I like it, I love it, I want some more of it!

I'm training for the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day. This is my third year. The first year I walked because I had just had Jamison & I was ready to get back in shape, but I was just over a year cancer free and wanted to do something BOLD. Folks, there's not much bolder than the 3day. My team of 8 walked in Washington DC over a gorgeous October weekend in 2008. I had a dear friend and her mom FLY from Florida to walk with us. It was such an emotional weekend, one I had not been appropriately prepared for. We had aching muscles, tired feet and blisters the size of Montana! We came home from that weekend satisfied that we'd gotten all we could get from that event. But less than a month later I found a lump. And just weeks after that, confirmation that the cancer had returned. So, in a tearful email, I approached my team about walking with me again in 2009--not even knowing what the year would hold for me in terms of treatment & recovery. Seven of the 8 of us signed up again--but this time we had additional girls join us. After a major surgery in May--4 days in the hospital & 6 weeks of recovery--we walked the 2009 3Day in DC again. This time our emotions were completely different--but we decided now that I had officially kicked cancer's butt twice and was cancer free that we had accomplished our goals with the event & left the final day with the decision that "next year" would be a year of rest.
It's funny how you can have your mind SO SET on doing something, or in this case NOT doing something, and one little thing changes it. A dear college friend had been diagnosed with breast cancer around the same time we found out mine had returned. She had it far worse than me--undergoing a bilateral mastectomy, chemo and radiation before her reconstruction could even begin--and at the age of 33. She sent me a message, just days after our 2009 walk, and said she was taking a team to walk in the 2010 San Diego 3Day. CRAP! The email went out AGAIN--to my faithful team--and there are 5 of us joining my friend H in San Diego this November for 3 more days, 60 more miles and endless amounts of memories. This year I will walk into the closing ceremonies with my pink survivor shirt holding the hand of another dear survivor, H. I had another major surgery with an incredibly long recovery following the decision to sign up for #3. So my training was delayed. 2010 has already brought me 2 more minor surgeries for reconstruction, a kidney stone & bruised bone on my right foot when I fell down the stairs--more delays in training.

Today I walked 3.5 miles on the boardwalk of the bay. Nothing close to the 22 miles we'll walk Day 1 in just 3 short months, but it's a start. And just as my man, Timmy McGraw was singing in my ipod today, I like it, I love it, I want some more of it! I cannot WAIT to get my feet on that San Diego pavement and kick some breast cancer booty AGAIN. 60 miles, 3 days, 1 cure...we walk so our girls won't have to....