Getting Started for the 3-Day

The Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure in Washington DC is 168 days away. Time to get started! When I was in high school, if we were assigned a paper that was due in 168 days, I would start researching it in, oh, about 164 or 165 days from now. I would write like mad on a tablet of paper, and cajole my poor mother into typing it for me (usually). There were no computers or word processors in those days! If you made a mistake typing, you either wrote over it in ink or maybe used some kind of white out fluid and typed over it - if you could line it up right. Young people today would think that this was the dark ages!

But I am no longer in high school, and having learned at least a few things about deadlines and life since then, it is time to start now, so I have. I got fund raising started this past weekend with a note to family, and then one to Team in Training friends. People have very generously donated $1,400 so far - about 40% of the absolute minimum that I want to raise for this cause. I hope to start general fundraising - kicking off my formal campaign to all contacts - sometime in the coming week.

As far as training goes, well, 12 miles on my feet last Saturday - including running and walking a 10K - was a good start to show me that I am not in the terrible shape that I had feared. Right now, the Komen training schedule has about 3 mile walks that I should be doing, and I am exceeding that. For example, I walked nearly 5 miles at lunch yesterday. This weekend, I hope to do some hiking if it is not raining.

I am trying to slow down my walking pace. My normal TNT walking pace is somewhere between a 12.5 and 14 minute mile, depending on the distance and how I am feeling. But that is too fast for the 3-Day walk, where there will be thousands of people out on the roads and no real rush to get done each day. Plus, I will have to repeat the 20 mile walk three straight days, so I need to make sure my legs don't become "dead" by walking too fast. So I am trying to be very aware of keeping my walk pace under control and trying not to exceed a 15 minute mile. 16 would probably be better, although that feels like a stroll.

I do have a little competitiveness about it, I've noticed. The other night, I walked a 1.25 mile loop around a pond, trying to stick to about a 15 minute a mile pace. A guy, walking, passed me, and I did not like that! I ignored it until he got about 50 feet ahead, and then I kicked it up a notch to keep a constant distance behind him, which I did. Eventually, he left the path and I slowed down again. Silly, I know, but it is the truth!