first day of walking The 3Day that was relocated to a parking garage to sleep (see 07 Blog) and Jillian doesn’t either since her very first weekend consisted of sleeping in frozen rain. Yes, we do the hot Epsom salt baths, the foot massagers, the happy hour, and the nice comfy beds. Yes, we are spoiled, and I love every minute of it! =)
Our first two nights we stayed at the Hyatt Clearwater beach…very close to start which was at Sand Key. The Hyatt was AWESOME and I have to give a huge THANK YOU to my old and new Hyatt friends who gave us an Upgrade to an Ocean view Suite, so no rollaway cots were needed! We had a beautiful oceanfront dinner at Palm Pavilion during sunset the first night, and then relaxed our muscles in the hot tub before calling it an early night!
Day 1 we woke up to light rain. Not too bad since we already came prepared with our ponchos. Luckily enough, the drizzle stopped as the Opening Ceremonies began. We met up with our Team, all of us sporting our Pink Bedazzled Bras over our shirts! 
Once again the ceremony was exactly the same, word for word, but we had a new speaker which gave it a little more energy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very moving ceremony, and I cry every time, it just would be nice to have a new speech.
This year as they asked all of us to yell out the name of the person for whom we were walking for, a lady next to me started yelling a handful of names. I thought it was great. She then hesitated, and then yelled out “ME!!”….that is when the tears started flowing. It IS about us too! We get so carried away thinking of all the people who we are walking for, we forget that we are also doing this for ourselves, for our own future! Sometimes it IS okay to be a little selfish too, and give ourselves a 
pat on the back for all the hard work we have done not only for everyone who is currently battling, but for our future too.
The route for Day 1 was pretty much the same as previous year. We headed through Clearwater Beach (past our Hyatt), and over the Clearwater Bridge (where I take my infamous picture with the two bridges to show how far we walked), through the rich golf course communities of Clearwater and St Pete, and back over the bridges to the beaches again, where the walkers would be bussed to camp (a 20minute ride). Fortunately, we had Michelle who picked us up at the last pit stop and took us back to the Hyatt.
The rain came and went for most of the day, but it was a light drizzle, so luckily we did not have to bring out the ponchos again. The humidity on the other hand was ridiculous! We were sweatin and stinkin the entire day!
Day 1 was full of some great characters…walkers, and supporters!...we had the ‘Captain 3Day’ man, the 3generations of women I Love Lucy characters, lots of fire fighters, pink dy
ed dogs (you know that’s a $250 fine in Florida people!...google it!) and of course our Pink bedazzled bras were a great hit, where we had to stop and take pictures for everyone every 10minutes it seemed! Oh! And how could I forget the hot men that gave us Coronas in pink koozies!
I once again carried my IPOD on my arm with speakers, so we had music to listen to the entire walk. It makes things go by so much faster!...especially when you start dancing while you are walking! Day 1 dance of the day was LMFAO…the “wiggle, wiggle, wiggle” dance.
We started walking about 740am and finished about 4pm, then went to the Hyatt and relaxed our muscles in the pool. Dinner was at the oceanfront Crabbys where there were some great happy hour specials!
Jillian and I were able to survive Day 1 pretty well without big blisters, and legs feeling pretty good because of the compression leg sleeves. My arch started hurting, which was a new pain Ive never had and my toes were tender from being squeezed in my new shoes that were not properly worn in, so my toenails felt like they wanted to pop off.
The morning of Day 2 left us in dampened spirits…literally. We woke up super early, having to drive 25 minutes to camp. We walked out of the Hyatt, and it was pouring rain! Oh brother! It was very hard to not just turn right back around and go back to bed! We got to camp in our ponchos, checked the Post Office at camp, and got our 1 letter each (THANK YOU Cindy!) Once again, it seems the more events I do, the less support I have for some reason. It feels people think, “Oh shes done this before, its not big deal.” But it still is.. For me. And I thank everyone that continues to give me encouraging words and support!
Our Day 2 costume consisted of Hand Bras that we all bedazzled as well. We were getting tons of pictures already and we knew it was going to be a long day of stopping for pictures again, but we were on a mission, as it was FL/GA day, and there was football to be watched at 330! We spent a good portion of the day speed walking, and passing people who kept yelling, ‘This is not a race!’ LOL….shoot, do they know who they are talking to?? LOL
The second day route took us thru St Pete, back to the gulf beaches, by Johns Pass, thru the Botanical Gardens, on the Pinnellas Trail, and back to camp.
Luckily the rain had stopped right as we started walking, and we were left with beautiful over cast skies, less humidity, and a nice breeze! It was a beautiful day and we even go to see dolphins in the intercoastal waterways!
Today Chris’s family, husband and dog met up with us at one of the cheering stations and lunch. And the Kristinas family was at camp. It was good to see the support and love!
We had more awesome cheerleaders along the route. An especially Huge Thanks goes out to the pink crane company that had kegs, and cans of beer, and hot dogs!! 
Day 2 Dance of the Day was “Maniac!”…yes, we actually mustered up energy for it!
We started at 740a, and finished a little earlier at 330p. 40miles down!
We spent our last two nights at the Holiday Inn Indian Rocks Beach, where we got to watch a good portion of the game, had some dinner at the Tiki Bar, and called it an early night, in bed by 8p!!
At this point, the blisters were setting in. Jillian had a pretty big one on her heel and big toes, and I had a small one between two toes, which have never happened to me before (Im thinking Injinis socks, or toe socks next time. Legs are still feeling good, thanks to compression sleeves!
Day 3 went by in a blink of eye! The route took us over to St Pete Pier were everyone would reunite with their friends/family for a large Closing Ceremony at 5p..jpg)
We were on a mission to get the day complete early so we could go over to a British Bar that Barbara and Lucy usually go to and have a celebratory cocktail. We finished walking and got there about 2pm.
Once again we lucked out on the weather! It started off really cool, but then the sun came out and it was gorgeous skies, no humidity, and a consistent breeze!
We did have an emergency pit stop to make on Day 3! One of the rest areas I laid down to stretch, and apparently I was told I sat in dog poop!! Fortunately it did not get on my tutu and only on my shorts…but we had a very hilarious emergency clean up at the medic tent!
My toes were hurting really bad the entire day, but honestly that was the worst of my condition. My blister was covered good, so was not bothering me. I think my shoes were just a tad too small and new. I decided to put on two smiley face buttons that some cheering station was handing out, one on each sneaker, so that when I looked down at my aching toes, I would have two smiley faces smiling back at me! It reminded me to smile, that things could be worse!
We lined up right before 5p to do our final walk into Closing Ceremonies with all the walkers together. We were even able to do our infamous “Maniac” dance as we took our last steps!
I knew going into Closing Ceremonies it would be the same speech as previous years, just like the Opening, but this time it was different. First off, we had Lucy in survivor group, who all walk in together in their pink shirts. Lucy is a very strong woman. She managed to stay consistent, and strong, and finished the 60 miles despite a procedure she had just a week or two prior! She reminded me of a shirt I had bought once “Just remember, that the turtle won!” She is a determined woman who when she puts her mind to something, she follows thru and never gives up! Which are exactly the last words of the Closing Ceremonies as they raised the “A World Without Breast Cancer” Flag….that “We will never give up! We will NEVER give up! We will NEVER GIVE UP!”
I went into this walk feeling defeated, having just cancelled a fundraising event for the first time ever due to lack of participants. I went into this walk, thinking 5years is a good run, maybe it is time to stop…to give up on all these fundraising events. But it was as if my grandmother was speaking to me through those last words of the ceremony. She reminded me of the promise that I made to her 5 years ago…that I would do what I could to help keep people from going through the pain that she was going through. And that means Never….Giving…Up!