Are you ready? I was ready!
Call time to meet was 5:30 a.m., but being from the East Coast, I had no trouble going to bed at 7:30 p.m. Seriously. That time change heading east to west is easy! I'm pretty sure I'm still trying to get back to East Coast time over a week out though. C'est la vie. I slept like a log that first night.
Somehow we’d mostly ended up with our own rooms, which was unexpected, but welcome. You never know who in the group might be an epic snorer. Heck, maybe I am and that’s why my husband wears earplugs? Naw…
I got up just before 5am and started to get dressed. Before I’d gotten very far, I remembered body glide. If you’re doing any sort of distance thing, you’ll need it. Things rub in weird places no matter what you do, so applying that to whatever areas need it is essential. Got that on. Got dressed - which takes longer than you’d think. Leggings, toe socks - those take a special kind of patience to get on - lymphedema sleeves - a struggle to get on and then to make sure you don’t have any creases. Creases are bad. A shirt. Check bag to ensure all water bottles are attached somewhere. Water bladder is full. I’d done most of that stuff the night before, but never hurts to double check! Head buff. Sunglasses. Fingerless gloves to keep the sun off my hands/protect them from blisters from my walking poles. Put walking poles across chest. One fabulous side effect of having a bag with no place to attach poles and having a flat chest is being able to strap stuff across your chest!
We were to be downstairs at 5:30 a.m. We all got there on time and got gold stars! Woohoo! Gold stars were given out for showing up on time and getting back from the bathrooms and stuff on time so we could finish our walk before midnight.
Want to see where we walked? Garmin Connect
We had a great beginning to the day and got our “Whatever it takes!” pink wristbands for day one. We were all in our Project Athena gear and ready to roll. We made it a half a block and made our first stop at Cancer Survivors Park. It was pretty cool, and a good way to start off the day.
And then we started walking. From the very beginning, I felt we were carrying each other. We had all survived some shit, and it was time to put that in the rearview mirror for a time and focus on getting everyone across the finish line. We were all young cancer survivors ‑‑ I don't care if you're in your 50s or whatever, you're still young! ‑‑ and we were all doing something we never thought we would do.
And probably never would have done. Except cancer.
I'm going to put a lot of pictures here from day one.
We walked by a dog beach ‑‑ best day ever!
I had sent my husband a house the night before and suggested we buy it. Bargain basement price of $25 million. Yep. Walked past it!
It was an absolutely gorgeous day. I think the high was 70, a few clouds now and then. The ocean to our left for much of the walk. When we couldn't see the ocean, we were walking by really interesting architecture. We walked down a beach for a while, and it was amazing the amount of sand some of the team produced from their shoes when we stopped for our break.
And then we climbed Mount Soledad. What? Yes. We climbed a mountain. Although I think the mountain was maybe all of my hills put together that I was doing during my training walks. Yay Western Pennsylvania hilliness!
But not everyone has hills like I do, so we encouraged each other up them. There was a towline used with the reaper pulling one of our team along behind. But that's what we were all there for. To do this and finish as a team. I know we had all trained alone or with friends in different places and different weather, but there was going to be no victory if we didn't get through this first day with everyone coming to the finish line and getting their tacos! I can’t help it. I really like tacos.
So, yes! We climbed a mountain! At the top is a giant white cross that is now a Veterans Memorial. And the views of San Diego and the Pacific were breathtaking.
Then we had to go down the mountain and this was about 20 miles in or something and my knees were like... yo. Sup? But we made it. We all made it down the hill and we all made it to the end of day one. We just did 25 miles? What?
Along the way, we had lots of bathroom breaks. The first one was the most memorable. It was like a prison toilet with no doors. Traumatic? Sure. But better than a nasty port‑a‑potty. We also had stops in the morning and afternoon with snacks and drinks and foot care, and a great lunch with sub sandwiches and snacks and drinks. At every stop, the fantastic crew filled our water up and looked at our feet if needed and took care of us. They were our favorite people for these two days because we knew when we stopped, they would be there for us.
Love y'all!
I’m jumping around a bit, but I’m finding my memories of this adventure are not exactly linear. It’s like a ball of joy that keeps rolling around and showing me new things that I’d forgotten momentarily because I was thinking about tacos.
On day one as we walked through La Jolla, a friend and her family came out to cheer us on. I was completely oblivious - I think we were over 15 miles at that point - but thank you again for coming out for us!
The first day we ended at Torrey Pines Gliderport and we had tacos! I ate a giant pile of tacos. Maybe it was like a taco salad with some tortillas at the bottom, but whatever. Tacos.
We all had our jackets on by then - don’t let anyone tell you it never gets cold in California! - and were ready for rest.
After we ate, we all rolled into the van, and my watch hit 25 miles ‑‑ it had stopped for a bit over lunch, so we did more than 25. We rode in the van to the hotel. It was a hotel. We were all pretty exhausted, and although that was the case, I had trouble sleeping. My body hurt. My feet didn't hurt ‑‑ that would come after day two ‑‑ but my body hurt in ways that I can't explain. Probably not from the walking, though. Probably from getting caught in the seat belt of the van for a bit.
As an aside, I had been going for weekly massages in the weeks leading up to the big walk because my hips are forever angry. He had gotten them into a better place, so I think my aches and pains were just a result of travel and walking. When was the last time you walked 25 miles in a day?
50 in two?
