Day 3

My wake-up quote this morning was, "The bounce has gone out of my bungee" (Wallace and Gromit, of course). But really, today was pretty good. We got to sleep in until 5:30 (ah, bliss) before checking out and heading back to the school. We got our feet taped up and then had some a pancake breakfast.

We got on the course right when it opened up at 7:00 and were the 4th and 5th walkers to go. We passed 2 & 3 and knew that the #1 was an awesome 50+ year old woman who ran most of the weekend and was not passable. But to spice things up today, we decided to come in 2nd and 3rd (not that it's a race or anything). We cranked up the pace a bit.

Still started around sunrise:



We were doing great until we hit a rest station and then turned the wrong way. We went about a block and a half before we were corrected and by then 5 people had snuck in ahead of us. We blew by the next rest station and passed two and caught up to 3, including my friend Scott from the 2005 walk. But alas, Scott was no match for us and eventual pulled ahead again when we just missed crossing at a light.

We walked through the CSU campus and also saw random things like this sculpture:



We saw lots of these high water marks in the past 3 days. I mentioned it to Jeremy tonight and he said, "Oh yeah, there was that big flood that killed some people." But I don't remember, I was living in LA at the time.



We cranked as hard as we could and maintained 5th and 6th place. And then the race coordinators held us up at the last rest station because we were so fast that the finish festival was not ready for us. We got in at about 9:40 and it was nice to stretch and rest for a bit before doing the last mile. We walked in with Scott and his group.



I had one more cup of celebratory gatorade. I had gatorade (which I hate) at just about every rest stop. All. Weekend. Long. But I didn't feel crappy or stiff this walk and I'm sure that it helped.



I'm not sure why, but Ellen wanted her picture taken with Mr. Balloon man.



The festive lunch picnic was sponsored by Chick-fil-A so Ellen and I left around 10:40. I wanted to get to Niwot so I could see Adam and Alex do a bike race at 1:30.

All and all, it was a great weekend. This walk is the best supported event I have ever done. The rest stops and meals were fabulous (even for us vegetarians) and the volunteers were so nice and friendly. Throughout the weekend we heard personal stories of where the CNS Foundation grant money was going and it was very inspiring.

It was a long 18 weeks but I'm really glad I did it!

My final update:

Mileage: 479 miles
Pledges: $1,020

Thanks again for all your support and a special thanks to my Fabulous walking partner, Miss Ellen!