THANK YOU!

I just want to again thank everyone for the support over the past few months. This past weekend was exhausting - physically and mentally - but it was worth it. This was the most amazing thing that I have ever done and something that I will consider a great accomplishment for the rest of my life.

Spending the weekend with so many amazing women and men, and hearing the stories of loss and survival mademe realize how lucky I am. I can only hope to continue my life without experiencing the devastating effects of this horrible disease. And I hope I can continue to raise awareness among my friends and family.

The weekend was full of many laughs and many tears. I will post some pictures soon, so you can see how huge this event was - over 3000 walkers and 7.3 MILLION dollars raised!

Thank you, Kel

100%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did it - 100%! with only 5 days to spare :)

Thank you to everyone who supported me - this will be the last week of preparation for the walk. I have to break in a new pair of shoes and get packed for the weekend.

Big week ahead!

Well, this is the last full week of training before the 3-Day! I"m getting so excited for the walk. I'm also excited that I am within $200 of my fundraising goal!!

Almost there!!

I'm officially on the countdown - only 17 days until the 3-Day Walk! I can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by. I'm hoping for great weather - not this humid air we've had lately!

I'm also happy to say that I'm at 76% of my fundraising goal, I keep creeping along! Only $500 to go now, it should be easy, right?!

Introducing Murphy!

50%!!!!

Today I officially hit the 50% mark of my fundraising, thank you!!!

I've been slacking a little bit on my walking in the past week, so I'm trying to pick it back up again this week. The walks are getting so long!

Here is an update on fundraising - we are planning a happy hour at Champps (downtown Mpls) in a couple weeks. There will be live music, drink specials and the proceeds will go to our team. Please check back for more details!

6 weeks to go!

Hi everyone,

Well, we are officially at the 6-week countdown. Over the next 6 weeks, I hope to walk a total of 230 miles (that includes the 60-miles for the actual event). As the event gets closer, I'm getting more excited about the training. I'm also counting down the days when I can actually sleep in on a weekend morning!

This past weekend, I walked 13.5 miles on Saturday, and another 14 on Sunday. So it was a great weekend! Again, the weather was beautiful, which I am so thankful for.

I am also unofficially at 50% of my fundraising goal! (I have two donations that will be mailed in - so they are not "officially" counted on my website yet). Only another $1100 to go - I know I can do it!

15 + 9 = Sore feet!

Hi there! Quick update on my training for everyone! I walked 15 miles on Saturday with my co-worker and teammate Sara. Today I walked another 9 miles with my friend Becca. We didn't quite make it the 11 miles that I was planning - but Becca made me walk some steep hills, so I think that made up for it!! (Thanks Becca!)

We have 7 weeks to go until the big event - I can't believe how close it is. Still have lots of fundraising to do, I'm at about 40% of my goal right now.

Map My Fitness

I recently discovered www.mapmyfitness.com - which is a google-based site that allows you to map out your runs/walks and tells you the total mileage. You can save your routes if you register on the site. Pretty helpful!

14-miles = 4.5 hours

14-miles is my longest walk so far. For those of you familiar with the Minneapolis lakes, that's about 2 laps around Lake of the Isles, 2 laps around Lake Harriet, and once around Lake Calhoun. There are many interesting things to be seen around the lakes. My favorite so far has been the man that bicycles with his cat perched on his back.

We had a big weekend. First was the Saturday evening wedding of Sara and Bryan. It was a beautiful event, complete with a great view of the Minneapolis Aquatennial Fireworks. Sunday we headed to Fairchild WI to visit our puppies breeder. Here are a couple photos of the litter, one of the girls will be coming home with us in four weeks!

30%!!!!!

I'm excited to tell you that I have reached 30% of my fundraising goal! I still have a long way to go, but this is a fun milestone to celebrate!

9 weeks to go!

The 3-Day is only 9 weeks away! Last week, I logged another 29-miles walking and 16-miles biking. I must say, my legs are definitely feeling it! But the weather has been great and it's just been fun to be spending so much time outside.

Last weekend, I ran into two other groups out training for the 3-Day - it was so much fun to see other people out there! Since this is my first event, I have no idea how many people are participating in the Twin Cities. I can't even imagine how it will feel.

Also, I have a puppy update! Our little puppy, Murphy, will be coming home with us in just 4 weeks! Here is a photo of the litter, we can't wait to find out which little one is ours!

First 10-mile walk

Hi everyone! Last weekend I completed my first 10-mile walk, and it was great. The first question everyone asks - "how long does it take?" Well, it took me about 2-1/2 hours for that walk. So far, I think I've logged just under 100 miles in training.

Also, good news! Three co-workers have joined the team, so we now have a goal to raise at least $10,000 as a company! I'm very exited about this and hope to recruit even more walkers. We will have some fun fundraising events coming soon.

New shoes!

Hi everyone! Well, I finally found my new shoes last weekend (thanks to the great staff at Start Line!) And thanks Aaron for getting me set up with my new gear, I appreciate your support! I am now the proud owner of a waist pack that will hold my water and snacks for the long training walks. No, it's not a fanny pack :)

I walked 8 miles on Saturday and another 6 miles on Sunday. My mom joined me for the walk on Sunday around Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles. I'm proud to say she kept up with me for the whole walk - even though my legs are a lot longer than hers! Great job Mom!

Today, we have a kick-off meeting at work to generate ideas for fundraising. I'm really excited to see what we come up with.

I'm back!

Well, after a 10-day trip to China and a long weekend with friends, I'm back to blogging. Obviously I'm not very consistent at this blogging thing but there is always rooms for improvement!
My foot is slowly getting back to normal and I'm feeling much better about my training. I've been mixing it up with evenings of walking and other activities like biking.
I'm now 13-weeks out from the big event!

I've lost track of what day it is!

Okay, so it's been a long time since i've posted (as I was reminded by my mom last night - thanks Mom!). Life has been busy but don't worry Mom, I've still been walking!

After walking 8 miles on Saturday and another 3 on Sunday, I started to have some serious foot pain. And i'm known to self-diagnose on the internet, so I became convinced that I had a stress fracture. After talking with our Dr. friend, i'm more convinced that it might be tendonitis. So i'm taking it easy this week to see how it feels. Hopefully it is not something that will keep me off my feet for long.

Training Day 6

I just returned from my first long walk - 8 miles! It went really well, and I actually felt like I could keep walking more! I will be heading back out tomorrow for another 8-mile walk. I am planning on looking at new walking shoes tomorrow too, the current running shoes are not really the right pair for my training. Especially since I will be logging over 600 miles in the next 17 weeks.

Training Day 4

Today was an exciting day as online donations began to appear. I want to again thank those special people who were so generous in contributing!
I will be walking 4 miles tonight (after a happy hour - yikes!) and am hoping that the beautiful weather in Minneapolis lasts until this evening.
I am really excited that there are at least three of us from my work that have committed to the team - we are on our way to raise $25,000!

Training Day 3

Today is a rest day for training! I am about to send out my first "fundraising" email - I'm excited and nervous to hear my friend's and family's responses. Most people don't know that I'm doing the walk. It's hard for me to ask others for money, but I know it's the right thing to do!
I also am trying to brainstorm ideas for a fundraising event. I think that organizing a pub crawl for my friends would be a great way to generate money and also have a really fun time. More to come!

Training Day 2

This morning, I got out of bed at 5:20 am and walked 4 miles. I will now be on a schedule of short 4 mile walks on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and longer walks on Saturdays and Sundays. Other than a minor shoe problem causing blisters, the training is off to a great start! I'm excited to find purchase new walking shoes and a Camelpak for water - these are my essentials for training.

Training Day 1

Last week, I decided to make a commitment to walk the Breast Cancer 3 Day in the Twin Cities. My reasons are two-fold: First, I believe in the fight against breast cancer and was personally touched by this last year when my aunt was diagnosed. Second, I am excited to commit to something big - I've never done anything like this before and I seriously need the motivation to get in better shape.

Yesterday was my first day of training for the 3 Day. I started out nice and easy, walking about 4 miles. I have 18 weeks to train for the walk and will quickly be increasing my miles, according to the training schedule.

The walking seems like the easy part. I'm more anxious about the fundraising. But I work for a wonderful company, Griffin International Companies (http://www.griffinintl.com), that will make a commitment to helping with donations. We are trying to build a team of walkers and volunteers for the event. I'm really excited to see how many people will get involved and how much money we can raise!

I am planning on using this blog as a way to track my training and my fundraising progress. This is my first blog experience, so we'll see how it goes!