Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure Cleveland: Day 1

Today was the first day of the Susan G. Komen 3 Day For The Cure and what an absolutely amazing day! I’m excited that Energizer selected me to be their Keep Going Blogger for Cleveland. They provided the participation fee and I’m sharing my experience on the 3 Day.

To start the day, we checked in downtown Cleveland at the Port Authority bright and early between 5:30 and 6 am. At 6:30 we were treated to an awe-inspiring and touching Opening Ceremony.

I was hoping to get the videos uploaded, but wasn’t able to in time. I will have them up soon and when I do have your tissues ready!

After being a part of a ceremony like that we were all ready to take on the world. We took the streets of downtown Cleveland with enthusiasm and vigor. It was so much fun walking through the city with such a motivating and inspiring group of people.

As the day went on and pit stops came and went, the group really thinned out. While I had many opportunities to walk and talk with fascinating people, I did spend some chunks of the walk alone. I didn’t mind walking solo and, in fact, it never lasted long. More often than not I would catch up with a group or someone would appear beside me. Everyone has been so nice it really is easy to strike up a conversation with anyone.

We were very lucky, the weather has been absolutely perfect today (I’m knocking on wood and I hope you are too that it stays this gorgeous!). It really made the walk a lot less of a challenge than it could have been, at least for me.

Not only was meeting the other walkers a major motivator, but the cheering stations, uniquely decorated sweep vans, creative safety crew, and the signs, treats, and support from the neighborhood residents really helped us all to Keep Going. Just when it looked like it was a long, hot boring path to cross we would come across an inspirational sign or a cheering neighbor or our dedicated walker stalkers and we knew we could make it.

All though today’s walk wasn’t as tough for me as I thought it would be, I was still very thankful to make it to camp. To see the field of pink tents, to grab a delicious dinner (I highly recommend the stuffed mushrooms), and to take my first shower in a semi-truck, all sounded so glorious!

After setting up my tent (which by the way blowing up a pool float/bed after walking 22 miles is tough, not sure I recommend it, but more on that later), I happily hung out in the Energizer Tent most of the evening trying to upload photos and videos as well as and writing this blog post. It gave me lots of opportunities to meet other walkers as they came in to utilize the available laptops and charge their cell phones. It was fun talking with them about the day and hearing about all the different experiences.

As I’m writing this it’s 8:30 pm and they kick me out of here at 9. I feel like I could write about today’s experience for hours, but we all need to get some sleep and recharge for the next 2 days so I’m going to sign off.

Please watch for my tweets @2Wired2Tired to follow along with me during the day.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for….Photos!

There’s 172 of them but only 72 uploaded.  So there will be more to look forward to later. Visit my Facebook page to see them and enjoy!

See you with more tomorrow!