CF Great Strides Walk 2010

With the crazy year that I've had this year the CF walk seemed to sneek up on me. Of course I always know that it is in May, but I thought that it was the last Saturday of May. (I'm not the only one who thought that, a few other people that I know that walk it every year thought so too) Anyway, Mother's Day weekend I finally got around to having time (and remembered) to register for the walk. That is when I realized that it was in 2 weeks! AHHHH! Oh well, no worries right? I was not worried about trying to raise a bunch of money or getting people to walk with me, this year I mostly just wanted to walk and finish it (here in Boise the walk is around 1 1/2 miles and is a very pretty nature walk). In an effort to get the word out and to try and get some money raised, I did put the walk on Facebook. (which turns out to be a GREAT way to get people involved!!!)

I was surprised when Curtis' sister said that they were thinking about coming up to walk with us. Heather said that Ben's work also does matching donations, so they were working on that. I also had some ladies in the ward that told me they wanted to come to the walk too. Some of the ladies posted something about the CF walk on FB and one of them had a friend in New Jersey that donated to my team. My best friend Shasta usually comes to the walk every year and I was afraid that with such short notice of the date change that she wouldn't be able to come, but she was free! Yahoo!!! (although the poor thing got food poisining the night before and was too sick to come and walk...but I know her heart was there with me!!) After all that, I felt like it was my birthday all over again and I was really excited to go to the walk.

With not much effort this year, we were able to have the biggest team that I've ever had walk with us. We also were able to raise around $750....in 2 weeks, that is really not bad at all!!!

Usually the weather at the CF walk is hot and the cotton from the cotton trees is flying everywhere. This year it was the opposite! It was freezing! I think it was around 45 degrees, the wind was blowing, and it was threatining to rain. Really it was great walking weather. I was really only cold when I wasn't moving....which was mostly after I finished walking and was trying to eat and listen to the numbers for the raffle prizes.

How did I do this year? Good. I started out carrying my oxygen, but soon realized that I had to have someone else carry it if I was going to have a chance at walking the whole thing. About 10 min. into the walk I had to stop and rest because Heather noticed that my lips were blue (and it was not because I was cold). I did know that I was having a hard time breathing, but seriously I've had a hard time breathing for most of this year so I wasn't thinking about it too much. I was determined to keep up with everyone and that is really all I was thinking about. I was a little disappointed that I had to slow down, but when I realized that I still had 5 or 6 people still walking with me and reasuring me the whole time then I was fine. At the half way mark I had to hold onto Heather to keep my balance, but I kept walking! I was in the last group to finish the walk but that's ok because I DID IT!! Besides, it's not about winning the race or finishing first, it's all about finishing. The fact that I finished the 1 1/2 miles this year was a HUGE accomplishment for me. (yes, I was exhausted the rest of the day....but I finished the walk :-)

2010 Team Sister's

Curtis, Heather, Matthew & I up at the registration table

My friend Rochelle & I

Right at the beginning of the walk

Rochelle, Kristy, Nicole, Curtis & I

A view of all the walkers at the start. This year we had more walkers than we've ever had here in Boise....well at least in the 5 yrs I've been doing it, it was the biggest group I've ever seen.