Well, there have been a couple of things worthy of writing about since my last post. The best though is that Michelle will is mailing the registration fee to me, so I’ll get it in the beginning of this coming week, YAY! I’m so excited to get this thing rolling. My friend Stephanie that I work with has graciously volunteered to take me to the gym with her two times a week. We’re only there for an hour, so I can’t really just walk because I’d never really make the most of it. Our first night there was about two weeks ago. I decided to walk just for that night to get a feel for how many miles I could do in an hour as of now. It was kind of like a base point that I could compare my standings with later on and hopefully see some improvement. That first night I did a mile in 15 minutes on a flat incline. Then I cranked up the incline to get a better work out (and to make a real flat road seem like cake later on) and I walked another mile in about 20 minutes. Since then I’ve just walked on the incline for five minutes to warm up and then run for 15, walk for another five, then run again for 10 minutes. I’ve never been able to run that long – wow, have I come far since high school! Now remember, I’m running with no incline, so when I went running last Friday around my neighborhood, I thought I was going to die! I ran for about a 1/2 mile and then had to stop, take a break and then run the rest. Let’s just say I felt that one for the next few days. I’m not sure how I’m going to work myself up to 20 miles at the gym though. I have another “donation” idea of asking the gym, once I get my registration confirmation forms, if they could donate a gym membership to me until October. Maybe I could sign an agreement saying that it would end once the walk was over. Although I truly appreciate Steph letting me come with her to the gym, I think it would be even better if I could go whenever I wanted. It doesn’t even stay light out long enough yet to take walks around the neighborhood, or else I’d do that. We’ll see!I wrote and sent an official letter and photo release to all of my classmates as I mentioned I wanted to do in my last post. My instructor was the only one that had responded back wishing me good luck in my challenge. None of my classmates even responded back, which I’m kind of disappointed about because I really thought they could give me some great photos. Well, I can try in my next class. It got me thinking though, maybe I could buy some disposable cameras or something and give them to a couple of the kids I teach at the pool – let them take pictures of the women in their life. I know that they’re only 5 or 6 years old, but I’m sure the pictures will come out cuter than ever. It’s worth a try to ask the parents if they’d be interested.
My circle of friends, other than Michelle and Tom, hadn’t really responded or said anything when I sat down and mentioned that I wanted to do this walk. They kind of just said that they couldn’t donate until after their weddings and nothing more. That’s why I was astonished when my friend Amiee, that had been there when I mentioned that I wanted to do it, brought up the fact that I was walking in October to a bunch of other friends we hang out with on Thursday nights. I was surprised by the feedback and support that they expressed. They had a lot of questions about the walk and really seemed to be interested in it. They said to let them know when I was registered so that they could donate.
I’m going up to my parent’s house later to meet up with my mom, my brother’s fiancé Vicky, and my other brother’s girlfriend April to work on getting things ready for tomorrow’s Easter dinner. I think this is a great opportunity to tell them about what I plan on doing, and maybe formulating a plan of how they might be able to help me raise some of my donation money.
I’m proud to be able to say I’m starting something different, something that can impact so many lives, all the while helping raise awareness for Breast Cancer and helping to find a cure.
