The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer - a Different Way to see New York

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After months and months of training (well, kind of) and fundraising, the Avon Walk finally arrived in New York City on Friday, October 5th. Were we ready? We hoped so.

I arrived at Jess' apartment on Friday with my duffel bag (under 30 lbs, as instructed) and my walking gear. Although we knew that we hadn't done nearly enough training, we were as ready as we were going to be. We took the train into Grand Central Station and began our search for a cab. We finally found one a couple of blocks away and headed to our hotel for the night, Le Parker Meridien. The hotel was not our first choice for venue, since there were other hotels that were closer to "Event Eve," as the Avon Walk registration night is known. But they were offering a good rate as part of the walk, and it was the only one with rooms left, so we snapped up a reservation a few weeks ago. Walking into the hotel was a little bit strange, because we entered into what looked like a high-ceilinged tunnel before coming into the hotel itself. The lighting everywhere in the hotel was rather low and it was a bit too modern for our tastes. But the beds were ridiculously comfortable, which was all we wanted the night before the walk commenced.

Our next stop, Event Eve at the Sheraton and signing in for the walk. We followed the crowd of pink upstairs from the lobby and first visited the medical area to get Jess' medical status cleared. Luckily, we had both raised just enough to do the walk (there's an $1800 minimum just to walk) so we were able to go right through to the express check-in. We checked in together so that we could share a tent and got our goody-bags, AWBC (Avon Walk for Breast Cancer) bracelets, and our luggage tags. We were ready.

We spent our last pain-free night meeting up with some friends at el Centro, a Mexican restaurant with a lot of character and great food, and mentally tried to prepare ourselves for the 4:45am wake up the next morning.

Although I was tired and still jet-lagged, I was too jazzed up about the walk to sleep very well, so we both groggily woke up the next morning and dragged ourselves downstairs to wait for the bus that would take us to opening ceremonies. It turned out that we didn't need to get up so early, since the bus didn't show up until almost five thirty! But it gave us time to scope out some of the other walkers that were waiting with us. A few of them appeared to be on a team together, and it was a bit intimidating to see how organized and prepared they were. I was wishing already that I didn't have my over the shoulder backpack to drag around for two days, but instead had gotten one of the fanny packs (FPs as Jess calls them) to hold my water and necessities. But it was too late to turn back.

When we arrived at Opening Ceremonies, we found the truck for our duffel bags and dropped them off - one of the guys later cheered us on, saying "90% of your bags will be at the Wellness Village tonight!" Then it was time for breakfast, a pretty important meal when you're planning to burn at least 1300 calories walking. We had a pre-packaged bagel, a warm banana, some orange juice and a granola bar.

Jess and I thought we knew why we were walking and how important both raising money and awareness for breast cancer are, but nothing brought it home like this walk - the opening ceremonies began with a few speeches, starting with one from a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer at 30. During the walk, we saw other women who had been diagnosed at 25 and 28 - you often think of breast cancer as a middle-aged woman's disease, but it's not. And that's pretty scary. It also really motivated us to get through the walk, and to raise awareness. Early detection is the NUMBER ONE FACTOR in surviving a breast cancer diagnosis.

We also found out at Opening Ceremonies that 420 survivors would be walking with us - that's pretty incredible. Especially since some of the women were recently diagnosed - we saw women who had the baby fine hair that grows in following chemotherapy, and women with bandages from mastectomies. You definitely feel less tired when you see a woman who's been through chemo doing the walk alongside you.

The New York walk was the most successful Avon Walk ever - we had over 3,900 walkers and had raised $10.2 million for this cause - it felt great to be a part of that. And we felt pretty excited as we set off in the early morning mist for our 13.1 miles. Jess and I had decided that our lack of training would keep us from attempting to do the full 39.3 miles of the walk, and we'd do the 26.2 over two days instead. The route on Saturday took us over two bridges (the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Bridge back into Manhattan) - this was pretty tough for me and my fear of heights, but we didn't have a lot of choice, and I wanted to be strong and really accomplish something as part of this walk. The route was a long one (13.1 miles) and it felt like we were walking for days. The first mile or so was a breeze, and I always struggle with miles 2-4, which is when my hip always starts to really bother me. But we kept on, fortifying ourselves with water, gatorade and limited snacks at the rest stops along the way. We took a short break in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge, to change our socks and re-apply the anti-blister balm and foot powder. We kept up our search for real bathrooms, as opposed to the port-o-potties and every time I had to use one of those, I promised myself that I won't ever have to use one again!

Our lunch break on Saturday was right along the Hudson, and we were tired enough from the combination of walking, heat and humidity, that we took a long-ish break here. Lunch was a turkey sandwich, chips, and a cookie and once we were full, rested and wearing our third pair of socks, we headed out. This was by far the toughest part of the walk, because we were walking along the Hudson River in the direct sun with a full stomach. But we powered through, buoyed by the signs along the way and our various cheering sections. I want to take a moment to talk about the cheering sections along the walk - these people made the biggest difference! You wouldn't expect that having a group of people cheering you on and thanking you for walking would boost your spirits very much, but a few times, when we were really struggling to get going and keep moving, the cheering reminded us of how important doing this walk is and kept us going. The crew members and volunteers for the Walk had a similar impact - it was just incredible! They really deserve some serious credit because without them, we all would have given up a lot sooner. It seemed to me that it was a parallel for the fight against breast cancer - if you have breast cancer, you need a cheering section to keep you going when it gets too hard to fight.

The other thing that powered us through a little bit on Saturday was seeing Anne Curry from the Today Show right by Chelsea Piers! Anne Curry is one of those people that I think is always so put together, confident and classy, so I was excited to see her and that pulled us through a little bit further during one of the hottest parts of the day.

We continued to trudge along and kept telling ourselves that the 13.1 mile marker was almost upon us. Of course, we finally hit 13.2 and it wasn't at the next rest stop, but one of the motorcycle volunteers (wearing leather pants in 90 degrees, no less) cheered us on to the final rest stop for us, where we caught our bus to the Wellness Village.

This year's Wellness Village was actually in New Jersey, across the George Washington Bridge and in Englewood, in Mackay Park. We arrived at the park close to two thirty, and picked up our bags and tent. I told Jess I would be more of a liability than an asset in setting up the tent, since I'd never done it before, but with the help of another walker, we were able to get it up in no time. We didn't want to stay inside too long though, since the sun was baking it into an oven. We decided to hit the portable showers first, and I think it was one of the best showers of my life - we were so hot and grimy from walking in the city that it felt great to get clean. Next, it was on to yoga class to stretch out our sore muscles and joints. I was already walking with a limp because of my hip and sore feet, so I was glad to stretch out a little. Then, we waited on line for a while to get a ten-minute back massage, which was so worth it, before heading to dinner. By the time we ate, we were starving again - all that walking gives you an appetite! Dinner was delicious (they did a great job on the food for the whole walk, except that they should have given us a few more snacks on Saturday or recommended we bring our own). We had rigatoni with tomato sauce, salad, a roll, and a brownie.

By the time we were finished with dinner, we were so tired we could barely move. We made it back to the tent and laid there for a while, attempting to motivate ourselves to go to the "Fireside Follies" in the dining tent at seven thirty. We did make it for a short while, but when the band began to play music so that people could dance, most of the crowd cleared out to go to bed. We stayed for a few songs, but then we headed out as well. A quick stop to brush our teeth revealed a LONG waiting line for the showers (about 60 people), so we were glad that we'd showered earlier. Then it was time for bed in our lovely, rock hard tent. Jess had more trouble sleeping than I did, and I was so tired that I basically collapsed and only woke up a few times. But when people's cell phone alarms began ringing at 5:30 and people were up and talking, we were pretty much both awake. The route officially opened that morning at 7:30 and we wanted to make sure that we left then too, so we weren't running behind at any point. I was feeling less sore than the night before, but Jess was still feeling tight, so it was a rough start to the morning. I had a delicious breakfast of Corn Pops, another warm banana and a blueberry muffin and grabbed some snacks for the road.

We started walking through Englewood, and were cheered on by some local firefighters who were trying to auction off one of their single guys. We followed the sea of pink up a HUGE hill, and every time we thought it was flattening out, we were going further up again. Our route sheet promised that it was the last time the route would be uphill all day, but that turned out to be false. It was the worst part though, so we were glad that we started with the hill and didn't end with it! We walked through Leonia, and then to Fort Lee, where we stopped for a break at Fort Lee High School before it was time to tackle my nemesis - walking across the George Washington Bridge. Jess and I convinced ourselves that it would be a caged in walk, but we were wrong. Luckily they had us stick to the left side of the walkway, so I was as far from the edge as I could get, but it was still a long way across the span! I took a few pictures along the way, without stopping, for fear that I would become rooted to the spot and unable to move. But after a lot of deep breathing and dogged determination, I made it to the other side. It was pretty gratifying to take our first real break of the day in the shadow of the GWB, having conquered crossing it on foot.

We were still feeling pretty energized at this point, even though we realized that we were both getting some pretty serious blisters and our bodies were really sore and tired. But we were well on our way to finishing the full 26.2 mile walk and that was a good motivator. We only had about two miles to go until lunch, and it was a pretty walk along the Hudson River (if not a smelly one) to our lunch spot, Riverside Park. We finally made it there - 8.0 miles for the day - and agreed we wouldn't sit for too long, fearing that we'd stiffen up too much to continue. We both had the ham and cheese on a croissant, more chips, and gatorade, and I had a great chocolate chip cookie before we set out. We felt pretty good for the first few minutes, better than when we left lunch the day before, but we were soon struggling again, walking in pairs in the hottest sun of the day along Riverside Drive. Nothing to shade us, we were at the sun's mercy and dragged ourselves along trying to think about anything else besides how hot and tired we were. Finally, we made it to a more shady area and we pushed each other along until we were able to get to the next rest stop, where Jess put some ice in her hat and we were able to cool off a litttle bit. But then it really got hard, because we were starting to push ourselves way beyond the limits of our bodies. When I realized we had three miles left, I had serious doubts that I could make it. And by now, pretty much everyone around us was limping too - but we had all come so far, we needed to go all the way. I saw a sign that said "Blisters don't need chemo" and if anything will motivate you to keep walking, guilt will. For this great cause, we would finish this walk!

Finally, we made it to the final rest stop, and they told us - "One more mile!" One more mile, we could do!

It definitely was the longest mile of the whole two days though, and we kept thinking we were much closer than we were. But we all trudged, limped and struggled in together, and when we saw how many people were waiting for us as Pier 84, I think everyone was crying. I told Jess that I think people didn't cry because of the final speeches during closing ceremonies, but because they were so tired and exhausted, they couldn't hold back their tears! What a feeling to have done over 26.2 miles in two days, when we'd never done anything like that before! It was overwhelming. We picked up our tee shirts and collapsed on the grass to wait for closing ceremonies. But after sitting for about an hour and then struggling to stand and hobble over to line up together in the sun, it was too much for us, so we listened to a few minutes of the closing ceremonies and headed out, tired and sore, but happy.

Overall, it really was an incredible experience - all those months of telling ourselves that we should train, and getting friends, family and even strangers to contribute to this great cause and then to participate in this walk was overwhelming. I felt like I hadn't done anything, but it really showed me how maybe alone, we can't make that big of a difference, but together, we can really do something incredible. How awesome to be a part of that. Jess and I agree that it will be a long time before we sign up for another Avon Walk, but we saw how important it is to get the word out, to take care of our own health, and to cheer on and support everyone else who participates, so we're already talking about going in to cheer on next year's walkers.

One of the most powerful things you get from this experience is how much breast cancer affects people - during the walk, almost everyone we saw was carrying a sign for someone that they were honoring or remembering, or was a survivor themselves - moms, sisters, cousins, friends, aunts, daughters, nieces. Everyone from teenagers on the youth crew to an 84-year-old woman was involved in this walk. During the walk, they gave out "connection ribbons" to represent the statistic that every three minutes, someone is diagnosed with breast cancer. So during our 32 hour walk, 640 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. It's time we really work together to do something about that.

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Photos

The Washington Square Arch
It's a cool way to see the city!

By the Manhattan Bridge
Who knew NY could look so pretty? And yet, smell SO bad!

Comments

[Patti]

What awesome photo's ...This was my first year walking I walked with 5 other freinds ..also their first time we did all 39 plus miles and it was the best experience I ever had in my life and for sure we'll be nack next year our team is ...Heels to Heal Patti

[LexTraveler]

That's awesome Patti - I'm glad that you were able to do the 39+miles. It really was so cool to be a part of such a wonderful event, and I hope to be cheering next year definitely! I might wait to walk for a few years though :)

[Deb Jackson]

Thank you so much for sharing your blog. Me and 4 of my friends are doing the walk this year and wondered what we were getting ourselves into. It was wonderful to read all about it and to get someones perspective on the walk. You have given us much needed information. thank you.

[kim]

thanks lex
thanks so much for your insight! my team from western pennsylvania, team keep abreast, will be doing the walk this year, 2009. my sister and i just did a 1/2 marathon last weekend, so we are already preparing. we plan to do them throughtout the summer to keep motivated. one of the girls and i both have fbyromyalgia, one has 2 forms of arthritis, my sister has heart problems. so, we are all "handicappe" (lol) in one form or another, so we're not sure we can make the full jaunt the first day either. we are certainly going to keep training, and take all of your advice and kind words to heart. thanks so much, kim from team keep abreast in western PA.